astringency and fusels

I am brewing a belgian tripel (extract with specialty grains kit from northern brewer og 1.073), with dual stage fermentation and yeast starter
I just took my hydrometer reading from the primary getting ready to move to secondary, and I got approx 1.02 (is this about right?).
I believe the fermentation temperature was a little high, and as a result I have the banana esters which i dont really mind.
However, I also got the fusel alcohols which while not so bad does not suit what I was trying to make.
Second, I made a mistake and stirred the scum from the top of my primary back int0 the beer...
as quoted from Palmers book, "The brown scum that forms during fermentation and clings to the side of the fermentor is intensely bitter and if it is stirred back into the beer it will cause very astringent tastes"

I have read several posts saying that this shouldnt really hurt the beer, and that it is more likely the high fermentation temp, but i an going to throw it out there that I did mix the stuff back in. I will be letting this beer clarify in the secondary for about two months. Is there anything i can/should do to fix this problem? Would keeping the beer at a cooler temperature for the secondary do anything?

Thanks for your help, this site has been a great resource for me!

I usually secondary at cooler temps, it helps in clarifying faster, make certain it is done fermenting first though. The FG may be fine, check it a couple more times to be certain it is stable.

That crap should settle back out in secondary so don't worry.

If you wanna avoid fusels in the future, pitch cooler. I pitch my Belgians around 63-65 and slowly warm it up during the ferment. See the book Brew Like a Monk to read more on that. Many of the Belgian breweries do it that way, pitch cooler and slowly warm up into the 70s and even 80s over the course of the 4-5 fermentation.

Thanks for the quick replies. I am going to move to the secondary leaving all the yeast and scum behind. If the gravity is now at 1.021 (temperature adjusted), is the fermentation ready, in either case it hasn't been visibly active for several days now?

I got really paranoid about keeping the temperature up while I was not home, so i kept the thermostat at 72 (inside a foam box). Next time around I will be putting the primary in water and heating the water with a fishtank heater.

Again, thanks, I know time will fix a lot of these problems, but I wanted to be proactive and see if there was anything I should do up front, because I know what mistakes I made.
homebrewing will enhance my patience for sure

How many days into fermentation? I'd just leave it for 3 weeks total in primary, then rack to secondary. I usually skip secondary entirely, but with these bigger beers sometimes an extended secondary can do wonders for the beer.

Matt- 16 days in primary (brew day was 1/29).
I will leave it for a few more days, at 68°, then move to secondary leaving everything behind.
It has not looked active for some time now, should I do anything to get the last bit out of primary/get the yeast working again?

Thanks!

giant_blob said:

Matt- 16 days in primary (brew day was 1/29).
I will leave it for a few more days, at 68°, then move to secondary leaving everything behind.
It has not looked active for some time now, should I do anything to get the last bit out of primary/get the yeast working again?

Thanks!

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What's your yeast? If it's a good Belgian strain from White Labs or Wyeast, I'd consider raising the temp into the mid 70s for one week, then rack to secondary....

As I was just posting in another thread:

If you wanna do what a lot of Belgian brewers do with these beers, you pitch cooler, like in the low to mid 60s, then let the temp rise over the course of 4-5 days or so into the mid 70s to lower 80s depending on the yeast. A lot of the fusels and esters are generally produced early in the fermentation, so finishing warmer with these styles of beers isn't going to harm it. Again, depending on the yeast.

Its the wyeast 3787 trappist high gravity. It was two months old (something like 52% viability) so i made a two stage starter, it ended up being about 3/4 gallon, which i pitched in entirely.

will do sir, thanks for your advice!

giant_blob said:

Its the wyeast 3787 trappist high gravity. It was two months old (something like 52% viability) so i made a two stage starter, it ended up being about 3/4 gallon, which i pitched in entirely.

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2 months isn't very old for yeast. If you're gonna make a big starter like that, which is cool (and I do all the time), you might wanna try this: Make the starter 2 days earlier than usual. When it finishes up 48 hours or so before pitching, put it into the fridge and chill it for those two days. When brew day comes, pour out the liquid only (dump it in the sink), retaining the yeast slurry in the starter container. After chilling your beer that you brewed, siphon a half liter or liter into that starter container, swirl it up good to mix the yeast up and pitch that into your beer.

You make a starter to be good for the yeast, not to be good for the flavor. Diluting your tasty beer with that much starter just isn't a good idea in my opinion and this is very little extra effort. Just requires you to go a day or two earlier on your starter.

Hope this helps.

BTW, 3787 should be pretty good at warmer temps in the later part of the fermentation. I'd warm it up for a week myself.

update: bottled 4/18
after one month in bottles beer has begun to taste really good
it feels little watery/separated which i actually like, makes this a drinkable summer beer, and not as warming as i though the jaggerty would cause it to be. it is not fully carbonated yet, and is at almost 8% abv
the color is a great deep red from the saffron, a little cloudy right now but should settle out when i let it cool