Big Beer! Fermentation.... WOW

[opXus]

So I decided that I wanted to make a big beer. I have maybe 8 total batches under my belt. 1 of them extract, the last 7 being all grain. (yes im a beginner) The largest beer i made ended up around 6.5%. (sorry I forget the OG). I wanted something big so 11/10 I brewed up a nice belgian tripel with an OG of 1.088. This morning I woke up like a kid on Christmas and looked in the closet where it is fermenting. Nice krausen and its bubbling away.

Tonight it is going nuts. I find myself opening the closet door just to watch the amazing process called fermentation. Am I the only one amazed by this, to the point where I may just watch the bubbling from the blow off tube and watching all the yeast/trub floating up and down in the beer?

I am absolutely amazed by the big beer fermentation! Sorry, this might be a very NOOBISH post!

Thanks for all the good info and ideas etc from this forums members! I find homebrewers are almost all friendly and VERY helpful!

:rockin:

 

[LoloMT7]

Agreed Fermentation Rocks I love watching too! I just took a gravity reading of my Honey Tripel tonight my OG was also 1.088 and the reading tonight was 1.010 so I'm a bit higher then I wanted to be at 10.25% now but it should mellow out Cheers

 

[flars]

So I decided that I wanted to make a big beer. I have maybe 8 total batches under my belt. 1 of them extract, the last 7 being all grain. (yes im a beginner) The largest beer i made ended up around 6.5%. (sorry I forget the OG). I wanted something big so 11/10 I brewed up a nice belgian tripel with an OG of 1.088. This morning I woke up like a kid on Christmas and looked in the closet where it is fermenting. Nice krausen and its bubbling away.

Tonight it is going nuts. I find myself opening the closet door just to watch the amazing process called fermentation. Am I the only one amazed by this, to the point where I may just watch the bubbling from the blow off tube and watching all the yeast/trub floating up and down in the beer?

I am absolutely amazed by the big beer fermentation! Sorry, this might be a very NOOBISH post!

Thanks for all the good info and ideas etc from this forums members! I find homebrewers are almost all friendly and VERY helpful!

:rockin:

An aggressive fermentation is often because the wort temperature is to high. Ferment temperatures that are to high will produce off flavors and fusel alcohols. Fusels will make the beer undrinkable. Fermentation produces heat. In a big beer like yours I would guess wort temperature has risen 8° to 10° above ambient temperature.

Seems you could use a swamp cooler to get the wort temp down. Might not be to late even though most flavors are set in the first 24 hours.

 

[NivekD]

Agree with the above but...watching a fermenting beer can be mesmerizing.

 

[opXus]

An aggressive fermentation is often because the wort temperature is to high. Ferment temperatures that are to high will produce off flavors and fusel alcohols. Fusels will make the beer undrinkable. Fermentation produces heat. In a big beer like yours I would guess wort temperature has risen 8° to 10° above ambient temperature.

Seems you could use a swamp cooler to get the wort temp down. Might not be to late even though most flavors are set in the first 24 hours.

Flars: the yeast I used is Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity. They say the temperature range is 64-78 degrees. The ambient in the area where the beer is fermenting is about 66 degrees. Assuming 8-10 degrees that puts temps about 74-76. Do you think there will be a lot of fusels with this still? I hope its not undrinkable. As im very excited about this beer.

Sorry, as stated I'm still new at all this.

 

[flars]

It is often best to ferment at the lower end of the yeasts range to prevent off flavors. You might be okay. It would be safer to bring the temp down a few degrees.

 

[opXus]

It is often best to ferment at the lower end of the yeasts range to prevent off flavors. You might be okay. It would be safer to bring the temp down a few degrees.

Got ya, thanks for the input!

 

[LoloMT7]

It is often best to ferment at the lower end of the yeasts range to prevent off flavors. You might be okay. It would be safer to bring the temp down a few degrees.

I have had great experience with 3787 up at the higher temps. If you cool it down now you just chance putting your yeast to sleep before they finish the job imo. If we were talking about an american ale yeast I'd agree that you need to keep it cooler but with 3787 I wouldn't worry about it I'm sure it's going to turn out great.

 

[SavoryChef]

I ferment my Belgians about 75 without any problems.

 

[opXus]

Thanks for the reassurance. I have a love/hate relationship with the feeling of not knowing how it turns out till its bottled. haha.

 

[bierandbikes]

I just bottled a pumpkin ale fermented with trappist yeast. The ambient temp was 67 and the fermenter temp was 81 at maximum fermentation! Huge difference. I have not tasted the finished product but the sample at bottling was nice. I think the Belgian yeasts tend to tolerate and even like much higher temps. Don't worry...