Primary vs Secondary - what's the time limit?

[saxman1036]

I just bottled batch #10 this weekend, I would say that 7 of those I transferred to secondaries. In reading some threads on here, I'm starting to have second thoughts about doing that at all. I see the time frame of 1 month thrown around a lot, as in "I leave the beer in the primary for as long as 1 month without any problems!"

Okay, that's great, but I am looking into several beers beer that require 2+ months of fermenting before bottling. Has anyone had frequent success with fermenting in the primary for 2, 3, 4,... 8 months at a time?

 

[MalFet]

You are about to start a religious war here. I've acquired significant, observable negative traits that I feel confident attributing to leaving the beer on the yeast too long, but after 4+ months. Others have claimed subtle effects much sooner, and still others gave claimed very long primaries with no ill effects. I'd get it off the yeast after 3 moths certainly, but how you feel between 1-3 months is ultimately between you and your Beer-Jesus.

 

[khugs21]

me personally, just my opinion, would not leave it on the yeast for more then a month I never do and have no scientific evidence for doing this. If the big boys drop the yeast so early so will I. I have heard some drop it out within a couple of days(like 4) my max has been 3 weeks with a dubble. sometimes i just use a secondary just when i need a primary for an upcoming batch.

 

[bob1852]

I think primary time is more of a function of your overall process...

If you're pitching the right yeast at the proper rate and managing your fermentation temperatures, you can probably primary longer...

But then agian, if you do all of these things right, there's not really a need to have an extra long primary...

I've done 2 months for a brown ale many times with no problems.

Most of the long primary nazi's (myself included), preach it because I'd rather see someone primary for 3+ weeks than 3 days...

 

[Yooper]

I'm a fan of long primaries- but I think that 2-3 weeks is long! In the "olden days" (not really that long ago, maybe 5 years!), brewers were encouraged to do very short primaries, as in 2-4 days! Much of that came from old outdated concerns about autolysis and yeast health. With the advent of better quality yeast for homebrewers, better advice on fermentation and pitching temperatures, etc, the concern of "get the beer off of the yeast cake as soon as possible" had totally fallen by the wayside.

However, I also think that common sense rules here. No one would advise you to keep the beer for three months in primary in a 75 degree room, although that's happened to some of us. Ideally, you'd keep the beer in the fermenter for up to 3 weeks or so and package it. If not packaging then, racking to a secondary or other aging vessel/bright tank would be the thing to do.

It's possible that no harm will come to a beer that spent months in primary. It's also possible that it will not taste quite as good as a beer that spent three weeks in primary. It is always detrimental? I'd say no. I'd also say that I can see nothing beneficial happening in primary after week 3 even if no harm comes.

I wanted to note that in this post, I'm talking about ales specifically. I think lagers should still be taken off of the yeast cake relatively early (by week 2 if fermentation is done and the diacetyl rest has been performed) as lagers are particularly clean and without yeast character. In ales, some yeast character is actually desired and totally a part of the beer's profile.

 

[WhiskeySam]

Ales need two week primaries tops. Lagers need longer. Secondary in the keg in your fridge if you need to.

This, of course, totally ignores OG beer over 1080 or other high gravity beer that might need to stay in the primary longer. I like to pull my beer out of the primary as soon as it's done fermenting and move to the next step, because that means I get to drink it sooner.

 

[saxman1036]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. I'm getting responses similar to what I expected.

 

[Revvy]

I've left 2 batches 5.5 months, and 3.5 months respectively, and both turned out great, with no discernable flaws.

In fact the 5.5 month batch is a favorite batch of a friend of mine who is a Bjcp judge and often judges commercial entries....Whenever he's around and opting for any of my beers, he asks for that one....