Wyeast 3787, 64F or 76F

Both are within the temp range. My ambient upstairs temp is 76, my basement is 64. I have never used this yeast, or made a Belgian so I am curious which end of the spectrum you would choose to ferment at.

Do you like strong, estery Belgians? 76 or higher will give you quite a bit of esters and phenols, while 64 will be a little cleaner, for a Begian anyway, and it might need to be warmed up a tad at the end to get proper attenuation.

I am getting ready to start brewing my first Belgian in a bit and have been doing a lot of research specific to fermentation. It seems the best solution is to chill to the mid sixties, pitch, and gradually let it rise to the upper seventies over the course of a week. So, your scenario seems ideal. Pitch at 64F and wait for the fermentation temp to max out while in the basement and move it to the upstairs and at point to let it finish out.

Actually I'll leave @ 70+ tonight until ferment starts than proceed at cooler temps.

I agree with jmo88. I think the esters you get starting at 64 and ramping up to 68 are more typical of the commercial Trappist beers. If you start at 76, I'd hazard to guess you'll get something weird.

I vote for 64. It's not going to be "clean" no matter what you do. I've done a belgian starting at 64, and it had an awesome banana clove aroma. Stick your carboy in the basement, and ferment it in a water bath to lessen the temperature swings.

My basement barely budges. As with every other ferment I went back and forth on this one, and I left it in the basement overnight. I was mostly concerned about a super slow start to fermentation, but I woke up this morning to a nice krausen on it.

If I wanted a cleaner taste, I'd ferment in the basement. If I want more esters, I'd start the fermentation in the basement for 48-72 hours and then move it upstairs.

64 is perfect ambient temp. The brew will create heat and ramp up the temp a bit. I think it would be two warm at 76 plus fermentation temp. You still get a lot of yeast char at lower temps with less chance for fusel alcohol.

Okay, day 4 SG = 1.024, Day 5 = 1.022. The krausen is still gigantic. Should I move it upstairs into the low 70s, or try to let it chug at 64? I appear to be over 80% done with fermentation.