Loooong time in secondary

[rightwingnut]

I have a batch still in secondary....lost interest for awhile. It's been there for a few months with whole hops on top. I'll try to bottle it soon, but what are the chances it'll be no good?

 

[Dark_Ale]

I have a batch still in secondary....lost interest for awhile. It's been there for a few months with whole hops on top. I'll try to bottle it soon, but what are the chances it'll be no good?

Well I had the same problem....Then I bottled......Carbonated well, but just found out today that if you leave the beer on the yeast too long its not good. I had one 3gallon batch and one 5 gallon batch in a secondary for 3 months....The beer is drinkable but has a ...ummm plastic type taste. I took them to the homebrew shop today to find out what the taste was. They said I left the beer on the yeast too long....And there is some term that describes what the yeast do to themselfs. Anyway the beer sucks pretty much. The only thing is I had no temp control which added to the problem. I guess if you got a lager going its cool but ales on the yeast too long is not a good thing.

 

[Dude]

I have a batch still in secondary....lost interest for awhile. It's been there for a few months with whole hops on top. I'll try to bottle it soon, but what are the chances it'll be no good?

DUDE! Come back to the forum! We've got Family Guy episodes to discuss, new brewing developments, all kinds of other fun!!!!!

BTW, I think that beer is screwed, and you need to brew a Dogfish 90 minute IPA clone. It's on my LOOOOOONG list of "what's up next" brews.......

(Kidding on the screwed part--best way to tell is to taste it!)

 

[Rookie]

What kind of beer was it? Some like barleywine stay in the secondary for many months.
Go ahead and bottle it, it may turn out ok. You can always throw it away later.

 

[vtfan99]

After sitting on the yeast that long you are likely to encounter some off flavors as Dark Ale had mentioned. This is caused by Autolysis, which is when the yeast actually starts to consume itself due to the lack of anything else to consume. Best advice I can give is to bottle it like normal and then taste it. Worst case is you have to pour it out, but best case is, after a little aging, it tastes ok. Won't hurt to try.