Expert: Spencer W Thomas - 5/24/2009

Question
Hey,

I was wondering if its possible to let your beer sit longer in the secondary fermenting vessel. I have lil balls of sludge at the top that i have been waiting for it to sink down but it doesn't seem like they are. Is this bacteria ? Is my batch contaminated? I left my beer in there longer praying it will just drop. should i suck up the sludge balls into a different container then bottle the other stuff or will these eventually drop?

Thanks in advance!

Rick

Answer
Most likely, your beer is fine.

You shouldn't let it sit in the secondary more than a couple of weeks, in my opinion.  At some point, the yeast will run out of stuff to eat, and will start eating each other, creating some foul tastes (often described as "rubbery").  The clumps on top are likely yeast that just isn't sinking to the bottom.  Siphon carefully into your bottling bucket and you'll leave most of them behind.

The ultimate test is to taste it. Nothing that can live in beer will make you ill, no matter how bad it might taste.  Beer from the secondary may have some odd flavors compared to finished beer, so if you're not sure, go ahead and bottle it.

=Spencer