Hi all a while back i brewed my 2nd AG batch of Belgian Golden strong.
It came out to a final Gravity of 1.004 giving me an ABV of 9.3% anyway after about a 3 1/2 week primary I was unable to bottle due to numerous reasons so i decided to get it off the trub and rack over to my Glass carboy for a secondary. Its now been 16 days since i racked over to secondary and I am now finally able to bottle this thing.
So my question(s) are, is 16 days considered a lengthy secondary fermentation? As far as should i be adding some yeast along with my dextrose to my bottles or perhaps the carboy to give this thing a chance to carb in the bottle. I have read that after a long enough secondary too much yeast can fall out of suspension and into the trub. I still have plenty of yeast rafts floating up and down within the carboy but i am unsure what this means. Are they still alive? should i rack those clumps over to my bottles or try to avoid them when siphoning?
I am looking for a carb volume of about 3.0-3.2 since i believe the bottles can handle it and ive read that belgian style beers call for a high carbonation traditionally.
I was also told that since this is a high abv beer I should allow for at least a 3 month aging process in the bottles before trying her out.
Thanks for any insight into my noobtastic questions.
It came out to a final Gravity of 1.004 giving me an ABV of 9.3% anyway after about a 3 1/2 week primary I was unable to bottle due to numerous reasons so i decided to get it off the trub and rack over to my Glass carboy for a secondary. Its now been 16 days since i racked over to secondary and I am now finally able to bottle this thing.
So my question(s) are, is 16 days considered a lengthy secondary fermentation? As far as should i be adding some yeast along with my dextrose to my bottles or perhaps the carboy to give this thing a chance to carb in the bottle. I have read that after a long enough secondary too much yeast can fall out of suspension and into the trub. I still have plenty of yeast rafts floating up and down within the carboy but i am unsure what this means. Are they still alive? should i rack those clumps over to my bottles or try to avoid them when siphoning?
I am looking for a carb volume of about 3.0-3.2 since i believe the bottles can handle it and ive read that belgian style beers call for a high carbonation traditionally.
I was also told that since this is a high abv beer I should allow for at least a 3 month aging process in the bottles before trying her out.
Thanks for any insight into my noobtastic questions.