long vs short secondary vs bottle conditioning

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BeaverBrewer1

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I'm being a bit impatient, I know, but I made a pretty high OG 1.068-ish stout* that I mashed at 70C. With the high mash temp and the unfermentables, it had a pretty high finishing gravity, around 1.018. I probably could (should?) have cranked the primary fermentation temp up a little further to get it to drop a bit more, but I racked to secondary after 8 days.

We're now a week later, and I feel that this beer would benefit from a decent aging, but I am also planning on splitting a gallon of it off to a growler and innoculating with the dregs of an Orval, and since I this idea occurred to me I'm impatient to give it a shot.

With that in mind, I'm wondering what difference it makes if I allow my aging to occur in the carboy or in the bottle. The carboy has been sitting at 18C in the basement for a week and has already cleared significantly, so that aspect of the secondary is well underway. If I decide to bottle this weekend I could move it over to the cold room where it would get close to 0C and probably be quite clear by Sunday. Would I be missing out on some significant mellowing if I let it sit for 6 months in bottles as opposed to the carboy?

*I'm calling it a stout, but aside from the colour and the percentage chocolate malt, I'm not sure anyone would agree. The yeast is from Unibroue's Noire de Chambly, so probably Trappist origin, and the malts are Pils and Wheat. The straight version is going to be a bit on the sweet side, and the Orval-innoculated version is going to be interesting, to say the least.
 
Small amounts aged will taste different than large amounts. There is no reason you couldn't take a gal. out of your secondary and leave the rest. Clearing is not the only thing going on. Flavors are mellowing from the yeast converting/eating many of their byproducts. Dropping the temp. to 0C will precipitate some proteins, but it will end the yeast processes. I'd suggest leaving it in the carboy for 3-5 weeks, the longer the better.
 
Thanks for the reply. I realized as I googled a bit more that the whole "bottle aging versus secondary" argument is pretty hotly contested, and has therefore been discussed ad nauseum. I'll leave things where they are for the moment (I'm not hurting for fermentor space - yet).

My other motivation for aging in the bottle was to make sure that I have plenty of yeast for carbonation, but I suppose there's nothing keeping me from adding a bit back at bottling.
 
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