Temperature ramping during fermentation (Belgian yeast)

[jdudek]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some details on what is the best way to ramp up temperature during fermentation. Specifically, i brew Belgian style pale beers (blondes and Trippels), usually with WLP500 or 530. The general advice given is to pitch at low temperature and let it rise... say from 67 to 75. I've not come across any info as to what's the best rate of change of said rise. Do you rise it fast then maintain, do you rise it slowly, do you just let the yeast rise the temp and help it along so it doesn't come back down?

So far I've been ramping temp linearly... pitching at 67-68 and increasing by 1 degree every 12 hours until i hit 75 where i let it finish for however long it takes. It's yielded good results as far as i can tell (good attenuation, nice flavors) but then again it's just my limited opinion with not much to compare against.

Thanks for any inputs you all may have!

 

[Brewmasher]

I don‘t follow that ideology, at least for home brew size batches. I like the esters that come from higher fermentation temps with Belgian yeast. I pitch high, and let it go higher. The specs that the labs give you are conservative at best. Find the pitching temp that gives you the flavor you like, and let it ride!

 

[govner1]

I like the way you’re doing it now. I follow a similar technique. For Belgian Pale ales I tend to keep it cooler because I prefer a cleaner taste. For Saisons I’ve let it get into the high 80’s

 

[thehaze]

I ferment warm with belgian yeast and I find it works best. If you want a restrained ester and phenolic profile in the beer, then you could ferment low-low, but you'll most likely get a very mild fruity character. Or get a cleaner yeast - an yeast that showcases a little bit of that belgian character, like T-58 ( dry ) or BE-256 ( dry ). Even these are much better when fermented between 74-78F.