Belgian Golden Strong -- Didn't ferment out?

My recipe (from BCS):
12 lbs Pilsner malt
Mash stayed well under 150°F

3 oz Saaz [3.0%AA] @ 90
3 lbs sugar added at 20

OG 18.5°P (1.075)

It has been a month to the day. I kegged the wort at 11°P (1.025 corrected per BS2). This is an ABV of 6.7%.

It doesn't taste bad, still... but it stopped too low - should I pitch yeast or carb up and see how it is?

What was the mash temperature, and how long did you mash for? How much and what yeast did you pitch? What temperature did you ferment at, and did you oxygenate before pitching?

Mash temps went from 143 to 149 over 90 minutes.

Yeast was WLP570 Belgian Golden (1 pkg, 2L starter on stir plate for 2 days).

Fermentation temps were about 68°F, dropped naturally into 65°F and have been at 61°F for the last 3 weeks or so (1 month total).

Oxygenation was only via shaking.

I verified current gravity with a hydrometer (I prefer the refrac) and it came out exactly what the calculator said it should (1.024).


I prepped a US-05 starter on 1/2 L that I'll put on a stir plate overnight. I can pitch this in the a.m. - I'm also planning on increasing the temp. The beer is still pretty hazy (supposedly WLP570 flocs very slowly and it hasn't been crashed yet) so I'll put it on heat tonight. The only problem at this point is that it's in a 5 gal corny keg. I can leave the pressure relief pin pulled during "secondary" fermentation if I get one.

At least it tastes good... no idea how it'll be on CO2, but my guess is similar to an Imperial Hefeweizen.

I'm guessing it could have benefited from warmer ferment temps, especially towards the end. A lot of these Belgian yeasts need 75F+ to achieve proper attenuation.

A lot of Belgian yeast strains take awhile to finish. I would get this warm, as in very. 90 degrees wouldn't hurt, even. Don't pitch other yeast though. It should be much lower than that though, already. You've got probably 30% sugar in your recipe.

Your fermentation process screwed you. You did everything correctly until the beer got too cold. The yeast were like, "Yo dawg. WTF? We bust nuts to clean up this sugar and the boss wants to save a nickel a day on his heat? The hell with it. Lets go on strike."

Make a new starter, pitch at the peak of krausen on starter, warm up beer, and go from there.

Check out the Brew Strong episode on BrewingNetwork.com. There is an episode from 2007 where Jamil gives some tips on Golden Strong. You have a Duvel recipe clone it looks like. The typical ferment is to pitch at mid 60s, hold for maybe 2 days, the raise temp to maybe 80-82f until fg is met. Then chill and crash.

Heat that ***** up. Give it a good rouse -- shake the **** out of it -- and then set it somewhere it can get as warm as you can get it to the upper 70s. Near a furnace, in the sun, by a working oven, etc. Being in a corny the metal will conduct heat well, so if you have a heating pad you could slap that on the corny and let it warm up. A little oxygen, agitation and heat should get you another 10-15 points.

Those crazy belgian yeasts! I'm totally used to 62-65 degrees constant temps.

Adding oxygen at this point doesn't sound like a great idea... but otherwise I put a brew belt on it and I do have the US-05 ready to go. Hopefully I can wake up the yeast that are in there, but at least the US-05 is neutral. The belt's been on all night.

I still have the slurry from the fermenter, too... I just don't know what state it's in. Maybe I should dump some of that in the corny.

The only tough part is not being able to see the fermentation if it's happening! I'm going to have to take samples. (I try not to touch it - abstinence is the best sanitation!)

Fermentation temps were about 68°F, dropped naturally into 65°F and have been at 61°F for the last 3 weeks or so (1 month total).

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I agree with the others. This is your problem. Belgian yeasts do not like to go below 65 and really ddo nokt like to get cooler after they start. This can cause them to stall and it is very difficult to get them to start again.

beergolf said:

I agree with the others. This is your problem. Belgian yeasts do not like to go below 65 and really ddo nokt like to get cooler after they start. This can cause them to stall and it is very difficult to get them to start again.

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Its not just Belgian yeasts that dont like starting warm and going colder. Its all yeasts.

highgravitybacon said:

Its not just Belgian yeasts that dont like starting warm and going colder. Its all yeasts.

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True, but Belgians are even more sensitive to temps dropping. You can get another yeast to start up again, but a Belgian will probably not get going again.

It will get going again. Worst case add a little more sugar, and rouse the yeast. Warm up to 100 degrees if necessary. Yes, I said 100. This yeast will ferment that beer.

beergolf said:

True, but Belgians are even more sensitive to temps dropping. You can get another yeast to start up again, but a Belgian will probably not get going again.

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This is absolutely true. The temp drop I'm talking about is going from 61 to 65 due to the heat generated by active ferementation... then dropping to 61 afterward. I've never had this problem in any other beer, but this is my first Belgian. This leaves most of my ales very clean.

Guess I need to start working on that fermentation chamber! My cellar temps are great for most other beers - I just didn't realize this one was best brewed summer to early-fall. Really, it's just too bad I missed this before it started. Next time it will be better and hopefully the US-05 will work on finishing the rest of it.