Big Beer, When to Bottle?

I have a Belgian Strong Dark fermenting away. It started out at 1.107, I intended lower but boiled off more than anticipated. After 21 days it is down to 1.022. It tastes awesome and I would love to bottle it now, but in the last five days has dropped a point. I know on point could be a difference in temp or reading error, but should I let it go? I would like to free up room in my freezer but I don't want to finish this beer too early. Any advice?

I did a BDSA with OG of 1.093 and waiting 21 days to bottle. After 7 days in the bottle I couldn't wait to drink it and it tasted great. 2 weeks more in the bottle after that an it is a fine beer now. I'm not sure what my FG was when bottling. I get a little inpatient and want to clear room to brew and drink the beer.

Put it in a secondary carboy and forget about it for a few months. Ales this big really need a few months of conditioning before they start to shine.

It really depends on what your grain bill looks like. Its possible that you have a lot of unfermentables, or at least very-slow-fermentables. On a brew like that I think the taste would def be good but Id be concerned with extended aging and bottle carbonation. I had a heffe (now, a hheffe is a LOT different) continue to ferment in the bottle and I had crazy bottle carbonation. If you only have a point decrease over a week, and need the space, I say GO! Maybe just prime a bit less than normal, if you are bottling.

The grain bill was simple, pils and pale malt, and some dark dme for color. What are the advantages of a long secondary vs. a long bottle conditioning?

Belgian yeasts are diferent than most other yeasts. They start off and drop gravity pretty quickly, but then very slowly continue to drop.

Here is a great quote from Brew Like a Monk.

"Let the fermentation finish, perhaps at a higher temperature. It can often take as long to bet the last few points of attenuation as it does for the first 80%"

For a brew that big I would let it sit for several more weeks. If you need the fermenter,then rack to a secondary for another month or two. You really want to make sure that it is truely finished. Also some age will help the beer a lot.

Just remember, you are typically priming bottles with 2-3 gravity points worth of sugar, so if your beer isn't finished fermenting, and drops more than 2-3 points (without adding any priming sugar) you could have bottle bombs. Let it finish for sure, and it will benefit from some bulk aging anyway.

My barley wine sat in secondary 6 months+ before i added the dry hops last week. It was tasting right

I would also add that Brew Like a Monk recommends a cold conditioning period of a couple of weeks (I think it is that long) at lager temps (30s-40s) after primary fermentation and racking to secondary for a period of time. Personally, I just brewed one and left it in the primary for a couple of weeks, got down to 1.008, then racked to secondary for a couple months. Then I cold conditioned at 35 degrees for two weeks, pitched some champagne yeast and bottled. Will let it sit in the bottles until Xmas. It is a Belgian Noel AG kit from AHS, so I wanted to give some out to my dad/brother-in law as a gift. I will let you know how it tastes. From everything I have read, bottle conditioning lends dimension to Belgians, even if drinkable at a month. Almost every recipe in Brew Like a Monk for a Strong, Tripple and Dubbel beers include cold conditioning (if memory serves), I would give it a go if you have the patience. Cheers.

My BDS has been in primary at 68deg for a month. I just took it to 75deg for two days to make space for it in the fridge, now it will sit a couple weeks at 40ish. Then I'll bottle and sit on it for a while, hope to have it ready for the holidays and beyond. Already it is 11.5%abv!!!