Under Attenuated Belgian?

dbobsbrew · 12-20-2011, 06:09 AM

Hello,

I'm brewing my first Belgian extract beer. It's in secondary fermenter, and I think it's under attenuated. It tastes really sweet. Will that even out over time?

Should I add more yeast? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some more details about the beer:

Kit: Brewer's Best Belgian Tripel. OG should be 1.083-1.086.

I f-ed up and took my OG reading after the boil, BUT before adding the other half of water for the 5 gallon batch. Also, I took a good brewer's advice and waited until the tail end of primary fermentation to add the simple sugars (I substituted 16 oz cane sugar for lame "Belgian" candy sugar.)

Targeted finishing gravity: 1.017-1.020. It is now at 1.017.

Yeast: White Labs WLP500 Trappist (weak action in less than 1 litre starter) and 1 packet dry Danstar E491.

It fermented for about 2 weeks in primary before racking to secondary. It's been in secondary for about 2 weeks.

Started fermenting at about 67 F. I tried to raise the temp 1 degree a day by moving the vessel around the house. It got up to 71 degrees around day 4 and remains there.

Thanks,
Dbob

Frodo · 12-20-2011, 06:22 AM

Belgians taste a bit sweet to me.It probably needs to mellow a bit to smooth out the taste, but you're probably "there", if you're at 1.017.

**weirdboy** · 12-20-2011, 06:33 AM

Where did that target FG come from? Is that what the kit said? A tripel typically finishes lower than that, like 1.008 - 1.012 I think.

Extract batches tend to finish higher in my experience, especially LME. I made an extract tripel once, and it also finished a bit high and tasted a bit sweeter than a tripel should. How much sugar was in the recipe? You *could* add more sugar and that will dry it out, but you probably want to stay under around 20% of the grain bill with just sugar. So for a 5 gallon batch, 1.083 OG that is probably something like 1.5 pounds total (including any sugar you've already added), just going off the top of my head.

EDIT: Oh, just popped some numbers into beersmith and it looks more like 3 pounds total.

Frodo · 12-20-2011, 07:05 AM

The style guidelines are 1.008 to 1.014 according to the book I'm looking at, but frankly 1.017 isn't too far off that mark.

dbobsbrew · 12-20-2011, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by weirdboy

Where did that target FG come from? Is that what the kit said? A tripel typically finishes lower than that, like 1.008 - 1.012 I think.

Extract batches tend to finish higher in my experience, especially LME. I made an extract tripel once, and it also finished a bit high and tasted a bit sweeter than a tripel should. How much sugar was in the recipe? You *could* add more sugar and that will dry it out, but you probably want to stay under around 20% of the grain bill with just sugar. So for a 5 gallon batch, 1.083 OG that is probably something like 1.5 pounds total (including any sugar you've already added), just going off the top of my head.

EDIT: Oh, just popped some numbers into beersmith and it looks more like 3 pounds total.

FG came from the kit. I don't really expect it to come out as a tripel. It's too amber in color. If I add more sugar, will there be enough yeast to do the job since it's been racked off into the secondary?

solbes · 12-20-2011, 01:42 PM

Sometimes Belgians will drop another .005-.01 in secondary. Even though it had previously ceased activity in Primary. I usually have the opposite problem with my Tripels, they finish too dry (1.004-1.006).

You could add a little more sugar. There should still be plenty of yeast in secondary to do the job. 1/2 is all I would add though.

The amber color may be from the LME carmelizing in the boil. Did you add it at the beginning, or did you do late addtion (adding most of the LME towards the end). Also doing full volume boils may help preserve the light color. Regardless this batch should taste great given a few months in the bottle. Cheers!

lunker325 · 12-20-2011, 02:38 PM

I brewed this kit a few months ago and mine tastes sweet as well. A bit more than I would like, I think it is just the characteristic of the kit. Mine finished on the high side of the final gravity, but within the stated range.

dbobsbrew · 12-21-2011, 01:53 AM

Big ups to you all for taking the time to help out a beginner. Thanks.