How long can my beer sit on yeast?

[coastalbrewer]

I really don't want to bottle tomorrow, but I have a porter that's been in primary two weeks today and I don't have another fermenter available. I ordered a kegging system that will be here in about 7 - 10 days. So by the time I get the beer into the keg it will have sat on the yeast cake for about 3 weeks. Is this ok?

[Henning1966]

Sounds ok to me. Gives the yeast time to clean up after it's self. Also a little bulk conditioning time never hurts.

[BDawg]

2-3 weeks on the primary is fine (in homebrew quantities). It's pro quantities where autolysis kicks in.
If you want, go ahead and rack to a secondary for it to clear a little more while you're waiting for the other stuff to come in.

[coastalbrewer]

Great. Thanks for the replies. This makes me feel better. So, what's the max before autolysis does kick in?

[BDawg]

depends on the beer and yeast, though I've never had ill effects up to a month. Never pushed it past that though.

[jwatkins56550]

I remeber on the ladies of white labs show, they mentioned autolysis on a homebrew scale is much less of a problem.. Im kinda fucked up right now so I dont remember exactly what happened

[coastalbrewer]

Good to know. I don't think I'll ever go past 1 month. Looks like I'm kegging this batch as soon as I get my keg baby! So long bottles.

[ajdelange]

I go straight from the fermenter to kegs in which the beer lagers. I.E. there is plenty of yeast in suspension when the kegs get filled. It settles and the beer lagers on that. I don't rack unless I'm taking beer to a party or somesuch. I've let beer sit for more than a year this way (at 38 °F) without experiencing autolysis. They are obviously staying alive but get pretty weak after as much as a year. The diacetyl level starts to rise then.