Are Belgians Supposed to be Slow?

[MyCarHasAbs]

Got a basic Belgian style Blonde in Primary. Pitched Saturday night. The airlock is going but even after making a starter, this Abbey Belgian yeast is taking forever to get started. No krausen yet. Sitting in the chamber at 62F.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

There are a couple Belgian strains that are very slow starters. Since you have a nice temperature controlled enviroment and you are keeping it on the low side it will probably accenuate that characteristic if you selected one of the slow starter strains. They will take off eventually, they just need extra time. (some Belgians will take off in hours and blow up, others won't unless you hit them with a ton of heat)

 

[bransona]

I've seen these beers take off and go absolutely nuts with krausen, but anything is possible. Gravity reading?

The low temp may be your answer.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

I've seen these beers take off and go absolutely nuts with krausen, but anything is possible. Gravity reading?

The low temp may be your answer.

Missed my gravity mark by a little. 1.039.

 

[GHBWNY]

Depending on style and yeast used, generally-speaking, the bigger the beer, the longer the lag time. That said, it looks as if your ferm temp might be on the low side for this yeast. Most Belgian Abbey yeasts do best in the mid-60s to low-70s.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

Depending on style and yeast used, generally-speaking, the bigger the beer, the longer the lag time. That said, it looks as if your ferm temp might be on the low side for this yeast. Most Belgian Abbey yeasts do best in the mid-60s to low-70s.

Hmmm, alright; if it's still not making much progress by the time I get home I'll take it out of the chamber and hook the ferment wrapper up to it to warm it up.

 

[bransona]

Then I'll still just have to guess the temp is your answer, coupled with a slow starter. It's maybe unrelated, but if it makes you feel any better, I've got a dipa going right now that I KNOW I pitched enough US-05 into, but absolutely no krausen that I ever saw (maybe a tiny ring from one, can't tell), it's 48 hours since. It seems I've got a sleeper agent in my bucket, waiting for his activation word, but then again, maybe he's already silently done his job under the cover of night

 

[JonM]

Are Belgians slow? My friend Lars Van De Velde is pretty smart.

Oh wait. Nevermind

 

[GHBWNY]

Are Belgians slow? My friend Lars Van De Velde is pretty smart.

Oh wait. Nevermind

I still wouldn't believe anything he tells you. He might be one of those Belgian "Lars".

 

[secondbase]

Depending on your yeast, 62 could be too low. I typically start my Belgians around 66-68 and let them free rise.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

I think I remember seeing on the packet upper 60's, lower 70's and thought...."that can't be right, that just sounds too high".

 

[Spyk'd]

Your temp is too low. Most Belgian styles will start 65° or above and ramp up a couple of degrees each day; some Trappist ales finishing as high as 80° to develop esters and also finish fermenting the high gravities.


With a blonde, you probably aren't looking for all those wonderful Belgian esters, however, I'd still ramp up to around 67° and just see if it doesn't do a bit better.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

Update: krausen was formed at 63F but I went ahead and pulled it to setup the thermo wrapper and set the controller for 67

 

[specharka]

I had a similar situation happen on my Belgian DIPA (WY3522). Tried starting it at 64 ish and it was sluggish. Started humming after it hit 68 and I pulled it out of temp control after 72 hours. Still took 3 weeks to attenuate (1.080 -> 1.015), so it's not unheard of.

Belgian yeasts can handle warmth, but don't ramp up the temperature too quickly or you can risk yeast stall.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

*walks to closet, sets temp to 65, comes back to couch for skins game*

 

[specharka]

*walks to closet, sets temp to 65, comes back to couch for skins game*

lol

I meant ramping up more than like 10F in 24 hours. You should be totally fine at 67F.