Belgian Dark Strong Bottling Yeast?

[DSmith]

I'm considering brewing a big beer like a Belgian Dark Strong (BCS recipe, 1.103 OG) soon to test the limits of my mash tun. I'd make a starter, 4 week primary & bottle before a long storage.

I always chill and decant my starters. Is there a way to keep a portion of the starter viable for adding it to the bottling bucket to ensure carbonation with the original yeast?

Or is it better to not add yeast, or choose dry yeast (S-05) instead for bottling?

 

[Polboy]

i dont think you have to add more, 4 weeks is short primary so you will have a lot of yeast in suspension, i made belgian triple 2 months ago, 3weeks in primary, 2 weeks in 2ndary and cold crash for 3 days, after 2weeks in a bottle its beautifully carbonated, it wasnt as hight OG as yours but still have 9.3% ABV

 

[DannPM]

What is your estimated FG? If you're going above 12% ABV I'd recommend using something like Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast, aka Champagne yeast, to carb up because at that level you're approaching alcohol toxicity levels for even most Belgian strains.

 

[DSmith]

It's about 10.5% ABV for 77% attenuation. I've yet to brew this, but those #'s are according to the recipe if all goes well.

BCS seems to be written around long primaries and only secondary if stated. This recipe doesn't call for secondary so I assume he bottles with a long carbination/conditioning period. I've got Brew Like a Monk coming from my library and am interested in reading more about primary/secondary/bottling.

 

[theonetrueruss]

I did a 12% with WLP550 and WLP500 mix (big starter) and added a new vial of WLP550 (no starter) for bottling and it worked well. I did a 6 week primary and crashed for a week.. then it sat in a closet for another month before I got around to bottling in the 750ml corked bottles.

damn I need to chill one of those and drink it this weekend. They are close to 1 year old now and seem to keep getting better and better.

 

[DSmith]

I've been considering a 6 week primary, can crash it too. Did you crash and then raise the temperature, or move to another vessel? What size was the batch?

 

[beergolf]

I've been considering a 6 week primary, can crash it too. Did you crash and then raise the temperature, or move to another vessel? What size was the batch?

For a brew that big you may need even more than 6 weeks. Belgians can sometimes take a while to finish. I do 5-6 weeks for most of my Belgians but they were lower OG beers. Belgians also improve dramatically with bottle aging. Just be patient and try not to drink them too soon. One of the first Belgians I did was 1.087 OG. I left it for 5 weeks in the fermenter, then bottled. I put some in 12 oz bottles and some in 22 oz bottles. I drank up the 12 oz bottles pretty quickly and the beer was pretty good. I kind of forgot about the 22 oz bottles. After several months I opened one and it was a totally different beer.It has now been 10 months and I had one the other day....YUM. Now I am so pissed that I drank up so much of that batch early. Lesson learned.

You mentioned getting a copy of Brew Like a Monk. It is a good read if you intend to brew Belgians. Lots of good info in there.