Who brews big beers?

Scottish wee heavy has been in primary for ten days and still has insane airlock activity and rich krausen. OG was 1.083 and used edinburgh ale yeast by WLP as a starter. When should this slow down? Kind of weirded out by such long fermentation.

I can't help you,but that is a blody great picture!

1.083 will be done when it is done.

It can take a while so just let the yeast do what they do best. They do not punch a time clock.

Patience. Guess what? Big beers take longer. Small beers take longer than 10 days.
Give it at least 3 weeks before getting worried. Take gravity measurements over 3 days apart to tell if it is done fermenting.

Forget it for at least 4 weeks and then decide to bottle or not.
I have 10gal of strong scotch ale (1.074) brewed almost month ago, I'll leave it min 1-2 week more before bottling.

Theoretically, you could bottle it after fermentation is done but condition for bigger beers would take much longer than for standard OG beers.

Yeah like most said 2-3 weeks of fermentation then 1-2 weeks of clean up and clarity. You could probably speed it up by raising the temp slowly maybe a degree a day. At lower temps it well take longer. If your fermenting that yeast in the 50s it will take much longer probably 3-6 weeks im guessing.

chuckstout said:

Yeah like most said 2-3 weeks of fermentation then 1-2 weeks of clean up and clarity. You could probably speed it up by raising the temp slowly maybe a degree a day. At lower temps it well take longer. If your fermenting that yeast in the 50s it will take much longer probably 3-6 weeks im guessing.

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This is a good idea if you have the capability. Not to rush the yeast, but to ensure they are able to completely attenuate the beer and you dont get stuck a few points higher than you should have.

I agree with the above. Yeast strains vary, by type, age, etc. Once you see the airlock slow down and only see bubbles every minute or two, then check it again. Who knows, this could happen tomorrow, or 2 weeks from now

It's hard to be patient, we all suffer from that.

Two weeks now and still ridiculous activity. Bubble every 6 seconds and krausen is still like Booyah!! I my face!! Haha but im definitely being patient, just monitoring.

Just chill and wait. My wee heavy usually goes a full two weeks of initial fermentation on Windsor yeast and I let it sit in the primary a full month. Windsor isn't quite as aggressive as the strain you appear to be using and it has problems floccing out (cold crashing is a must), but it makes for a very delicious malty wee heavy. Especially when you add 1 oz. of whiskey soaked oak chips to it during the final week.

vesestilldrumming said:

Two weeks now and still ridiculous activity. Bubble every 6 seconds and krausen is still like Booyah!! I my face!! Haha but im definitely being patient, just monitoring.

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Each fermentation is different. Some can finish fast and others just chug along for a long time.

I had a BDSA that looked like a lava lamp in the carboy for a full three weeks.

vesestilldrumming said:

Scottish wee heavy has been in primary for ten days and still has insane airlock activity and rich krausen. OG was 1.083 and used edinburgh ale yeast by WLP as a starter. When should this slow down? Kind of weirded out by such long fermentation.
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I always rouse and swirl my fermenters vigorously during the initial primary fermentation....that lovely big yeasty krausen is doing nothing in the way of fermentation!...stir all that yeast back into suspension and i guarantee you would half your fermentation times!

You cant rush yeast by stirring the krausen back into suspension...but you will speed up the fermentation process by having MORE yeasts in suspension in the wort where its needed!....

I only brew big beers 8-12% Abv and i never wait much longer than 2-3 wks to fully complete primary fermentation in a 10% Abv beer..

My latest brew an imperial IPA of 1.100 OG is already fermenting like crazy...i swirl the fermenter vigorously to re-introduce all the yeast in the krausen back into the wort!...i do this 3-5 times a day for 3-5 days.....all that yeast is doing no good sat on the top!.....

Just swirled my bucket to reintroduce the krausen and yeasties. Thanks for ur knowledge. At least your words.

Wow! I got a whole new fermentation after I swirled to beer. Holy cow that helped alot! My airlock is going nuts right now.

Just brewed an Imperial IPA with rye on the 21st. OG 1090. I pitched WLP090 and it took off. Took a reading today after the noticeably active fermentation stopped. 1019. Still see yeast moving around. I think another week and it'll be done. Sample tasted awesome btw. Might enter this into the nhc. No swirling or nothing. Shook up Carboy good prior to pitch used a 2l starter and within 3 hours it kicked off! Just let it sit at 69.