Belgian Fermentation

Hi all,

I recently decided to start getting into brewing Belgian beers and to start decided to brew my favorite style the Dubbel. I kept my grain bill fairly simple using 97.5% pale malt and 2.5% Special B. The hops were kept simple as well doing two additions of Hersbrucker for bittering and aroma. I also made some home made candi sugar using DAP and added 10 min before flame out (the syrup turned out great and had awesome caramel flavors).

I fermented with a 650mL starter of WLP540 and it took off right away at 68*F. It has been at this temp for about a week and last night it looked like the krausen had fallen so I took a hydrometer reading, I've dropped from 1.058 to 1.012 which I'm happy about (will leave for a bit longer to get those extra points if possible). However, I tasted the sample from my hydrometer and it seemed to taste a little bit grainy (which is typical of the green beers I've made with a decoction mash) but it really lacked the esters and dark fruit flavors I was looking for in this beer. I was curious if these flavors typically take longer to come through or if I've missed the boat by fermenting to low...

Thanks for the help!

68 is certainly not too low for a Belgian. It was likely higher inside the fermenter too. With some conditioning time, the flavors should become more apparent.

It's only been a week. Don't worry. Dubbels are my favorite to make.

I usually let it sit in the primary for about 1-2 months and let it bottle condition for another 4 months before I even think about drinking it.

In my crawl space, I found a 6 pack of a Dubbel I did 5 years ago. Cracked one open, and it is fantastic.

With any kind of Belgian, or generally anything about about 6-7% ABV, the more patient you are the better.

I found that leaving the fermented beer sit on the belgian yeast cake for an extended period of time really helps bring out the flavor of that style. I did two batches side by side, one in primary for 10 days and the other in primary for 4 weeks. Both were fermented a bit low, at 65°. Guess which one tasted awesome.

All of the beers I've brewed with belgian yeast seem to have needed bottle conditioning time for their full flavor to come through. Some of them were pretty insipid prior to 3-4 weeks in the bottle, but after that, they were damn good.

Dubbles take forever to age and become delicious, +1 on giving it months.

corwin3083 said:

All of the beers I've brewed with belgian yeast seem to have needed bottle conditioning time for their full flavor to come through. Some of them were pretty insipid prior to 3-4 weeks in the bottle, but after that, they were damn good.

Click to expand...

My witbier took about 3 months to become drinkable. I almost tossed the batch.

the_zymologist said:

Hi all,
However, I tasted the sample from my hydrometer and it seemed to taste a little bit grainy (which is typical of the green beers I've made with a decoction mash) but it really lacked the esters and dark fruit flavors I was looking for in this beer. I was curious if these flavors typically take longer to come through or if I've missed the boat by fermenting to low...

Thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

First of all Congrats and Welcome to the world of great Belgian Beers. Dubbels and Trappists beers are my fav's, but man they take awhile. Bottle conditioning should be a min of 3-4 months, but longer the better. The sweetness doesn't usually subdue til atleast 3 months which will help to allow your hop aroma and finish to be more noticeable. As far as the Esters go, you have you temp too LOW> Typically wait towards the end and allow the temp to get into the low to mid 70*'s, but not until the end. That will help the Yeast to produce the Esters. It's the yeast that does the work. Next time try WLP 530 or the Trappists yeast, you'll get more of the estery notes with that strain than with the 540, regardless of your mash schedule. Remember it's the yeast that makes the beer, your mash style varies the fermentability, mouthfeel, proteins,etc.. Temperature during the last week or so will help finish it out stronger and help to give you those Estery tones. So far I've had the best luck around 73-76* for those esters, but that is only to help it at the end, not the first 10 days or so. The longer the better on that yeast cake too; eventhough your beer might be done within a couple weeks, 6-8 weeks allows all those flavors to mature quicker and more evenly. I typically go 4-6 weeks in primary and then another 2-3 weeks in secondary if I'm oaking or just want to downsize to smaller fermenter with less head space. Enjoy

And if you really wanna go Belgian style, when you transfer to your secondary. Wash the yeast, save in a jar, and when you are days away from bottling; make a starter about a day beforehand with your washed yeast (make sure you are using only the very top from the jar to get just the purest and most white of the yeast), it won't take much then make that into a starter, wait til Kraussening, decant most of the liquid, then bottle with Kaussening starter. Or you can just do your normal corn sugar.

Thanks everyone for the insight. I'm going to let this beer age on the yeast cake for the next month before bottling!