How long can you leave beer in a secondary

Shawn3 · April 17, 2020, 1:42am

Does anyone know how long you can leave beer in a secondary without asking for trouble. I currently keg my beer have have a batch that is about to get transferred into my two kegs. I would like to start a new batch tomorrow so I don’t run out of beer however that could mean I could have beer sitting in a secondary from 4 to six weeks. I have only done this with a Belgium beer that has required this. If it makes a difference I am guessing the ABV is somewhere around 6 percent. I am using using around 16 pounds of fermentable for a ten gallon batch.

Thanks for your help

sneezles61 · April 17, 2020, 1:55am

Once it’s done fermenting… go ahead… Put it in the keg… I like to seat the lid with a 40 psi burst… through the liquid post… Then I’ve had some sit for 3 weeks without any harm… If you can… Store them in a fridge until you can tap em…
16 lbs grist for a 10 gallon batch, at 80% efficiency your starting gravity will be approximately 1.044… I don’t think you’ll get 6% ABV…
Sneezles61

Shawn3 · April 17, 2020, 2:03am

Thanks for your reply. I am sorry what I was trying to ask is if I was waiting for one of my two kegs to get empty how long can I let beer set in the secondary. You bet as soon as I can I will keg it and get it on CO3

sneezles61 · April 17, 2020, 2:08am

I’m left handed… Stuff gets mixed messed up… You’ll be fine until keg time.
Sneezles61

Shawn3 · April 17, 2020, 2:09am

Thank you

WMNoob · April 17, 2020, 2:12am

Yup. Had ‘em sit for over a month I’m primary. If you rack it over I think you’d be fine too.

loopie_beer · April 17, 2020, 10:07am

I’ve aged RIS for 6 months without problems. Autolysis is not much of a concern once you get the beer off the significant amount of dead yeast and trub from the primary. Also, yeast have come along way so the risk of autolysis is also reduced. Finally, with all this in mind, autolysis will take awhile to commence.