High Gravity Secondary? at 70' or 50'?

[5 Is Not Enough]

I've brewed a high gravity ale w/ WLP099 (super high gravity wyeast). I fermented it upstairs at 72', but I think I may let it clear in a secondary for a while.

I'm wondering, should I bother?
At what point do you say, yes this beer should age for a while before bottling?
At what point do you say, it will be aging long enough that I should use a secondary?
and
If so, upstairs at ~72'f or downstairs at ~52'f?

Edit: to clarify, it fermented from 1.110 down to 1.013. It's been about 3 weeks now.

 

[bradsul]

Wow that really fermented down!

If it were me I'd age that for 3-4 months in secondary (watch your airlock level!), add a couple grams of rehydrated dry yeast to the bottling bucket along with my priming sugar and then do another 6-8 months in the bottle.

As for your question, I generally make session beers but I age anything over 6% for at least a month in secondary before hitting the bottles. I don't know if it actually makes a difference but I have it stuck in my head that bulk conditioning is more beneficial than just bottle conditioning on it's down.

 

[Brewsmith]

Cooler would be better. You didn't need to use the super high gravity yeast on that beer. The regular CA yeast would have worked fine.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Wow, that fermented out very well. I'd want to age anything that high in gravity for 3-4 months in the 60's.

 

[5 Is Not Enough]

Wow that really fermented down!

Yeah no kidding! That WLP099 is some serious yeast!

Thanks. I figured it would be a good idea to let it age in the carboy. I think I'll definitely do that. I haven't verified that it's done fermenting, but I'll check after a couple days before I do rack off.

Is the 3-4 month an widely accepted time frame for bulk aging of a HG Ale like this?

 

[Brewsmith]

I doubt it's going to get any lower unless the fermentables were a lot of sugar.

 

[5 Is Not Enough]

Cooler would be better. You didn't need to use the super high gravity yeast on that beer. The regular CA yeast would have worked fine.

Really? Maybe I should dump some more concentrated wort in? Its supposed to do up to like 15%ABV... Is it too late?

 

[Brewsmith]

No, I'd leave it alone now. You are going to throw off the bitterness, and possibly cause the yeast to stall out on a late addition now. I wasn't trying to say that the yeast was a bad choice, just that it wasn't necessary. CA Ale yeast will get in that neighborhood easily if it's fresh and healthy. See here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=54773

 

[5 Is Not Enough]

So, is there anything wrong with taking it down to 50 something degrees?

 

[Brewsmith]

No, as long as it's done fermenting.

 

[Got Trub?]

In general cooler is better but even more important is stability. You would be better off conditioning in a place that stays steadily at 65F throughout the day and day to day then somewhere that averages 50F but varies by 5-10 degrees every day. In terms of how long I'd say something in the 1.100+ range could benefit from a year or more...

GT