Chimay yeast (WLP500) is tame?

I used WLP500 for the first time yesterday.

Made a decent starter, and saw signs of fermentation after 5 hours, so I know I didn't under-pitch.

24 hours later and it is going great, but seems to only have a small amount of kraeusen on top (quarter to half inch).

With other Belgians I have used, it would be trying to crawl out of the fermenter by now. This yeast seems tame compared to other Belgian yeasts.

I do use FermCap, but that doesn't seem to affect other Belgian yeasts. It is currently sitting at 72 F.

Anyone else noticed this yeast being 'tame'

I don't do a lot of Belgians but compared to both 530 and 545 that I've used recently it was a pretty tame yeast. No blow off, or excessive krausen.

Each and every fermentation is differenet. Some go absolutely crazy and some just chug along. I have not been able to figure out what they are going to do...........

Same yeast... similar recipes... wildly different ferments... Go figure.

That's my go to strain for most Belgians. It's not as crazy as 530, and it's much slower to start, but I think it's worth it. The flavor profile is so damn good with the 500.

TimTrone said:

That's my go to strain for most Belgians. It's not as crazy as 530, and it's much slower to start, but I think it's worth it. The flavor profile is so damn good with the 500.

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I hoping for good things from it. Started at 68, and am raising the temperature 2 degrees a day, up to 80 F.