left beers in primary for too long...racking question

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SKYY

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Basically, I didn't have time to rack my beers, because I'm too busy with life.

I brewed two very high-grav beers about 3 to 4 weeks ago (stout and black IPA), and I haven't had ANY time to rack them. Right now, they're still sitting in the primary fermenters, with 0 activity in the airlocks. I do have empty carboys, but I'm worried that racking them with no CO2 formation will result in adverse oxygenation, which I want to avoid, per standard brewing ROE.

However, I want these super-high-grav beers to clarfiy/mature properly.

The best idea I have is to "flush" the carboys with CO2. However, I don't own any CO2 tanks, and I don't know how to generate it on-the-cheap.

So, I'm thinking two options:
1) go straight from primary to bottles, which I don't want to do, considering these beers started at like 1.020+
2) rack them late, but flush the carboys with CO2, somehow. I say somehow, because I don't know how to get/flush with CO2!

If you guys think option 2 is the best way forward, please let me know how to easily acquire and flush my carboys with CO2 gas. I doubt shaking up a coke bottle will help much. Club soda, maybe? I'm fresh out of ideas!
 
First, 3-4 weeks is not too long for beers to sit in primary, so don't worry too much about that. Here are two other options that will work just fine:

1) Let them continue to sit in the primary. They will clarify just as well.
2) As long as you don't have a significant amount of head space in your secondary, you can rack them normally without worrying about a CO2 flush. Depending on how far toward FG the yeast worked already, the agitation may stir up a bit more activity to provide a covering layer of CO2. And as long as you transfer the beer properly, you won't oxygenate your beer.
 
What is the OG?

That is not too long in the primary, especially for a big beer. Do you have the ability to cold-crash the primary? That would help with clarity.
 
Go ahead and rack them, you'll stir things up enough to generate the needed co.

As others have said, 3-4 weeks for a big beer isn't unusual.
 
Go ahead and rack them, you'll stir things up enough to generate the needed co.

As others have said, 3-4 weeks for a big beer isn't unusual.

Even 8 to 10 weeks wouldn't be too much. Big beers need plenty of time and any more than what it takes to complete the ferment will just begin to mature the beer.
 
You guys are awesome. Thanks for the great advice/insight!

Now, I'm going to rack them both this weekend. There has to be a lot of unfermented sugars in each beer vat right now, thanks to gravity and inertia. Shaking things up (ie. transferring them gently to carboys) will most likely result in a rapid reproduction of the yeasts, and thus make CO2 faster than I would have expected. No flushing required!

Thanks, yet again, HBF.

My next challenge: a 12% ABV, carbonated, chick-pleasing hard apple cider.
 

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