How long can I leave in secondary?

[Mountain]

Well, 40 bottles washed and sterilised today all ready to bottle a batch and then....where have my caps gone?

It appears they have been 'tidied up'. I foolishly left them in the kitchen in the jiffy bag they came in and it looks as if they have been thrown away.

So, it will be next weekend before I can buy some and attempt bottling again.

The beer has been in secondary for 3 weeks now as I didn't get around to it over Christmas.

it will be a month in secondary before bottling.

All looks fine, tastes like fine flat beer.

Shouldn't be a problem should there?

I've left beer in secondary for 2-3 weeks on many occasions without a problem.

[jat147]

Yeah I'd say that'll be fine - I leave the Munich Dunkel in 2nd for 6 weeks.

Only thing is, if its in a cold place - let it warm up for a couple of days before you do bottle.
I bottled right from my cold store once and it was as flat as a witches'

[Mountain]

Thanks.
Good point, I'll stick it in a warmer room on Thursday.

[staplefordbill]

I've got beer in secondary in a cold room and was planning to bottle straight from there! Is it a bad idea because the yeast is dormant and will be less effective after bottling? Won't it reactivate once the bottles have been left in a warm place for a couple of days?

[Spud395]

I would think so Bill.
The last brew I bottled before Christmas was in the shed at 0-2 deg for 4 days before I bottled it.
It carbed up nicely when I brought it into the warm

[Horatio]

I've often bottled from cold (2c) and it always carbs up okay. It's real ale so will contain yeast that will eat up any priming sugar that is added to it. I just make sure that after priming I bring the bottled brew back to about 18c for a week or so.

[rimski]

The reason to place the secondary into a warmer area is to awaken any dormant yeast that may be in the slurry back into suspension before bottling, if a brew of mine has been cold I do this method and carbonation is fine. When I did a rush bottling session to get a brew bottled for xmas without warming up first some carbonated and some didn't .
I have a fermentation fridge which I then put the bottles in @ 19c to carbonate for at least a week.
Hope this helps