WLP 500 Trappist Ale

Hello all,

brewed a 1.103 Gulden Draak clone purchased from AHS.

looking for people with experience with this yeast.

I searched and found that it took a little while to get going. Mine took about 18 hourse, so that was fine.

However, after 4 days, the krausen fell into the beer. Im just a little worried that it might be stuck. Im going to wait a few more days to take a reading, but anyone using this yeast ever have porblems with stuck fermentation? and should i be worried just becuase the krausen fell after 4 days?

I used a starter, 1L, two viles.

The 500 is a great yeast. It is the Chimay yeast and you will like the results. It likes to be fermented warm in the low to mid 70s. The last time I used it, I let it ferment for approx 4 weeks. It dried it out nicely. My OG wasn't as high as yours (1.084) but with enough time it should work well. You can always add another vial if you need to, I did that once 3 days prior to bottling following one of the books I read. The flavors and aromas that you will get in the beer will be amazing. It's one of my favorite yeast and I do use it often.

beerloaf

Not exactly the same, I know, but I recently brewed a belgian blonde/tripel at 1.071 using Wyeast 1214, which is also supposed to be Chimay derived yeast. I pitched one smackpack (purposely underpitching) but had no signs of life at 24 hours. I pitched a second at 24 hours and by day two it was huge. Anyway, had the same as you, 4 days of krausen, then fell. I left it for 4 more days after that and gravity was down to 1.012. I'd say it is fine and check gravity in a few days to make sure, but otherwise is probably still working.

You're fine op, but just curious what did your temp schedule look like for that brew?

house is around 70

I've used this yeast for every brew I've done this year. It is a slow starter, but usually around 36-48 hours, its going like crazy. Just because your krausen fell doesn't mean anything is wrong, trust your hydrometer. Take regular readings if you're concerned, but I'm sure you're fine.

I've been happy with it the few times I've used it so far. You're probably fine but break out the hydrometer if you can't help your bad self.

Just an update for other who find this thread with the same problem:

2 weeks in the primary i took a hydrometer reading:
1.021

wow this yeast is awesome, overshot the target by .005, and the smell is fantastic.

So if anyone else has this problem of a seemingly-stuck fermentation after a few days, no worries!