When to rack Belgian Tripel to secondary

This is my first high gravity brew and I'm pretty sure it's my best brew performance thus far (~10 batches, 2nd partial mash). It's been in the primary 2 weeks and I'm pretty sure it's finished, but there is still a layer of medium sized bubbles ~ 1/4" thick on top.
A little more info:
OG 1.077 (recipe 1.075) on 4/17/11
Current G 1.015 (recipe 1.017) on 5/1/11
77% attenuation, WLP530 with 4L stepped-up starter, decanted

I'm assuming these are just CO2 bubbles, but being my first tripel I wasn't quite sure. My question is should I go ahead an rack to secondary, or is there some benefit to waiting for the bubbles to dissipate? I'd really like to get into secondary sooner rather than later....

I'd definitely leave it as-is until you see activity subside. With high-gravity brews, and (in my experience) belgian yeasts in particular, it can take a while for primary fermentation to subside. Is there a reason to rush into the secondary? Unless you're racking onto fruit or dryhopping, let it be until it's done; otherwise you just run into greater risk of oxidation or contamination .

I did a belgian trippel and had a thick layer of small creamy white bubbles on top even after 14 days of primary. I racked to secondary and the thing took off again and went crazy. After a month of secondary I still had the bubbles right up to six weeks of secondary and bottled with the bubbles on top. It carbonated quickly but the first ones tasted real green and the flavors had not blended well. They have been in fridge now for three months and they taste incredible. My abv was 9%. If you are in this range I would just wait till the beer clears. You will have a better tasting belgian for the patients

The Belgian that I did recently continued to ferment for 3 full weeks before it slowed down. I left it in the primary for 6 weeks.

No need to rush a big beer. I have found that leaving them longer in the primary results in beers that taste better sooner. I still am in no rush to taste mine. It has been bottled for 2 weeks now and I plan on waiting at least another 2 weeks before even tasting one. The sample I tasted at bottling was great.

Patience will be rewarded.

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm in no rush, but don't want to let it sit needlessly in primary. It sounds like an additional week or two will do it some good.

"Needlessly" is a bit subjective here; I'd argue that you don't want to "needlessly" move it to a secondary vessel when sitting on the yeast cake longer will serve it well. But I'm treading dangerously close to awakening the "secondary vs. no secondary" debate again, so we can just leave well enough alone. Good luck!

smagee said:

"Needlessly" is a bit subjective here; I'd argue that you don't want to "needlessly" move it to a secondary vessel when sitting on the yeast cake longer will serve it well.

Click to expand...

+1 to that. No need to secondary man....