Belgian Fermentation Temperature Question (cold garage)

[LymanBrewing]

I live in Michigan and have a Belgian IPA fermenting in my garage. I have the ability to control the temperature as my garage is currently 33 degrees. I pitched the yeast at 68, and have since pulled the temp up to 70. I pitched the yeast 24 hours ago.

I'm using WLP550 yeast, and want all the beautiful characteristics that Belgians are known for. If it was Spring/Summer, I would just pitch my yeast at 68 and let it free ride up to 77. However, the free ride up is not possible right now.

Everything I've read about Belgian fermentation temperature is rather nebulous (slowly bring up to 78 degrees).

My question is, what is slowly? A degree every 12 hours until you hit 77; then hold?

 

[LymanBrewing]

Bueller?

 

[mbobhat]

I just pitched wyeast belgian saison 3724 yesterday for a saison. I put set it at 70F, it was bubbling this morning and plan on keeping it there for a day and then bumping up 4-5 degrees a day for maybe the last half of fermentation. Mine is only 1.055 OG though, so you may want to hold yours longer because more sugar. I've read that it can get foamy if you ramp it too fast, especially with more sugars.

I guess it just depends on how much belgian character you want. You are doing the right thing on keeping it warm though as it will stall if the temp drops. If you want a lot of belgian character go up quicker.


I think if you did a degree every 12 hours you wouldn't get to 78. I personally would jump 4-5 degrees every day.

 

[LymanBrewing]

Perfect, thanks!

 

[mbobhat]

How's your fermentation going? I bumped mine up from 70 to 77 after 24 hrs from pitching. Then 12 hrs later up to 90. I didn't have any signs of blowoff and it seemed to be chugging away so I figured to go ahead and shoot for the top.

 

[LymanBrewing]

I didn't see active fermentation until after 24 hours. At that point I was still at 70.

I wanted to keep the temperature solid at 70 for 24 hours before I started raising the temperature. Last night I started my uptick in temperature, and was at 72 degrees this morning. I took the gravity reading, & I was at 1.013 already!

I have since increase the temperature to 76 degrees. We'll see where it goes.

 

[mbobhat]

I didn't see active fermentation until after 24 hours. At that point I was still at 70.

I wanted to keep the temperature solid at 70 for 24 hours before I started raising the temperature. Last night I started my uptick in temperature, and was at 72 degrees this morning. I took the gravity reading, & I was at 1.013 already!

I have since increase the temperature to 76 degrees. We'll see where it goes.

Awesome! I'm checking my gravity tonight. I didn't check it this morning (day 4) but last night it was pretty slow going on the airlock and I had to rouse the yeast a little. I think it is close at 90F if not done