Bottling High ABV Belgian after (extended?) secondary

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.

I made a 9.2% Tripel to celebrate the coming birth of my son. It sat one month in primary and 5 months in the secondary (I really forgot about it with the whole pregnancy experience) day 22 in the bottles it was well carbed and ready for the baby celebration! Tasted great, very smooth! Opened one of the last bottles recently almost a year after bottling and it is fantastic! No extra yeast was added.

Hope that helps, RDWHAHB!

dbals said:

I made a 9.2% Tripel to celebrate the coming birth of my son. It sat one month in primary and 5 months in the secondary (I really forgot about it with the whole pregnancy experience) day 22 in the bottles it was well carbed and ready for the baby celebration! Tasted great, very smooth! Opened one of the last bottles recently almost a year after bottling and it is fantastic! No extra yeast was added.

Hope that helps, RDWHAHB!

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Yes it does I'm glad to know no extra yeast is needed since I don't have any.

Congrats on your new addition to the family as well! would you say it's better to let it age in the carboy or in the bottles?

Thanks again enjoy your thanksgiving. Cheers

I have no idea, I bulked age- well, because I forgot. I tend to get a bit busy so most of my beers sit a bit longer in the fermentor or secondary. Have a pumpkin ale that turned out great- it was suppose to be in bottles 3 weeks ago but tonight is "the" night.

My plan on the tripel was 1 month fermentor 1 month secondary then bottle.

Good luck and thanks,
Dan