Maximum time to leave beer in primary fermenter...

[max4677]

Last night my homebrew club had our monthly meeting and we got into a fairly heated debate over the merits of not taking beer off of the trub for long periods of time.

I personally have gone as long as three weeks because of scheduling problems and the like, but I don't think it is a great idea. Most of the members present felt that the "standard" seven to ten days is the longest time you should let it sit in the primary. I agree with that sentiment.

However, one member said he has been hearing of a lot of people leaving it on the trub for up to six months without ever transferring it. We all thought that was not good for the health of the beer.

Even if lagering it, you generally want to remove it from all the decaying yeast, break material, etc. before doing so, correct?

So what do you think? Is it acceptable to let beer sit for extremely long periods on the trub from the primary fermentation stage? If you have tried it, what was the longest period of time you went before transferring/kegging/bottling?

 

[Bobby_M]

I'll defer to the 2007 AHA Nationals Ninkasi award winner Jamil Z who claims his beers improved when he stopped using a secondary on most of his low to mid gravity beers. He primaries for 3-4 weeks. He argues that removing the beer from the large mass of yeast too quickly substantially prolongs the conditioning process. I mean, if you have the extra time to secondary (most don't), it won't matter that much. In any case, if I can muster the discipline to leave beers in primary longer, I'll do it.

I don't mean to be such a fanboy, but as soon as someone with a dissenting opinion starts winning that many first place awards at major competitions, I'll consider the debate live and well.

 

[david_42]

I leave most of my beers in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks. In a couple cases, they've gone 8 weeks. I never enter any contests, so I can't say they are award winners. Haven't had anything bad happen, though.

Several people on the board have left batches in the fermenter for 8-12 months.

 

[neuron555]

I have a Belgian Tripel that is still fermenting at 3 weeks (see that thread). I was worried that it was stuck, but the gravity is still slowly falling

 

[EdWort]

I've gone 5 weeks one time, but that was dropped to 39 degrees till I got around to kegging it. No problems. Tasty Beer.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I usually leave mine in the primary until it stops bubbling. (So about 3 weeks) The longest I think its been was 6 weeks. Its was a lager and I had it at about 62-64F the whole time. (Used Superior Dry Lager) Never had any bad side effects. In fact it was pretty damn drinkable.

 

[WBC]

Aging is all important! If I check my beers by tasting them I find that they stedially improve over 6 weeks. Let's face it, we usually dring beer too early. sweeter/stronger beers require more time to condition. weaker beers take somewhat less time. If you drink a beer that has been designed to be a sweeter beer ie: "brown Ales" too soon then are not balanced and are too sweet. Just wait 2 weeks and they are the nectar of the gods. Enough said!!!
:rockin:

 

[Schlenkerla]

Aging is all important! If I check my beers by tasting them I find that they stedially improve over 6 weeks. Let's face it, we usually dring beer too early. sweeter/stronger beers require more time to condition. weaker beers take somewhat less time. If you drink a beer that has been designed to be a sweeter beer ie: "brown Ales" too soon then are not balanced and are too sweet. Just wait 2 weeks and they are the nectar of the gods. Enough said!!!
:rockin:

I usually don't drink anything before 3 months old unless its a Hefe. I put everything in the beer fridge after its carbed. I generally have a big enough supply that I don't have to drink young beer.

Back on topic - I think too much time on the yeast is a paranoia that was initiated by brewers of BMC ilk . When you make beer without much flavor or body you have to worry too much about off flavors and faults. We shouldn't have that problem.

 

[max4677]

Hrmm. Not exactly the responses I was expecting.

David: Do you mean in the primary for 8 to 12 months or secondary for that amount of time?

Are these sitting periods mostly with darker/higher gravity beers? Lagers or ales? Should they sit in the primary for weeks after the primary fermentation has since quit?

I have a mild ale going right now that I'm not sure I would want sitting around for that long. Now the celebration I plan on making tomorrow, I could see letting sit in the primary for 4 weeks if necessary.

Please forgive the questions, but this type of information flies right in the face of everything I have ever read in books or kit instructions.

 

[mew]

4 weeks usually. Gives time for the yeast to "clean up" byproducts of fermentation.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Palmer recommends leaving in the primary longer. I've done it with some of my IPA's that are bigger beers, and I have to say it's made a difference! It makes the beer taste a lot more "finished"; definitely not young, and more complex.

 

[Orfy]

I'm moving away from secondaries.

 

[BrewBrain]

Starting with my current beer in the bucket, I'm going to be reversing the time in primary and secondary from now on. Three in primary, one in secondary to clear. I used to do one in primary (subject to hydrometer) and three in secondary.

Now, if I don't see a bunch of yeast drop out when I move to secondary, I guess I'll be able to skip that transfer.

 

[RLinNH]

WOW!!! Great thread. My rule of thumb has always been to let it sit in the primary for about a week. When the Air Lock activity drops to about one bubble every 5 minutes, I transfer into the secondary where my beer will sit for a minimum of 2 weeks. Usually more like three.


After reading this thread though, looks like I'll be letting the Autumn Ale I am brewing tomorrow sit in the Primary for at least a couple of weeks. I need to start taking hydrometer readings from my Primary before I transfer into secondary.

 

[DeathBrewer]

as long as it's still fermenting, it's staying in the primary. big beers can often take well over a month. i wouldn't leave my small beers in the primary more than a month myself, but i often do not use a secondary for clearing...probably will be doing so more often once i have a fridge for lagering.

 

[max4677]

Just getting back to this thread.

This is good news for me as mentioned in a thread in the Kegging area, my newly acquired keg fridge is kinda messed up and I sort of broke the hinge, so the mild that is sitting in the fridge to cool for what was to be kegging day and three other beers are all just sitting around (only the mild is in a secondary right now).

Maybe I will start getting into the practice of letting things sit for a minimum of 3-4 weeks in primary. One more thing, for those that do these long primaries, when you dry hop, do you do it in a secondary or do you just toss the dry hop right into the primary?

 

[mew]

Dry-hopping in primary works fine. Just make sure that rigorous fermentation is over so the aromas don't get ejected with the CO2.

 

[landhoney]

+1 For leaving it in primary longer. Rarely use secondaries. I beggining to think I'm going to stop using them even for big beers - but that's another issue.

 

[bigben]

off topic, but i live near beer crafters, woot!

But yea, I'm not a fan of secondaries any more. My last beer was in the primary for 3 weeks and I kegged and started drinking it a week later. It was young. After another 10-14 days it was good.

I think I will only use a secondary if I'm Adding some stuff like fruit or something. I will dry hop in the primary after 7-10 days from pitching.

 

[Drunkensatyr]

Most all of my beers stay in the primary for 4-8 weeks. Blondes, american wheats, kolsch....... no problems here. I gave up on secondaries because I was running out of space for primaries.

 

[BrianG]

Im on my first brew and the kit I got suggested the following:

ferment for 3-8 days (whenever bubbling stops in the airlock)
bottle it, and wait another 3 weeks.


This is for a belgian wheat ale...

does that sound right?

 

[Bosh]

Im on my first brew and the kit I got suggested the following:

ferment for 3-8 days (whenever bubbling stops in the airlock)
bottle it, and wait another 3 weeks.


This is for a belgian wheat ale...

does that sound right?

Well with wheat ales you should drink them pretty young, but 3-8 days is still pretty damn short...

 

[Beerthoven]

All my beers stay in the primary for 2-4 weeks before bottling. I only secondary if I need to free up a primary. My secondary carboys get used mostly for Apfelwein and cider.

Its important to understand that fermentation involves more than just converting sugar to alcohol. Yeast produce a lot of by-products that they later reabsorb or otherwise clean up. This process is aided by leaving the beer in contact with the yeast cake.

Autolysis seems to be going the way of hot side aeration - urban myth. If you pitch with clean, healthy yeast and keep the beer in the proper temp range, a month or more in primary is perfectly safe.

Like Bobby_M, I've listened to many of the Jamil shows. Jamil is adamant that he gets consistently better results using primary only. He's winning all kinds of awards, year after year, and nothing speaks as loudly as success.

 

[Robar]

The only time I use the secondarys is when I'm adding junk which isn't very often or when I need the yeast cake the beer is sitting on. The later is usually the case.

I like Cake!

 

[uglygoat]

mine have been in primary three to six weeks lately. i've cut out secondary, unless it's a big big beer that's gonna bulk age for months.

i've not noticed anything out of the ordinary, except i've got less carboys to clean now

 

[uuurang]

A thought,

when doing a long primary, are people using glass, better bottles or plastic food grade buckets?

Just wondering cuz i've read everywhere that plastic "breathes" or allows for oxygen transfer into the beer, and everybody knows o2 and alcohol are to be avoided. It maybe that 4 weeks in plastic just isn't long enough to affect the beer with o2.

I'll do a poll, if I can.

 

[delboy]

Put me down for extended primary fermentation and no secondary (can't be bothered with the whole secondary process).
My best beers to date have always been ones that have sat in the primary for ages.

Did two almost identical brown ales (just a slight diff in the amount of choc malt used) with just a few days between them, the first was dragged of the yeast cake and kegged after about 12 days, the other sat on the yeast cake for ages, months down the line the one that had sat in the primary for longer was still the far superior brew.
As far as im concerned the extended conditioning on the primary yeast cake made a huge difference.

Edit: BTW my primary is a good old fashioned plastic bucket.

 

[max4677]

I use glass and plastic interchangeably as primaries or secondaries. It depends on what I am making and what I have available. I try to do the 3 gallon wine kits in my 5 gallon glass to reduce head space, but thats' about it.

bigben:

Ever thought about coming out to a meeting? Either go to the link in my signature or stop by BeerCrafters and pick up a pamphlet there.

 

[c.n.budz]

I only use glass carboys(until I get my conicals) and I've left beers in primary for a month with no adverse effects. IMHO, fermentation temp is WAY more important that time in primary

 

[PseudoChef]

I take it from the consensus here that even extended periods in the primary are not affecting the clearing of the beer (speaking from a bottling perspective)?

I think I'm going to try this with my pale next week. 4 weeks primary and then into bottles for another 4 weeks or so.