Beer Forum

I have some figs and dates sitting in the secondary on a barley wine.
Would it be better to let it age there for awhile (3+ months) with the figs / dates? Or rack them to a keg after a few weeks or a month force carb / bottle and let it age in bottles?

gauzzastrip wrote:I have some figs and dates sitting in the secondary on a barley wine.
Would it be better to let it age there for awhile (3+ months) with the figs / dates? Or rack them to a keg after a few weeks or a month force carb / bottle and let it age in bottles?

I would think racking off the fruit after a few weeks would be the better option. I imagine that after a certain point, the fruit has given all it's going to give, but I have no clue what point that is. So I would err on the side of caution.

My $.02. I could be completely wrong and often am.

gauzzastrip wrote:I have some figs and dates sitting in the secondary on a barley wine.
Would it be better to let it age there for awhile (3+ months) with the figs / dates? Or rack them to a keg after a few weeks or a month force carb / bottle and let it age in bottles?

Haven't done the fruit option, but my barleywine aged in secondary for 6 months, bottles for 6 months. Now 4 months later (17 months after brewing) they are starting to shine. Recommend skipping the force carb and just sprinkle some more yeast and add bottling sugar, then bottle and store.

Dirk McLargeHuge wrote:I would think racking off the fruit after a few weeks would be the better option. I imagine that after a certain point, the fruit has given all it's going to give, but I have no clue what point that is.

That was what I was thinking as well. I guess I'll just have to give it a taste a few weeks a row and see how it's going (oh darn!)

I would let the beer sit on the figs and dates for at least 1 mos. Then I would rack the beer to a keg for extended cold storage if possible. When the time is right, you can either rack to a bottling bucket or carb the beer directly in the keg. I always prefer to secondary in a keg as it can purged of oxygen in the headspace pretty effectively.