Too long in the fermenter???

[atbrown]

I brewed a golden ale and a lager back in the middle of June. I then had a personal emergency and had to leave my brew alone for the summer. It has been over two months and both are still in their primary glass carboy fermenters. The golden has been at room temp (roughly 64 degrees) and the lager has been in the fridge at about 45 degrees. I did have a friend drop the temp in the fridge to about 34 degrees about 10 days ago. Obviously I never got around to performing a diacetyl rest on my lager. Both look very clear and free of molds or any other floating material. I am going to keg them tomorrow but am wondering if anyone has ever left their brew in a fermenter for 9 weeks and had good results? Like I said, they look fine so they probably will be. I'm more worried about my lager than the ale.

Thanks.

 

[hoppymonkey]

Both will be just fine.

 

[DannoSpeaks]

I left my lager in the primary for two months, then three months in the secondary... probably overkill but it was excellent.

 

[kozski10]

I think you will be fine. Let's us know.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

Back when I used to use a secondary I left a couple beers in for 4 or 5 months. They were really good once I kegged them. I regularly leave my bigger beers in primary for 4-6 weeks now. All will be well.

 

[atbrown]

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the beers turned out great. They both stayed in their primary fermentation carboys over a layer of sediment for over 3 months and neither had any funky off flavors. I was worried about the lager, but it tastes delicious. I've only brewed about 20 beers but am beginning to find out that is fairly difficult to screw them up. Beer is very forgiving.

 

[MultumInParvo]

Just thought I'd let everyone know that the beers turned out great. They both stayed in their primary fermentation carboys over a layer of sediment for over 3 months and neither had any funky off flavors. I was worried about the lager, but it tastes delicious. I've only brewed about 20 beers but am beginning to find out that is fairly difficult to screw them up. Beer is very forgiving.

I agree with everything you have said here.

1. you can keep things in the primary and nothing will be messed up.
2. beer is forgiving. If you keep things clean, its hard to mess up too much.

Glad to hear all is well!

 

[madbaldman]

I had a couple ales sit in primary for close to six months. They both came out great. I was expecting a grand dumping but instead has an unexpected bottling day. It's hard to mess up beer even when you mess up.