Belgian Abbey Ale - Page 2

john from dc · 01-18-2008, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willie_okt

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.

this was what i was trying to get at. in my case i'd assumed that since the primary fermentation had slowed down that it was finished, but it was not. i'd say you're much safer leaving it in the primary and making sure the yeast finish their job.

but again, i'm just a baby at all this.

willie_okt · 01-18-2008, 03:37 PM

Thanks.....probably gonna leave it be for a while. Do you think the conditioning in the basement will improve clarity? Or should I assume that it will have a "Blue Moon" clarity?

zoebisch01 · 01-18-2008, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willie_okt

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.

What I experienced was that the last few points eeked out over a week or so. I don't remember exactly how long but I do remember it taking a while. I had it in my basement below the low end of the yeast's recommended range. I bottled it and stored it in the basement. It took forever and a day to carbonate (not kidding on the order of over a month iirc) but it did, slowly and surely. I won't proceed like that in the future though. I'd leave it at ferment temps until hitting FG and then secondary in the colder area. Then I'd prime and bottle and leave it at room temp for a week to carbonate, then back down to the basement.

batesjer · 02-21-2008, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by willie_okt

Thanks.....probably gonna leave it be for a while. Do you think the conditioning in the basement will improve clarity? Or should I assume that it will have a "Blue Moon" clarity?

You need to leave it for a while so that the really strong alcohol taste mellows out. Leaving the beer in the primary for at least three weeks is a good idea to make sure most of the fermentation is complete, then you should either plan on leaving it in the secondary or bottle for an extended period of time. When a beer needs conditioning I choose to do most of the conditioning in the secondary, rather then the bottle simply because I am less tempted to open up bottles to try it before it has had a chance to improve in taste.

stedtale · 02-26-2010, 11:38 PM

What was your recipe? How did it turn out? Tasty?