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?
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?