How long is too long in fermentation?

[UB2]

What is the downside of being patient and leaving in primary or secondary? I have a dry hopped lager that has been in secondary for 2 weeks now. I was planning on waiting another 2 before bottling. Is that too long, could I leave it another 6 weeks?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

first take your dry hops out, I'm sure you haven't dry hopped for 2 weeks ? and its fine to condition in the secondary for as long as you need as long as its sealed and in a cooler temperature

 

[Cavebrewer]

The main problem with leaving the beer in the primary fermentor too long (on top of the yeast cake) is that the yeast will eventually taint the flavor a bit. Generally, I wouldn't leave any beer in a primary tank for more than 4 weeks. Secondary tanks should be fine to sit for a bit longer, so long as you did a good job filtering it. Personally, I feel like leaving it in the secondary for more than 6 weeks might lose some of the hop aroma, especially if you dry hop. Not 100% sure about that though since I'm very impatient and have never let a beer sit that long

 

[Flatlander]

Leaving it in the secondary won't cause any problems as long as it is in a relatively stable temperature environment that is relatively cool. As it is a lager, I am assuming it is lagering...at less than 10 F. As was said, you will lose quite a lot of the hop aroma from the dry hopping...dry hopped beers are generally consumed quite quickly to avoid the rapid dissipation of aroma.

Cheers.

 

[babar79]

Personally 6 weeks in secondary is my max for any of my beers (all ales). I also don't dry hop for more than 10 days and its always at the end.

I agree that you should take the hops out. You will start to get a grassy taste if they are in there for more than 14 days.