Is secondary fermentation an absolute must for high gravs?

[afr0byte]

I'm planning on brewing an IIPA (O.G. ~1.085) this weekend before I leave for a business trip for 5 weeks. I'm planning on leaving it in my fermentation freezer for the entire 5 weeks then dry hopping for 2 more weeks after I get back, so that'll be a total of 7 weeks. We'll see how it turns out.
I have a feeling that the guys' beers that are no good after a month or two of fermentation are more related to not sanitizing enough/properly or a weak yeast strain that wasn't very viable from the beginning. I was "raised" with the concept of always using a secondary, however, there is plenty of evidence on here that shows that secondaries are only necessary for additions or bulk ageing. I have started cold crashing my beers for around 5 days and I would say that that is equivalent to several weeks of clearing in a secondary.

What I'd like to see is objective tasting panels where a 10 gallon batch is split in to two 5 gallon batches, each with half of the same yeast starter. One batch would be in the primary for 2 weeks, and then in the keg for ~4 weeks. The other batch would be in the primary for 6 weeks. At the conclusion they'd be carbonated to the same number of volumes.

EDIT: I should clarify. I doubt the 6 week primary would taste better than the 2 week primary. I'd imagine they'd probably taste similar. My primary complaint is with the "a minimum of 4 weeks."

 

[coypoo]

I bet a 2-week primary may not be as good as the yeast dont have enough time to 'clean' up sort of speak.

 

[afr0byte]

I bet a 2-week primary may not be as good as the yeast dont have enough time to 'clean' up sort of speak.

I'd imagine that any clean-up (e.g. diacetyl) is likely to happen within a couple days of the beer reaching FG, or at least it can happen that way. That's been my experience at least. Also, Mike McDole (The Brewing Network) seems to have no trouble doing high gravity beers in a couple weeks (Admittedly I've not tried his beers.). He filters his beers though, which helps with conditioning.

 

[corkybstewart]

I am worried about this as I have recently started kegging. I am worried that if I try to keg some big beers that definitely benefit from bottle aging, I wont have the same results just putting it in a keg for the same time as it would be in the bottles. I would be interested to hear anyone else's experiences with this

Aging beers in kegs is a great way to do it, especially at cold temps. My point above is that big beers can taste great fresh, and they can taste great with a little age on them, especially if well brewed. Big beers that still have some harsh flavors from too warm fermentation temps, or harsh hop flavors can really benefit from aging in kegs.
When I brew a big beer I'll leave it in primary 3 weeks after it gets to FG, then I keg it and let it sit in the closet for a while. When room opens up in my lagering fridge I put the kegs in there for a month or more at 34F Normal gravity ales go directly into the lagering fridge for a month and then get tapped. lagers are usually brewed with Oktoberfest in mind and may stay in the lagering fridge 6 months.

 

[chalkdust41485]

I'd imagine that any clean-up (e.g. diacetyl) is likely to happen within a couple days of the beer reaching FG, or at least it can happen that way.

I completely agree. I've done a 7.0 ABV Pale Ale that was in the primary for just two weeks and it was awesome after just a month in the bottles.

The main reason that I'm leaving it in the primary for this long is because I'll be out of town and thought it would be a good time to test the long (4+ weeks) primary theory for myself.

It really comes down to the yeasties. They are some really hard workers and if you get a good group of them working together, they can tear through some sugar quick...

 

[coypoo]

Aging beers in kegs is a great way to do it, especially at cold temps. My point above is that big beers can taste great fresh, and they can taste great with a little age on them, especially if well brewed. Big beers that still have some harsh flavors from too warm fermentation temps, or harsh hop flavors can really benefit from aging in kegs.
When I brew a big beer I'll leave it in primary 3 weeks after it gets to FG, then I keg it and let it sit in the closet for a while. When room opens up in my lagering fridge I put the kegs in there for a month or more at 34F Normal gravity ales go directly into the lagering fridge for a month and then get tapped. lagers are usually brewed with Oktoberfest in mind and may stay in the lagering fridge 6 months.

Yah, but I consider the 'aging in the kegerator' as more of a lagering phase, which definitely has its place (like you mentioned). But for ales (esp Belgians) I wonder if bottle conditioning compared to keg conditioning makes a difference? I have a belgian pale right now that I have put in a keg for the first time. I put it in the fridge on gas for a week to carbonate and now I've got it room temp aging/conditioning. I'm very interested to see what it tastes like in a few weeks compared to previous versions that I have exclusively bottled.

 

[corkybstewart]

Yah, but I consider the 'aging in the kegerator' as more of a lagering phase, which definitely has its place (like you mentioned). But for ales (esp Belgians) I wonder if bottle conditioning compared to keg conditioning makes a difference? I have a belgian pale right now that I have put in a keg for the first time. I put it in the fridge on gas for a week to carbonate and now I've got it room temp aging/conditioning. I'm very interested to see what it tastes like in a few weeks compared to previous versions that I have exclusively bottled.

I have a batch of my Belgian quad that sat for 4 or 5 months at room temp before getting put in the fridge because it had too much alcohol heat when it was young. It's much mellower now I also have kegs of cherry brett and crabapple brett that have sat at room temp for 6 months now to let the brett work it's magic. Beers that need long aging get it before they go in the fridge.
Also I like to force carbonate the kegs and use my Beergun to bottle beer without the yeast sludge in the bottom. Letting the beer sit cold a couple of months really clarifies the beer and I can bottle when the carbonation level is where I want it.

 

[tknice]

I have a barleywine fermenting since Sunday that started at 1.104 and it's sitting at 1.034 right now. It will stay in primary until it's finished and I'm hoping that is attenuates low enough for what I'm looking for. 1.020-1.022 would be great. In my experience secondaries are useful for adding fruit or other things but that's about it. It's just another container to clean IMO.

I think your best bet for higher ABV beers is pitching the right amount of yeast. That and temperature are really the deal breakers.