I used wlp550 for a Dubbel and made a starter but it still took a few days to get going. It looked like they reproduced and went down to the bottom right away, but just chilled for a couple days. My understanding is that the high gravity environment shocks them for a bit before they do their thing. I tried one after a month in the bottle, and it tasted fine-so I'm assuming you'll be OK.
No. Sounds like they have a big feast in front of them. Give them time and a nice temp controlled environment and they will eat their fill. You may see active fermentation for 2 weeks or more if you under pitched a nice healthy yeast info a well aerated wort.
__________________ Drinking on the keg: BPA, Brown Ale, Dry Mead, Wee Heavy aged on Oak, CAP Drinking in the Bottle: Conditioning: Fermenting: Planning:
I recently started a new batch of an Abbey Ale recipe I found in a brewer's book. My OG started out a bit higher than my target....OG was 1.092
I used a liquid yeast (I believe White Labs 550 Abbey Ale). Stupid me did not use a starter, so it took about 3 days to start up the fermentation.
It's been a week now (since fermentation visually showed) and it's still bubbling away, the krausen is still 3 inches thick.....should I worry yet?
Thanks
I just did a Belgian Abbey and it sounds like everything is on target
It took about 72 hours to begin. The fermentation was over in about 5 days on mine though. Im already drinking it. I brewed right around christmas.. I wasn't as patient as i should have been and I have already drank most of it. Mmmmm it was good.
Oh yeah it finished out at 9.3%
Last edited by stormtracker; 01-14-2008 at 08:33 PM.
i did almost exactly the same thing about two weeks ago. it was my third batch ever, abbey ale from a kit, same liquid yeast, no starter.
i also got a slow starting fermentation that lasted a week. since i knew i wasn't going to be home for a week after that i went ahead and racked to the secondary. i think this was a big mistake, as the wort tasted VERY sweet. i'm pretty sure the candi sugar had not completely fermented. the next morning there was already a thin pancake of yeast on the top of my secondary so it's possible that enough yeast was transferred to finish the fermentation, but i'm pretty sure it wasn't ready to be transferred.
as i said i'm still new at this, but i don't think there could be any harm leaving it in the primary for another week. i really wish i had.
The target is still about another .01 off. Should I let it go, or should I bottle since my OG was higher than forecasted.
Been in Primary for about 10 days, right? Give it more time. Let it sit in primary for at least another 10 days, if not more. I give my belgians (besides wits) a month on the yeast cake. With that high of an SG, you'll want to give it plenty of time to do it's thing. You won't regret leaving it on the yeast cake longer.
I have used the WLP550 before, fantastic yeast. I didn't use a starter, it chugged along happily for quite some time. (actually I had forgotten about that ferment, as I recently stated I had never had a ferment go over a week....this was the exception). Super attenuator! I love the flavors it gives off.
Like Death mentions, just wait until it gets close in gravity to what you are shooting for before racking. Keep in mind you should hit around 85% attenuation.
__________________
Event Horizon ~ A tribute to the miracle of fermentation.
Brew what you like. Do this, and you will find your inner brewer.
OK, checked it again this morning and still reads 1.026.
I estimate that its around 78% attentuation for about 7.7% ABV. I'm gonna heed the advice on this page and let it go a while longer. I assume that this gravity reading is close to finished though, becuase I started with a higher OG.
Would there be any harm to racking the beer into a seconday and moving to the basement for 2 weeks @ 50 degrees. I assume its gonna be a slightly cloudy beer anyway.
Belgian Abbey Ale
Linear Mode
