Rack to secondary or not? Too late?

[Rugrad02]

I have 4-3 gallon batches of sour beer going right now. Two were started in June of 13' and the other two were started in August of 13'.

I never did rack the beers because I kept reading contradictory information from people who brewed sour beers. "Leave the beer on the cake." "No, Rack..autolysis...autolysis." I decided to leave them all in primary on the yeast cake. (not terribly huge cakes at that)

I haven't opened them to sample or check gravity but I'm now second-guessing my decision not to rack. If I plan to age these all for another several months, will it be okay for me to rack to secondary or should I just leave them alone?

The light sour, I'm not too worried about as the information in Wild Brews seems to indicate the lighter lambic are left on the lees for a long time. The other 3 are reds and browns and though it is traditional to rack those beers into secondary I obviously never did. Would racking to secondary at this point introduce too much oxygen?




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[jrfehon]

What are you aging them in?

 

[Rugrad02]

Glass 3 gallon carboys


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[jrfehon]

You're fine to let them ride. If they were in plastic I'd worry about oxygen.

 

[aryoung1980]

I've let my sours sit on the cake for 12 months with no issues.


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[dantheman13]

I've had sours sit on the same yeast for over 2 years without issues.

 

[badlee]

I had a batch sit for 16 months without problems.

 

[Rugrad02]

Thank you guys for the reassurances.

If I were to add fruit to a batch, at what point could I rack to secondary? Should I wait until the 1 year mark?


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[MileHighBrewer]

Thank you guys for the reassurances.

If I were to add fruit to a batch, at what point could I rack to secondary? Should I wait until the 1 year mark?


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Wait until the beer tells you it is ready. Sour beer has no schedule. The beer is done when the beer is done...according to YOUR taste buds.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Rack it when its tasting good, as mentioned above. Fruit will not cover any blemishes or off flavors - so if the brett hasn't had enough "cleanup" time, fruit will not fix it.

Racking now vs. earlier wont' really have an effect on the oxygen introduced - it would have the same exposure both ways, just from the act of racking.

Don't worry about the yeast cake. Its good food for the brett as well.

 

[ChugachBrewing]

From *Brewing Techniques*: Once you have cooled the wort and inoculated it, allow it to remain in one vessel for the entire fermentation process. This runs counter to the typical practice of racking the beer ot a new container after the primary fermentation is complete but by nor racking you retain the nutrient rich trub and autolyzed yeast, which will provide nutrients for brett and pedio bacteria... " and it continues.

 

[Rugrad02]

Awesome info. Thanks for sharing. A lot of folks seem to rack to secondary for fruit additions. Would it be alright then to dump the fruit in the primary fermenter?

 

[ChugachBrewing]

Generally if fermentation is complete its ok to rack to a secondary for fruit.