3 weeks in primary???

[TrojanAnteater]

My friend's uncle just won a first place prize at a competition for an ESB. His primary was 3 weeks long! I thought letting it go that long could only do bad things to your beer. I'm pretty sure I saw that his secondary was also 3 weeks.

[Mill Rat]

A lot depends on how warm the beer was for those three weeks.

[corkybstewart]

3 weeks really isn't that long if the temp is proper for the yeast. I had a saison in primary for 2 months at 85F and it was fine. Now its in secondary for a few months until I carbonate and start drinking the first keg around Christmas.

That said, I can't really see any advantage to leaving a "small" beer like an ESB in primary that long. Unless he was fermenting it too cold, it shouldn't take more than a week to reach FG.

[gone_fishing]

Two weeks ago I bottled a batch (Brown Dog Ale clone) without doing a secondary because it had been in primary for a month, and needed to be ready for a party today. I had been too tired after work each day, and weekends were taken up by fishing tournaments so I had delayed it WAY over my normal one week. I was concerned about possible off flavors, but it went over very well at the party, with most people drinking more than one. I sure don't plan to do this on a regular basis, but you should be fine after 3 weeks, based on my very limited experience.