High Gravity Fermentation and Bottling

[bmurph]

It probably exists but I haven't come across a discussion on quite what I'm looking for. Made my first foray into high gravity brews, made a Belgian strong/abbey ale with an OG of 1.082, and want to ensure it does well from here.

Is there an optimal primary/secondary schedule for bigger beers? Is it totally necessary to go to secondary if I don't have any additions? I want enough yeast to hang around to carbonate the thing, so is it easiest to just add a pack of dry yeast at bottling? Never had to do that before, is that going to add just a ton of sediment to the beer?

If anybody has a typical protocol for managing a high alcohol fermentation and bottle conditioning, that would be helpful.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

The type of yeast you are using is important, but honestly most ale yeasts can readily handle those levels. Then when you bottle condition sugar is so fermentable priming works fine. You may want to let it age in the fermentor an extra week and condition an extra week but other than that I wouldn't treat it much different than any other beer.

 

[madscientist451]

Secondary aging with high ABV brews is sometimes done to mellow out any "hot" alcohol notes. When its done fermenting, give it a taste to determine if you want to age it some before bottling.
I've made some Belgian beers that I didn't like at all when they were young, I chalked it up as a failure. But after 6-8 weeks the flavor improved and after several months they turned into really tasty beers, so don't be too quick to pass judgement if you don't like the taste.
Using the right amount of healthy yeast and a good aeration of your wort is very important if you want to avoid under attenuated beer.
Starting low, say 62F for a few days and then letting it free rise is a good practice. You want to avoid temperature swings that could cause the yeast to stall out.
When making big Belgians with a new (to me) yeast strain, I'll make a 2.5-3 gallon batch of 5% ABV beer and when its done, pitch that same yeast into the big beer.

 

[bmurph]

I used wyeast 1214, Belgian abbey, made a 2 L starter and think I aerated the wort pretty well, don't have a stone or anything. Also I don't have sophisticated temp control yet so I'm hoping the yeast are fine with ~72 F.

I guess I'll give it a taste after a few weeks and see where to go from there. If I do decide to go to secondary for a month or so, is that likely to change how easily it carbonates in bottles?