Proper fermentation temps

This coming weekend I am planning on brewing a Belgian Strong Ale and a Weiss beer. Does anyone know of a list of fermentation temps for the different styles/yeasts? I have never done a Belgian before and am not sure about the correct temp. I found one place stating 65 degrees and another said between 70-75. Any help would be appreciated.

I'd need more info but I'd say in general, the Belgian would be 70-80F and the weiss would be 65-70F...

When I get a chance later tonight I can post the recipes if that helps.

Belgian Strong Ale

Type: Extract w/grain
Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.093
FG: 1.012
Alcohol: 10.4%

Grain:
2/3 lb. American crystal 60L
2/3 lb. Belgian CaraMunich
1/16 lb. Belgian chocolate
Boil: SG 1.154 3 gallons
12 lb. Light malt extract

Yeast:
1214

Hops:
1 oz. Nugget, 50 min.
1 oz. Perle, 15 min.
2 oz. Fuggles aroma



This was given to me by the LHBS, I hope I got the grains right, his writing was pretty bad. Am I being to particular, do I really need to be worrying about the correct temp as long as I am around 70. A fellow HB told me today that he only worried about temp if it were a lager or trying to reproduce a clone.

Grain bill looks good, but I wouldn't add any aroma hops, there will be lots of esters and phenols from the yeast you don't need hop aroma. I would pitch the yeast at around 65F and allow it to rise during fermentation to around 76-78F. It's important to pitch on the cooler side because you want the yeast to grow without creating too many esters and fusels, this will give the beer a balance between maltiness and yeast derived flavors/aromas.

Thanks Iordz, that is some really helpful information. This is my first Belgian and I really want it to work. As for fermentation time what am I looking at; Primary 2 weeks, Secondary 4 weeks, bottles 2 months ???? Also at bottling time should I pitch more yeast or should I use a priming sugar?

You can use priming sugar like any regular beer. You might want to add a little bit of yeast, only because the beer is strong and the alcohol might kill the yeast. Just remember to add a little bit of yeast, you can use ale, lager or Belgian yeast. I like to use clean dry ale yeast because it's cheap and won't add any esters or flavors.

about the belgian.

me personally, i'd let it sit in primary for about a month, then rack it and forget it in a cool basement corner till mid june. then bottle it and forget about it till mid-september(when football starts) at least.

But you know that most brewers in Belgium have a very short primary, from 8-14 days. Personally, I would let the beer reach terminal gravity before racking. Also there seems to be a very important ingredient missing from your recipe, sugar! You can use from 5-15% corn sugar without adverse affects.

Uh Oh, a missing ingredient!!!
The LHBS guy was more interested in his breakfast than putting together a recipe for me. Please elaborate, brew day is Friday. I would hate to wait almost a year before drinking this to find out that it tastes awful because I forgot an ingredient. When I was entering the recipe into a calculator I too thought, where is the sugar? But me being relativley new I didn't want to second guess my LHBS. In the past my brews have been phenomial from him.

you don't have to wait a year mate. it is just what i would do with a beer of that high a potential gravity.

you can make candi sugar real easy. follow the link in o'flannigan's sig. it's in the brewing wiki. real simple.

I saw that thread for candi sugar, sounds pretty easy. What is the added bonus of adding the sugar. Is there a reason that the LHBS left out the sugar when he packed all the ingredients for me?

Info about the yeast you're using: http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=127

Origin:
Flocculation: medium-low
Attenuation: 73-77%
Temperature Range: 68-78° F (20-24° C)
Alcohol Tolerance: approximately 9% ABV

I'd say shoot for the middle of the temp range, then tweak it next time depending on how it tastes.

For a Belgian, what I've heard and what I did with my Dark Strong (well, not so strong) was to start out relatively cool (67°-68°) like with any other ale, then let it ramp up as fermentation progressed. If you start too high, you get a lot of fusel alcohols, which shouldn't really be in any beer. After the yeast is established, you can raise the temp without worrying too much about fusels, and the higher temps promote attenuation. Mine actually attenuated more than I would have liked (92%), but it tastes pretty damn good!

certian belgian ales use the candi sugar, to add fermentables, but not make it a real thick/sweet beer.