How long is too long...in the secondary

[white_nite]

Happy New Year Homebrew Friends! I'm about to start my first brew of 2012--"Fire In The Hole IPA" with a good dose of dry hopping and oak chips in the secondary. My question in this thread is not about this beer (though I may have one in a week or two) but rather the brew I am hoping to bottle today or later this week.

On 9/10/2011 I brewed up a Biere de Garde (OG 1.158!) and racked to my secondary on 9/18. It has been quite active in that secondary ever since...yes almost three months! Is this too long to have it sit on that yeast cake? I haven't taken a gravity reading since...well, it's been active this whole time.

It just started slowing down a lot a couple days ago. I may start taking gravity readings over the next three days to be sure it's done but I wanted your thoughts if I should have re-racked it a third time a month or two ago. I've heard that you can get some strange favors in your beer if it sits too long on the yeast.

Thanks!

 

[david_42]

I've heard that you can get some strange favors in your beer if it sits too long on the yeast.

No.

 

[jspence1]

I wouldn't be concerned with it being on the yeast for 3 months. Although I would have recommended that you have let it stay in the primary a little longer 8 days is very fast to move a big beer like that off the cake.

I can't speak for long term storage on the yeast, I frequently have my beers in primary for 3-4 weeks and skip secondary completely. The longest I've had a beer in primary has been about 8 weeks, I personally didn't notice anything off with the beer, but the head brewer at a local brewery described it as yeasty and suggested it had been on the yeast cake too long. (comments on a competition score sheet) I'm now more diligent about getting my beers of the yeast and try to keep it under 3 weeks.

 

[BryanJ]

I'm very curious to learn more about this Biere de Garde. What was your recipe and whats the gravity its at now?

A beer should be done fermenting under two weeks unless you used a saison yeast. You may have trouble getting this beer carbonated.