Month Long First-ary

[mongrell]

I made a Honey Lager with California Lager yeast. It sat in the first fermenting carboy for close to a month, should I expect any funny flavors?

I usually transfer to a secondary within a couple days of fermenting but I got lazy this time.

 

[McKBrew]

A month in primary is fine. Don't worry about it, you can transfer now or bottle.

 

[c.n.budz]

Did you lager it during that time?

 

[McKBrew]

Did you lager it during that time?

Good catch. I totally missed that.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Did you lager it during that time?

If you actually lagered it, then it shold be done and can be racked. If you used a lager yeast at ale temps, you could potentially end up with some flavors that you were not anticipating or worse, your fermentation may not complete.

 

[malkore]

I usually transfer to a secondary within a couple days of fermenting but I got lazy this time.

Not sure what to make of this comment...do you mean you normally transfer to secondary after primary has fully completed, within a couple days?

or are you actually doing a 2-3 day primary and then racking? cuz that's bad, m'kay?

 

[mongrell]

I meant I rerack when fermentation is > 90% based on estimated final gravity

 

[Soulive]

I meant I rerack when fermentation is > 90% based on estimated final gravity

Why not just wait until fermentation is 98-100% done? Secondarying is for bulk conditioning, not further fermentation...

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Why not just wait until fermentation is 98-100% done? Secondarying is for bulk conditioning, not further fermentation...

I thought that's what thirdary was for?

 

[Evan!]

I thought that's what thirdary was for?

Wait, then why the hell have I been doing fourthiary and fifthiary all this time?

 

[CBBaron]

I made a Honey Lager with California Lager yeast. It sat in the first fermenting carboy for close to a month, should I expect any funny flavors?

I usually transfer to a secondary within a couple days of fermenting but I got lazy this time.

No problems. My big beers will usually have 1 month primaries before being transfered to a secondary. Most of my smaller beers just have a 3-4 week primary before bottling.

I think general consensus is that 1 month in the primary is no problem. More than that is probably OK too but don't push it too much. From there you can bottle it of use a secondary for additional conditioning and clearing.

Craig