Fermentation Lag Time with Belgians

I think both temperature and under pitching could have caused the problem. How much yeast slurry did you use. According to http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html you should have used anywhere from 5-6 oz of slurry for a beer that big, assuming it was a 5 gallon batch.

To answer your question, the only way to know is if you produced a good beer or not is to wait and try it. Like you said, you made beer, but your questioning the quality. Only way is to taste and see. Remember, a belgian that big will take awhile until it mellows out.

AnOldUR said:

Brewed a 1.098 OG Belgian Dark Strong Ale this past Saturday with a couple of problems.

First, the plan was to make a starter on Friday, but I didn’t get to it, so I took a chance with half of a one week old slurry of WLP550 that wasn’t washed, just poured into a sanitized canning jar and refrigerated.

Next, the taped on remote thermometer I use to measure wort failed and I kept dropping the temperature in the fermenator. Before I realized the mistake I had a yeast that’s suppose to be kept between 68-78 degrees trying to work at 63 degrees.

It could have been under-pitching a high gravity wort or the temperature problem, but the result was about 50 hours of lag time, something I’m not use to. I know I made beer, it’s the quality that is questioned. I’ve read that some brewers under-pitch and under-aerate Belgians intentionally to produce a better ester profile. Any chance that my screw-ups could actually produce a superior beer?

Click to expand...

im going on 24 plus hours lag with the same yeast(no starter).is this normal

With no starter, it's not unlikely to see a day or two lag in a big beer. I dunno if your gravity is as high as the zombie thread's OP, but if it is then you want to be pitching about 3.5x as much yeast as is in one vial (or smack pack).