is 2ndary needed for belgian strong ale?

i have a belgian gold strong ale (OG 1.079) finishing up fermentation 1.008 in primary. i have moved it to a cooler part of my basement (64 F) as the yeast is highly active and im tryin to put the breaks on a bit. WLP 545 did the trick in about a week @70 F. i mashed 90 minutes @ 148.
i have read a lot recently about skipping the secondary transfer as it is no longer a necessity with current yeast strains. my question is: can i let this baby sit in the primary for a month or two and then transfer to bottles and let age for another 3 + months? is there any need to even put it in a secondary?

John Palmer says put it in a secondary as long as you are comfortable with sanitize transfers.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter8-2-3.html

The section in the book talk about the bad things left after initial fermentation and the off flavors that can be produced if left on your trub for the conditioning period as well. I have no experience with that brew. I have done primary only and also secondary and gotten the same results.

You can leave it on the cake if you want.

thanks for the info. im just gonna let er sit I think.

I also calculated my yeast starter based on a total OG of 1.080. part of the total, 3 lbs candi sugar was added in two installments during day 3 & 5 of fermentation. I think this is why my yeast tore the pants off this one.

With that much yeast at the bottom of the fermenter I'd rack to a secondary to avoid autolysis. Especially if it's going to be setting there for more than a month.

heckels said:

With that much yeast at the bottom of the fermenter I'd rack to a secondary to avoid autolysis. Especially if it's going to be setting there for more than a month.

Click to expand...

I agree. While it's possible nothing bad would happen, there's really no point in leaving a beer in the primary for multiple months. It's not going to do anything that a secondary wouldn't do at that point. Plus, autolysis flavors could start developing, as you said.