What's next for my Abbey?

I brewed a Belgian Abbey last night with great success. Just about nailed the OG of 1.065 by a point. Being only my 2nd batch ever, I'm pretty stoked. The Wyeast 1214 took off in 12 hours and is really chugging at quite a clip.

My first brew was an Amber Ale which used pellet hops. Due to my inexperience, a bunch of hops made it to the fermenter and I was able to remove them when I transfered to the secondary.

My question is this: I used whole hops in the Abbey. Do I still need to transfer to a secondary since there's not much more than wort and yeast? Or, just straight to the bottle for the 4 weeks of conditioning?

Thanks for any advice

Secondary is kind of overrated. I only use a secondary occasionally, like when I am going to age on fruit for a while, for example.

Most of the time I will just do an extended primary. For an Abbey ale...not sure what the style is but 1.065 sounds like maybe a Dubbel(?) I would just let it sit in primary a few weeks before bottling/kegging.

I generally don't worry about hops or other sediment...that stuff tends to sink down into a nice tight layer on the bottom of the fermenter. If you are careful about moving it around when you transfer, then you should be fine.

^ Second. I've never had a problem with using only primaries since I started brewing. Given a reasonable amount of time most anything will settle out and from then it's just a matter of careful movement/siphoning.

Great points, thank you. And you're correct, I believe it is also called a Dubbel.

So, I came home today and noticed the vigorous fermentation has subsided (I really thought I was gonna have a mess because it was really blowing off quite a bit of CO2). I also noticed the temp dropped to about 66/68*. I assume this might be related to the activity since there hasn't been any change in the ambient temp. It was at 70* from the start. I've read that these Dubbels like to have the temp in the higher range. And problem leaving it where it is? I plan to primary till the end of the month, then bottle condition for 4 weeks.

Thanks for your input

I wouldn't worry too much about a 2-3 degree drop, although generally speaking you'd want to start cooler and then warm up a couple of degrees towards the end of fermentation. I don't think it's going to be a huge issue with that particular beer, though.

That makes more sense than what I read. The article wasn't very clear, more of an overview of the style. Of course, I didn't find the article till after I pitched at 80*.... Oh well. I'm excited. It's gonna be a great beer. As long as I can keep hands off of it

It's fairly common to start the Belgians at 67-68 then ramp them up slowly to 72-74 by the end of fermentation. I love Duppels, sounds like like have a nice one going there.

Is there a low temp at which I should consider warming it?

Well you sort of don't want it to keep dropping. You really want it to stay at a consistent or (very) slightly rising temperature over the course of fermentation.

That being said, once your beer has fermented out and the yeast has cleaned up after itself, it doesn't matter nearly as much. However, I am guessing from the timing of this thread that your beer has probably been going less than a week. You had a pretty good initial fermentation, but I would probably let it warm up a bit and give the fermenter a little swirl (nothing too big, just enough to make sure the yeast isn't too settled) and let it go for another day or two just to make sure everything is fermented out and the yeast has cleaned up after itself.

Thanks for the reply. fermentation started on 10/6 and went hard for about 85 hours @70* then gradually slowed down. Now littles "noticeable" signs of activity but I also know that I can't be certain without a gravity reading. From all i've about these Belgians, time is my friend so I'm tryinging to let finish on it's own with little disturbance from me. It's sitting at about a steady 66*.

Thanks again for all your help.

This being my 2nd brew, I must say that each has yielded a bunch of valuable lessons. The first, whole hops seam to be easier and less mess. This batch, ferment in glass! You can see what's happening

In your opinion, is 66 a good temp for the next 3 weeks of fermentation? My other option is to bring it upstairs which would raise it to about 72,74.

It should be fine at that temp.