Suggestions for my High Gravity Belgian

I'm looking for suggestions on how long to keep this in the primary. It has been 2 weeks in the primary, and the gravity is holding steady at 1.020, which I expected. I've read a bit about leaving in the primary longer, but I'm unsure of the benefit/risk in doing so while the fermentation has complete. I do plan to move this to a secondary before bottling.

The beer:

--Mini mash--
8 oz. Belgian aromatic
8 oz. Belgian biscuit
8 oz. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils)
1 lb. Belgian CaraMunich
8 oz. Belgian Special B

--Boil--
6 lb. Amber dry malt extract
2 lb. 8 oz. Light dry malt extract
1 oz. Styrian Goldings (60 min.)
1 oz. Saaz (15 min.)
2tbsp Coriander (5 min.)

--Yeast--
WL500 w/ 1.5 qt starter

--After 3 days in primary--
1 lb. Belgian candi sugar (simple sugar w/ 2 cups of water)

OG was 1.083, sugar added .08 to bring this to 1.091.

I'd leave it in the primary for a month, then secondary/bulk condition for another 2-4 months.

My plan was 4 week primary, I was just getting worried about the fermentation being complete and leaving it in there for too long w/ the muck

Get rid of that Amber DME. If you are mashing/steeping grains, there is never any point in using anything but light or extra light extract.

4 weeks in primary for sure, no worries about off flavors. 2-6 months in secondary. Reyeast with T-58 if/when you bottle.

bknifefight said:

Get rid of that Amber DME. If you are mashing/steeping grains, there is never any point in using anything but light or extra light extract.

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I'll just remove the Amber DME from my primary

In all honestly I was going to use Light, but LHB guy suggested the amber. Next batch will be altered for sure. Thx.

Gregscsu said:

Reyeast with T-58 if/when you bottle.

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Could you expand on this? I'm not familiar with reyeasting at bottle phase. Would I still use 3/4 cup of corn sugar? Should I mix the sugar, yeast, and water for bottling phase? Pull package of yeast?

I'm not looking for crazy carbonation...are you familar with Weyerbocker beers? Most of their HG beers are light on carbonation IMO. Merry Monks in particular is what I think my beer is going to turn out similar to? (darker of course)

In reading about this, it seems enticing, so I'm very interested. This is only my 2nd brew...I realize I'm biting off a lot, but I'd like to learn from the brew to make better as my brews continue.

That is a pretty big beer. I would leave it in the primary for 6 weeks or so. I brew a lot of Belgians and almost always give them 5-6 weeks in the primary. Then it will take some time to bottle condition. Belgians are much different than most brews and they really do improve A LOT with age. For a brew with that OG it will need months not weeks to age. I have never re-yeasted and have not had any problem with the beer not carbing up.

The first Belgian that I brewed, I bottled after 5 weeks. I put half the batch in 12oz bottles and half the batch in 22oz bottle. I drank the 12's up fairly quickly, starting at about 4 weeks in bottles. They were good. I kind of forgot about the 22 oz bottles for several months. When I tasted one after about 3 months in the bottle I was pissed that I drank up the 12 oz bottle so fast. The beer was soooo much better with some age. The beer continues to age nicely. Lesson learned.

Thanks for the info. Does anyone have any further info about re-yeasting at bottle time. I'd like to consider this option for part of my batch. Thanks. Bottling day is within the next few weeks.

Thx foe the tips everyone. It has been about 7 months since brew day and I cracked one just a week ago. This turned out very good, on the verge of awesome. Very smooth for 10%, clean, and refreshing. I went with champagne yeast 2 days prior to bottling per hbs advice which nicely helped speed up carbonation and reactivate my yeast.

Next time I'll take it easy on the mash and concentrate on 1 or 2. Also, light dme as well.