Question re: High ABV Belgian and intense fermentation

Greetings everyone!

I've been following this site for months and have learned a great deal from everyone regarding tips and tricks for homebrewing. I'm currently on my sixth extract batch and it's by far the most difficult, I've got the Belgian Abt 12 (10.5% ABV) from Austin Homebrew and also picked up the 1% Alcohol Boost. I plan on getting pretty loopy.

Knowing the fermentation will be ridiculous, I made my first attempt using a blow-off tube going into about 12 oz of water in a 60 oz glass.

I live in Chicago and we've recently experienced a mini-heat wave. The temperature in my apt is up to 83 F and the beer is currently at 80 F, and I have a good feeling it's not going to go up. I came home from work today and the glass has about 30 oz of liquid now with a vigorous fermentation. It's been going strong for about 6 hours now with no signs of letting up and I'm wondering if the temperature is too high, which could contribute to the over-active fermentation. Or...is this expected with such a high ABV brew?

There's a basement in my apt that stays at a cool 70 F and I could move it down there if need be. Any tips would be most appreciated!

you are going to get a lot of phenolic flavors produced in that hot of a fermentation. Keep in mind that if your ambeint temp is 80, the beer is fermenting at the very least 5 degrees warmer. Move it down to 70 area in the basement is what i would do but some belgian beers do better warmer and i havent had the chance to try abt 12 so id ont know. GOOD LUCK

Thanks Scinerd, my bedroom is being kept at 68 F so I just moved the fermenter there (after receiving approval from my lady) instead of dragging it down to the basement.

Very interested to see what you do with your Elvis Brew!

It's a belgian beer, with belgian yeasts...google the temp range of the yeast you are using...Most of them NEED high fermentation temps to get the signiture Belgian funkiness, they are known for....Some yeast you want to ferment in the 90's.

That's why certain Belgian beers are brewed in early summer, when ambient temps are in the 80's, or higher.

Sunday Ibrewed a Belgian saison, that I did not turned on the air for the first three days til last night (when it was in the 90's) my apartment was 88 at 8pm when I got home.

The airlock was churning for 3 days straight.

Yesterday was the day that I added a pound of candi syrup to it....When I opened the bucket, the krausen was GONE....and it smelled delightfully funky, and exactly like the Saison Du Pont I was trying to clone...

I added the sugar, pressed down on the bucket to void any o2 before putting the airlock back on, and a half hour after the airlock was back on, it was churning furiously away again all night.

Most Belgians have some candi in them and you added dextrose. Both simple sugars that ferment rapidly.

scinerd3000 said:

you are going to get a lot of phenolic flavors produced in that hot of a fermentation. Keep in mind that if your ambeint temp is 80, the beer is fermenting at the very least 5 degrees warmer. Move it down to 70 area in the basement is what i would do but some belgian beers do better warmer and i havent had the chance to try abt 12 so id ont know. GOOD LUCK

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Due respect, but this is bad advice IMO. Belgian yeasts have a tendency to crash if you screw with their fermentation temp. Best to start 'em cool and let them run away.

I did a Westvleteren 12 clone a few weeks back that went gangbusters until a damn cold front came through and temps in the house dropped into the 60s. Airlock stopped cold overnight at a gravity of 1.050. It's since taken 3 more weeks to just reach 1.020...

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm using White Labs Trappist WLP500, and the optimal temp range is 65 F to 72 F, so I'm glad that I transferred into my air conditioned room. It took a while to get started, but since it started yesterday it has showed no signs of slowing down. I'm hoping that there are no off-flavors as a result of changing temperature rooms, but too late now, will plan on leaving it in the bedroom. And yes, I used about 1 1/2 lbs of dark Belgian candi with the dextrose.

As I mentioned before, I started off with roughly 12 oz of water in a 60 oz glass and have a blow-off tube going from the fermenter to the glass. When I got home from work yesterday, the glass was about half full. When I woke up this morning, there were only about 2-4 oz added. This is my first foray into using a blow-off tube, is this addition of beer water (it looks like beer and smells alcoholic) to be expected? Sorry for such a n00b question.

adslania said:

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm using White Labs Trappist WLP500, and the optimal temp range is 65 F to 72 F, so I'm glad that I transferred into my air conditioned room. It took a while to get started, but since it started yesterday it has showed no signs of slowing down. I'm hoping that there are no off-flavors as a result of changing temperature rooms, but too late now, will plan on leaving it in the bedroom. And yes, I used about 1 1/2 lbs of dark Belgian candi with the dextrose.

As I mentioned before, I started off with roughly 12 oz of water in a 60 oz glass and have a blow-off tube going from the fermenter to the glass. When I got home from work yesterday, the glass was about half full. When I woke up this morning, there were only about 2-4 oz added. This is my first foray into using a blow-off tube, is this addition of beer water (it looks like beer and smells alcoholic) to be expected? Sorry for such a n00b question.

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I don't fully agree with the temperature range that White Labs has posted, and I doubt many follow that to the letter. Unfortunately, you're sort of doing things backwards with this beer. With Belgian yeast, you want to start cool and ramp higher. I think at this point, moving it does you no good. You'll likely stall your fermentation, and any esters that would be produced would have shown up during that first phase of explosive fermentation. This will be a banana bomb of a beer, I'm thinking.

The blow off tube is just pushing yeast and some of your wort into the glass. Totally expected.

jkarp said:

Due respect, but this is bad advice IMO. Belgian yeasts have a tendency to crash if you screw with their fermentation temp. Best to start 'em cool and let them run away.

I did a Westvleteren 12 clone a few weeks back that went gangbusters until a damn cold front came through and temps in the house dropped into the 60s. Airlock stopped cold overnight at a gravity of 1.050. It's since taken 3 more weeks to just reach 1.020...

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jkarp-i hear you but from my experience and the mad temperature swings i get in my house i have to try and keep the beer at a constant temp. I did a belgian with a mix of saison and wlp500 yeast and at one point my house warmed up to about mid 80's. I ended up getting alot of fusel alcohols which took forever to fade...i deffinitly wont make that mistake again. and i totally have your delirium tremins clone on my to do list...maybe ill try unregulated temp again and see if it pans out.

carnevoodoo said:

I don't fully agree with the temperature range that White Labs has posted, and I doubt many follow that to the letter. Unfortunately, you're sort of doing things backwards with this beer. With Belgian yeast, you want to start cool and ramp higher. I think at this point, moving it does you no good. You'll likely stall your fermentation, and any esters that would be produced would have shown up during that first phase of explosive fermentation. This will be a banana bomb of a beer, I'm thinking.

The blow off tube is just pushing yeast and some of your wort into the glass. Totally expected.

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Well, I got home from work today and saw that the temperature did not change much, only by about 2 degrees F. As a result, I decided just to shift it back to the closet where it should warm up back to 80 F my tomorrow. Unfortunately the blow-off tube found its way outside of the water, I'm hoping it wasn't out for too long. I put it back in and the fermentation was going just like it did yesterday, so I'm hoping it'll be OK.

Live and learn I guess! Will keep these tips in mind the next time I attempt this one.

You'll be fine with the blow off being out of the water. c02 is being pushed out of that tube, and I doubt much would try to get in.

Good to know!