First Big Beer / Interesting Instructions

I'm brewing a extract clone of a Belgian Tripel from my LHBS. At 9%, it's the biggest beer I've brewed so far. I followed the instructions, hit my OG, and pitched a Wyeast Activator pack (seasonal belgian yeast) and it has been bubbling like crazy for a few days now. So far, so good...

Here's where the process deviates from what I'm used to... It says to leave in the primary for 7 days and then rack to the secondary for 4-5 weeks. (I would assume I'd want to leave such a big beer in the primary for a longer period of time. Any reason to get it out of the primary so fast?)

It then says to pitch a Propigator pack (same Belgian yeast, no starter) 3 days prior to bottleing. Then prime and bottle as usual. Thought that was strange as well. Any comments?

The timing is more of a guideline. I would personally leave it in primary for at least two weeks. Pitching additional yeast before bottling is common with big beers. The original yeast will be pretty damn pooped, so having fresh yeast will help with bottle conditioning.

flaminpi3 said:

The timing is more of a guideline. I would personally leave it in primary for at least two weeks. Pitching additional yeast before bottling is common with big beers. The original yeast will be pretty damn pooped, so having fresh yeast will help with bottle conditioning.

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Ok, makes sense. I definitely think I'll leave it in the primary for a second week.

I've just used chamapne yeast for conditioning, seems to work fine. Doesn't seem like there would be much benefit for the expense of buying a smack pack just for conditioning. I think the initial fermentation determines the character of the beer, right?

THart said:

I think the initial fermentation determines the character of the beer, right?

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That's probably correct, although the best alternative to buying a propagator would be to make a starter and put aside a portion of it for bottling.

Thanks for the pointers. I have a Wheat Wine going on 2 months right now and was wondering what to do about the yeast for bottling.

Would adding Champagne yeast possibly ferment some of the sugars my original S-04 (maybe it was s-05... don't have my log in front of me) could not get to? I have more of whichever s-0X yeast I used, so I will probably try that, but just for future reference.

Thanks.. glad I happened along to this thread.

Leaving it in the primary is a good idea. I would be concerned about adding champagne yeast to finish it... It ferments bone dry, and 9% alcohol is nothing to champagne yeast -- any residual sugars it can find will be fermented. It might take off and give you bottle bombs, it might not.

I'm also not sold on adding fresh (and expensive) yeast just to bottle, even after it has been in the secondary for a while. Your fermentation produced an enormous amount of yeast that has gradually been acclimated to the increasingly alcoholic environment. A good amount of that yeast will fall out during the secondary; if it were me, I would simply make sure you get a bit of yeast swirled up on its way to the bottling bucket and proceed as usual.

flaminpi3 said:

That's probably correct, although the best alternative to buying a propagator would be to make a starter and put aside a portion of it for bottling.

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How would you split the starter and store a portion?

I am about to brew a chimay bleu clone which calls for yeast to be added 3 days before bottling. My plan was to create a 2L starter from 1 wlp500 vile, pitch 3/4 of this for primary and save the remaining 1/4 for the last phase.

I have a worry of pitching too much yeast at the bottling phase as I have read that this can cause bottles to explode.

With regards to splitting the starter would this work: Create 2L starter, leave to ferment for 24-48 hours, when fermentation complete carefully remove liquid from top leaving pure yeast (cake?), use 3/4 in primary fermentation,
store remaining 1/4 of yeast (cake?) in sterilised container eg original wlp500 vile.

Sorry if this is a threadjack.

Many thanks, Andrew

axp said:

Create 2L starter, leave to ferment for 24-48 hours, when fermentation complete carefully remove liquid from top leaving pure yeast (cake?), use 3/4 in primary fermentation,
store remaining 1/4 of yeast (cake?) in sterilised container eg original wlp500 vile.

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That will work just fine. Be sure to leave a decent amount of liquid behind so you can swirl up all of the yeast. Also, don't worry too much about over pitching during bottling. Bottle bombs are caused by using too much priming sugar. The amount of sugar will will determine your volumes of CO2.