How long can I leave beer in a secondary fermentor?

[JR]

I managed to make a double batch of oatmeal stout just before ski season, canoe polo and curling started for the year. Since then I have only had time for drinking beer not bottling it. That was 2 months ago and the beer has been sitting in carboys in a cool room (less than 10 degrees much of the time) since then.
How much longer could I safely leave it without bad things happening? Ideally I would leave it for another month till I find time to do it but friends think that I really need to do it now to avoid spoilage. What do you reccon?

[Pint_of_Bitter]

I had an Irish stout sit for 6-7 weeks in a plastic fermenter (primary) and it turned out just fine - infact superb. I had racked off 2 sample pints (after 3 weeks) so body was sitting just under the scum line (forget technical term).

Fermenter would have been sitting at 10-12 degrees from week 3 through to 7.

So yours should be fine for a bit.


See here for the details...

[Mark]

I forgot about a pilsner that sat in a carboy at similar temps for over 3 months and it was beautiful. No autolysis or off flavours, in fact probably the opposite - the beer cleared down very nicely.

[JR]

Colds forced us to take the weekend off skiing so I managed to get the bottling done.

I would have thought that beer would be OK for 3 - 4 months in the secondary fermentor as long as all the sanitation was OK. The guy at the brew store wasn't convinced so I was getting worried. either way its bottled now.