how long is too long in primary?

I've been brewing wine for years, but recently started doing beer. that said i've got my second kit going now, it's been in primary for about 6 weeks. plan is to rack straight from primary to keg as soon as i free up some time.

I'm assuming that since i have not disturbed this since brew day i should be fine. like i said with wine its a set it and forget it mentality, just wanted to make sure i wasn't ruining anything letting it sit on the trub longer.

People have left their beers up to a year in primary with no issues. I've had a beer in for 6 months with no problems.

My MINIMUM time is one month. Usually I end up going around 6 weeks.

thanks revvy, i figured i was safe but the mind always starts second guessing things when i'm no where near home to do anything about it. haha

My schedule has meant that beers that I have planned to bottle or rack to secondary have stayed in the primary for a long time. Beer is much more forgiving than you think. Just clean, sanitize, prime, and bottle. In a few weeks, you will enjoy.

6 weeks is perfectly fine!

wow...a year in primary! I don't know how that would go down, I 've read that after so much time yeast starts to break down I 'm not sure how long it takes or if temp varies the time frame in which this happens. I would think within a year. I have never tried it for that long so I would think after so much time, either you have the best tasting beer in your life or you have a horrible beer.

corrales_305 said:

wow...a year in primary! I don't know how that would go down, I 've read that after so much time yeast starts to break down I 'm not sure how long it takes or if temp varies the time frame in which this happens. I would think within a year. I have never tried it for that long so I would think after so much time, either you have the best tasting beer in your life or you have a horrible beer.

Click to expand...

I believe autolysis is confined to commercial brewing for the most part where there are high pressures on the yeast cake because of the size of the fermenters.