Belgian Golden Strong Ale - how long to ferment?

I've got a Belgian Golden Strong Ale - Jamil Z's recipe - sitting in primary right now. I brewed it on 1/10, so that's about four weeks ago. How long should I ferment it for? Should I secondary this beer?

I know it'll take some time, but should it be in the bottle or carboy?

Thanks,
Matt

Start taking gravity readings. I ended up leaving my golden strong with the 1388 yeast in the primary for roughly eight weeks. It was amazingly perfect, no hot alcohol, the yeast had dropped nicely and it was way, way too smooth for a 9% beer.

The reason I left it so long is that my volume was off (that one bucket is different), and I had 7 gallons, so I wanted to keg and bottle, which would take longer than just kegging, and I didn't have time. I kegged 5 gallons, then racked the last two into the bottling bucket, and added the right amount of sugar, and a bit of fresh yeast. No secondary at all, and it was fantastic coming out of the primary. If you need the primary, and want to have it clear/age more, make sure it's done, then go ahead and move it. 1388 is notorious for not clearing at a reasonable pace, which is part of why I just ignored mine.

I also have five primaries, so giving one up wasn't TOO bad.

I think how long it ferments is the yeasts' decision, not yours

How long to leave it in the primary though? That's up to you! Give it enough time to finish and clean up a bit. What is the OG and yeast strain?

I also left mine in primary for about 8 weeks, using the duvel strain (wlp570). turned out great, I've only got 6 of them left though

what was your OG? I left a quad that was 1.100 in primary for about 6 or 7 weeks, then bottle conditioned it for 6 months, ended up great. Now that i have more primaries/carboy's i'd probably do 4 weeks in primary, then another 4 or 5 in secondary, then bottle for a few months, but i'm no expert

It's WLP570.

Alas, I forgot to take an SG reading so I don't know exactly, but the estimated OG for the recipe is 1.082.

I think how long it ferments is the yeasts' decision, not yours

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Haha, true! Maybe I should ask the yeast how long they'd like to stay...

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll give it another couple of weeks before bottling. Just enough time to figure out what's next.

Thanks,
Matt

I don't get why everybody leaves the beer in the fermenter so long. 2 weeks does it for most any ale, even the strong ones. Once the ending gravity is reached and the yeast flocculate I don't think there is anything to gain from leaving it in the fermenter. I do my aging in the keg.

maida7 said:

I don't get why everybody leaves the beer in the fermenter so long. 2 weeks does it for most any ale, even the strong ones. Once the ending gravity is reached and the yeast flocculate I don't think there is anything to gain from leaving it in the fermenter. I do my aging in the keg.

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A lot of us beg to differ. we've had different experiences with leaving our beers longer. And there's tons of threads discussing it, so there's no need to re-invent the wheel here.

I've done both with results that seemed no different. Now I pretty much bottle when the SG is the same for 4 days and I happen have time to bottle/keg that weekend. Sometimes work doesn't allow me time to do so and I will leave in primary or secondary for weeks or months with no apparrent off flavors or problems.

Ive did a BSA (Westy 12 clone) (hopefully) on 1/25/10. I plan on leaving it in primary for 4 to 6 weeks and then letting it "age" in a secondary for a few months. Have you considered this for yours? Ive heard that these big beers need bulk aging. Im gonna give it a try and prob bottle condition a while too.

I just kegged a Golden Strong Ale after 3 weeks. The gravity reading when I kegged was down to 1.006, Can't remember the OG exactly but it was in the 1.080 range. I do remember after doing my abv calculations that I was sitting on a 10.4% abv beer. I'll let it sit in the keg to condition and carbonate for a few months. Should be great to drink this fall. Tasted fantastic at kegging.

How about when it's done?

I have one that's been in the fermenter for two weeks. I still have krausen. At max it filled 4.5 gallons of ale pail with krausen on a 3.5 gallon batch. It's some serious beer! It should end up around 10.2% ABV. I plan on letting it stay in the fermenter for 4 weeks and then I'm going to add pears for two weeks and then bottle and let it condition for a few months.

I keep my belgians in the primary for a minimum of three weeks. Longer for tripels and quads. My experience with Belgian yeasts is that they take a while to fully attenuate. It took a week to wring the last 0.004 gravity points out of my Blonde Ale, even when I used a big starter and oxygen. Perhaps the strain is just slow - I use Westmalle yeast (Wyeast 3787).

I also cold-crash all belgians in secondary at 31F for at least three days, then repitch a healthy starter just before packaging. If you have the equipment to chill a secondary, I highly recommend it - I find it enhances a light, crisp mouthfeel as well as improving clarity. Other than dry-hopping this is the only time I use secondaries.

I have a golden belgian strong that I just moved to a secondary after 6 days in the primary. OG was 1.071, and the beer hit 1.01 after about 4 days, which is the expected FG. I checked it today and it was still at 1.01, so i figured I would move it to secondary. What am I losing out on by moving it this early?!

AaronPerspective said:

I have a golden belgian strong that I just moved to a secondary after 6 days in the primary. OG was 1.071, and the beer hit 1.01 after about 4 days, which is the expected FG. I checked it today and it was still at 1.01, so i figured I would move it to secondary. What am I losing out on by moving it this early?!

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The possibility of it not fully attenuating. What yeast? Some take a few weeks to eek out the final points. Most finish below1.010. 6 days primary is pretty short for any beer....

I used White Labs 550. Attenuation range for this yeast is 78%-85%. I hit an apparent attenuation of 85%... I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I feel your uncertainty, I just brewed my first ever homebrew on black Friday (belgian golden strong)
I've been wondering the same thing, to secondary or not to secondary. The info is so varied, kinda seems like there are many ways to have a successful ferment.
To piggyback on your post I was wondering how long the yeast would remain viable for bottle carbing? I'm getting some info that says after the yeast is in primary for more than 4-5 weeks (which it looks like this baby will be) you need to repitch fresh yeast to get carbonation. My plan pre secondary or bottling (depending on info in this thread) is to check my gravity when the airlock is only throwing a couple bubbles a minute then checking again 3-4 days after to see if steady, then transfer.
I am also a bit worried about oxidization. I had my krausen overflow twice into my airlock before I went ohhhhh, that's what blow off hoses are for (newbie mistake) also some people are anti secondary due to oxidation, any thoughts guidance on this? Thanks everybody.