3 months ferment

I brewed an imperial stout a few weeks ago, and the instructions say 2 to 3 months in secondary. I don’t secondary, but regardless, why secondary for 2 to 3 months? Isnt that the same as bottling and letting it sit for 2 to 3 months? I will be leaving it in the primary for 2 months and then I plan to keg it, carbonate it, then bottle from the keg. Does this sound reasonable? But still, if the fermentation is complete, why the extra time in the secondary?

I think the idea is just to bulk age the beer but I don’t see any reason why you can’t carb it in a keg and bottle it and age it. I probably wouldn’t leave it in primary for that long but that’s just me. I’d start to worry about autolysis if it were in primary that long.

I’d leave it on the cake for 3-4 weeks just to let the yeast drop out as much as possible. My last porter sat on the cake for almost 3 months because I didn’t have a keg I wanted to use for it. Then I kegged it, put it on gas and cold conditioned it for a couple months. It was really good.

I wouldn’t carbonate it right away. You are trying to simulate barrel aging which is done uncarbonated. You can definetly put it in the keg to age, maybe add some oak chips.

Brew Cat, I too would bulk age it. If you don’t have a spare keg or want to tie up a keg for that long use a 5gal carboy. I promise you’ll be fine. Promise. I personally like to leave as much trub, yeast (alive and dead), etc in the fermenter rather than in the keg.

So it seems like the general opinion is that it won’t hurt and that it will probably make things better to just leave it in the bucket for a month or so.

You didn’t mention what you are fermenting in. If it is plastic I probably wouldn’t leave it there more than I had to, but that’s just me. I worry more about the plastic than the trub.

Why the concern about the plastic?

Like I said its just me. I use plastic buckets myself but not for aging beer. That stuff does break down. I just don’t want to take chances.

Buckets are gas permeable and not for long term aging (unless you are making a sour beer). Again, I would bulk age that in a 5gal glass carboy, cover it, place it outta the way, and come back around January. Keg, Carb, enjoy.

Hey in this case the keg is just a metallic secondary anyways, right? :wink:

plastic is fine, dont even start a plastic debate its fine. 2 to 3 months is fine in the primary also. I wouldn’t go much longer than that in a bucket just because of oxygen intake but on a RIS you should be fine.

After you are done with primary I would rack to a keg and seal up but dont carbonate let that bulk age until you are ready to drink then carb up. You can bottle age after that if you want from bottle fills while drinking from the keg

[quote=“grainbelt”]plastic is fine, dont even start a plastic debate its fine. 2 to 3 months is fine in the primary also. I wouldn’t go much longer than that in a bucket just because of oxygen intake but on a RIS you should be fine.

After you are done with primary I would rack to a keg and seal up but dont carbonate let that bulk age until you are ready to drink then carb up. You can bottle age after that if you want from bottle fills while drinking from the keg[/quote]
^^^^^ This.

[quote=“rebuiltcellars”][quote=“grainbelt”]plastic is fine, dont even start a plastic debate its fine. 2 to 3 months is fine in the primary also. I wouldn’t go much longer than that in a bucket just because of oxygen intake but on a RIS you should be fine.

After you are done with primary I would rack to a keg and seal up but dont carbonate let that bulk age until you are ready to drink then carb up. You can bottle age after that if you want from bottle fills while drinking from the keg[/quote]
^^^^^ This.[/quote]

Why not bulk age with it already carbed?

[quote=“gdtechvw”][quote=“rebuiltcellars”][quote=“grainbelt”]plastic is fine, dont even start a plastic debate its fine. 2 to 3 months is fine in the primary also. I wouldn’t go much longer than that in a bucket just because of oxygen intake but on a RIS you should be fine.

After you are done with primary I would rack to a keg and seal up but dont carbonate let that bulk age until you are ready to drink then carb up. You can bottle age after that if you want from bottle fills while drinking from the keg[/quote]
^^^^^ This.[/quote]

Why not bulk age with it already carbed?[/quote]

for me it would be a waste of CO2, and keeping a seperate setup inside my cellaring room vs my kegerator. I have the tanks just is a waste of resources and time for me