How long can beer ferment before it's gone bad?

Yeast & Fermentation
1

I finally got around to brewing my first small batch of dead ringer back in mid November.

Planned on letting it ferment for 2 weeks before bottling, but something came up that had me leave the city for a few weeks, that coupled with the holidays, I still have not bottled the beer.

Its been sitting in the same spot since mid November and now I am worried that it has gone bad.

My question is: Is this beer even worth bottling up?.. or should I just trash this batch and cook up a new one?

I’m worried about health issues obviously… since it has been almost 3 months.

any advice will be greatly appreciated!

thanks so much!

2

I would taste a small sample and see how it taste. I bet you will be fine.

3

If there is something wrong with it, it likely isn’t because it sat in the fermenter for 3 months.

With a beer like Dead Ringer (which looks to be a 2 Hearted clone), the only thing I would be concerned about is losing hop flavor/aroma.

If I were you, I would grab a Muslim bag, an ounce of Centennial, and dry hop it for another two weeks and then bottle it.

Do not dump it out.

4

[quote=“Turkeygecko”]If there is something wrong with it, it likely isn’t because it sat in the fermenter for 3 months.

With a beer like Dead Ringer (which looks to be a 2 Hearted clone), the only thing I would be concerned about is losing hop flavor/aroma.

If I were you, I would grab a Muslim bag, an ounce of Centennial, and dry hop it for another two weeks and then bottle it.

Do not dump it out.[/quote]

Hahaha, turns out autocorrect is not auto-politically correct. I tired to say MUSLIN bag, not Muslim bag.

5

You do not need to worry about any health issues as long as the beer was fermented properly in the first place.

Other than loosing hop flavor/aroma the real concern with a long primary like that is the possibility of autolysis, which is a mass die off of yeast. This will leave your beer with a strong burnt rubber flavor. Taste a sample. If it tastes ok, bottle and enjoy.