Conditioning High Gravity beer.....

I've searched the site and seen a few things but am curious how to handle my current High OG beer (1.076 at 68 degrees) My plan is to primary for 2 weeks secondary for 2 weeks and then bottle condition for at least 3 weeks. Is this reasonable? I've read several threads that mentioned yeast that failed to carbonate in the bottle due to high alcohol content and whipped yeast from too long of a secondary. This recipe is supposed to produce about 7.7 abv and is fermented from a healthy starter of wyeast 3333.

This is not a "to secondary or not to secondary" question. The idea of unsatisfactory bottle conditioning never even entered my mind. Is that even a concern for a 7.7 to 8.0 abv beer? If so, what is the best course of action?

Thanks,
Alan W

it's not a measure of time, it's a measure of attenuation. wait until you reach your target FG before you rack to secondary.

don't worry about leaving it too long, worry about leaving it not long enough. if you left it a month in the primary and then three weeks in the secondary, you'd be fine.

bottling...usually you'll reach the best taste at 6 weeks IMO. seeing as this is a wheat beer you should drink it within 4-10 weeks of bottling.

also, what kind of beer is it...what is your recipe? i see you used a wheat yeast, but what grains/extract did you use?

if it's a wheat beer...why are you using a secondary?

The main problem I have with condition my beer was solved by putting the bottles into boxes, wrapping them up with a LOT of duct tape and putting them at the back of my cellar!

I don't think 7.7% alcohol is enough to kill off the yeast, you should have enough live yeast left for bottle conditioning. If it is a wheat beer, I would do primary for about 2 weeks then go straight to bottles.

It's an Aventinus clone which is a German Wiezen Dopplebock made by Schneider and Sohn.

The recipe is:
9 oz 40L Crystal malt
1 oz Chocolate malt
4 oz German Melanoidin Malt
8 oz German Munich Malt
8.5 lbs Muntons Wheat DME
1 oz Hersbrucker 3.5 AA/ bittering
1/2 oz hersbrucker/ flavor
1 tsp Irish Moss

Wyeast 3333

I'm just trying to be patient and use the 1-2-3 method but I also thought that since this was a realtively high abv beer, that it might take additional aging.

Would you all recommend treating this like a typical Hefe-Weizen?

Will a higher gravity beer like this (1.076) ferment out as quickly as a typical 1.050 type beer? I know this is yeast and environment specific but if all things are equal will the yeast generally ferment the bigger beer in the same amount of time or will it take a lot longer?

This one's gonna be hard to wait on if it turns out. Of course if I don't wait on it, it won't turn out!

Thanks,
Al