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Excellent. I'll check next week after its had a little more time to finish. If the FG is too high I guess I can pitch another package to help it finish. Thanks for the input.

I'm concerned that I may have under pitched. This is a brewers best belgian tripel kit beer that only came with one packet of S-33 so I went ahead and pitched what it came with. OG was 1.094 which was .008 higher than the kit estimated. Fermentation was vigorous within a short time and looked...

It will probably take at least 3 months at room temp. I'm still waiting on my first to finish. The more alcohol the longer it takes. The higher alcohol makes the yeast work harder and they're already worn out from the fermentation. It's sort of like wine in the sense that they get better with...

I just brewed a Belgian tripel last night and was starting to research bottling options. I've done another big beer that is still not ready after more than 2 months do I'm hoping to shave a little time off this one. I usually leave mine at room temp around 80 and they seem to do fine. I think...

Sounds like a pain. Hopefully I never have to repitch. In the case of beer already in bottles would you just open all the bottles and use a dropper to add the yeast? I used a good yeast with high alcohol tolerance so everything should be alright.

Can someone explain repitching process? I never knew that was necessary for higher gravity beers and it sounds like I am in for a long wait on mine since I didn't repitch. I've heard of using champaign yeast for higher gravity brews, is that typical? How much yeast do you need to pitch?

I am having similar issues with my most recent bottles. OG was 1.087, FG about 1.014 and it's been in the bottle about a month with little carb. I tried it at two weeks and then again today and there is a difference in the amount of conditioning from the first bottle I opened. It's taking much...

Refractometers measure the sugar content and not the specific gravity although you can estimate the gravity using refractometer readings. They are good for use in your initial wort readings before fermentation since sugar content is what your looking for. When the sugar is eaten away and...

I did fly sparge. Did I say batch sparge? I agree no need to sparge for an hour with batch sparge.

I'm going to have to start using Beer Smith. Looking at their numbers it is more like what I was expecting to see and my results are way off in comparison. The color was off at more of an amber than a darker Belgian. It still tastes pretty good but is not what I expected. guess I'll have to wait...

I didn't transfer to secondary. Trying to get this one ready for an event at the end of the month.

I only have a 7 gallon brew pot so 6.5 gallons is about as much as I can boil right now. The boil may not have been very vigorous but is that important for anything other than boil off. It was a constant boil but I think if I were to get much more heat it would boil over. It will be awhile...

Bottling done with final gravity at 1.014! ABV about 8.9%. Not too shabby. With a few tweaks on the next batch I should be able to hit close to the estimated efficiency numbers. Thanks to everyone for the great input.

Belgian: 12.5 lbs Pilsen 1 lb caramunich 0.5 lbs biscuit 0.33 lbs aromatic 0.25 lbs special B 0.19 lbs chocolate 3 lbs candi sugar amber Hops: 1 oz northern brewer 90 min 1 oz styrian golding 15 min 1 oz hallertauer 15 min Yeast: WLP530 two vials with starter Mash 4.5 gallons 75 minutes at...

I'm thinking that my 1.055 estimation may be off since I took the 1.040 reading while the wort was quite hot at 140F. Should have cooled it down for a more accurate reading. Still, maybe I'm not off as much as I thought. I still left sugar that I could have gotten out of the grain if I had...

My OG ended up at about 1.082 so not too bad. I plan to get a refractometer to make it easier. Until then I'll cool it down more before taking the gravity readings.

So I checked the pre-boil gravity against two different software programs and both came out the same at 1.077. Then I took off the 3 lbs of candi sugar and the pre-boil gravity dropped to 1.056. WTH, shouldn't the pre-boil gravity be measured without the candi sugar since that is added during...

Actually, I have gained a lot of useful information from this post and the replies. I haven't had a chance to brew another batch yet but I have a lot of great information to improve my process. I'll post again when I have done another batch. BTW, I got my pre-boil numbers from the brew pal app...

Excellent information. This forum rocks. Thanks all.

Can someone explain whether to add the grain to water or water to grain when starting the mash? I've seen Palmer says to add water to the grain but no explanation why. I have a sense it has something to do with not thermally shocking the enzymes. I would like to know a little of the science...