how long to ferment a belgian golden ale

[richwyso]

Hello Everyone!

So I went to the local brew store to do a recipe but didnt feel quite comfortable in asking for a lot of things because i didn't know half of the stuff that was on there. I asked the guy but he was by himself and the other guy was doing a demonstration on extract brewing for a bunch of guys so it was pretty chaotic. I looked around and saw a lot of different bins with a lot of different grains and ingredients etc etc so I didn't want to look stupid just staring at all the bins (ha) so I decided to buy a beer smith kit off the shelf which was like 60 bones but whatever i had my dog in the car and had to get going. Luckily i have done a couple of batches so i knew what to do but those instructions suck. Any who, my question is how long should a regular belgian ferment for. I know you take the SG to find out when its not changing anymore, but how long should i ferment it for on an average?

Here is the recipe
6lbs breiss light dme
2lbs golden belgian candi syrup
1lb soft candi sugar

hops
2oz williamette

.5 oz mt hood aroma

yeast
danstar bell saisson

Thanks everyone for your help!! It smells great right now in the room

 

[brewmax25]

It's really all going to depend on several factors but the best thing to do is check the gravity after about a week or ten days. Take the gravity for several days or until you get the same reading twice. When you get a repeat reading the beer is done fermenting. I like to let my beers rest for a full day after that before doing anything to them.

You are using a lot of fermentables in this beer so I'm sure you had a high SG. You may want to consider racking to secondary to let it mellow for a bit before packaging.

JC. What was the SG?

 

[richwyso]

hmm i thought my reply post had come through but i dont think it did. It read at 1.047.. would that be near normal for that belgian beer? I am work right now, but I thought it would be around 1.080. Is it ok to open the fermentating beer for a minute to siphon some out to get a reading again?

 

[beergolf]

6 lbs DME and 3 lbs sugar should get you about 1.080. Was this a partial boil with top off water? If so the top off water and wort were not fully mixed and you got a false reading. With extract it is virtually impossible to miss OG unless your volumes are waaaaaay off.

Let it go for a few more weeks before you check the gravity again. That yeast is a new yeast that not many have experience with, but usually with a beer that big you will need several weeks for it to ferment out and clean up.

I usually let Belgians that big go 4-8 weeks.

 

[Demus]

hmm i thought my reply post had come through but i dont think it did. It read at 1.047.. would that be near normal for that belgian beer? I am work right now, but I thought it would be around 1.080. Is it ok to open the fermentating beer for a minute to siphon some out to get a reading again?

Don't take this the wrong way, but you should have bought a book on brewing. There are many out there, "How to Brew" by Palmer is a good place to start. I've got at least 6 books on brewing...

There is no "normal" for a Belgian; their beers span a very wide spectrum. I'd try not to predict fermentation times. I guess it's good to have an idea, but having a certain number of days in mind rather than paying attention of the actual fermentation will probably miss the mark every time. There are just too many variables at play. "When in doubt, give it another week" has been my policy since graduating from "follow the instructions" crowd. In my experience, the more knowledge you gain the better your beer will be. I used to make a decent batch here and there, with a lot of mediocre in between until I started reading more. Now I've been urged to enter competitions by friends and a former AHA judge. This forum is an awesome resource but you need a solid foundation to start...

 

[richwyso]

6 lbs DME and 3 lbs sugar should get you about 1.080. Was this a partial boil with top off water? If so the top off water and wort were not fully mixed and you got a false reading. With extract it is virtually impossible to miss OG unless your volumes are waaaaaay off.

Let it go for a few more weeks before you check the gravity again. That yeast is a new yeast that not many have experience with, but usually with a beer that big you will need several weeks for it to ferment out and clean up.

I usually let Belgians that big go 4-8 weeks.

Yes it was a partial boil with top off water. I thought i had mixed it pretty good going back and forth between the buckets but i must have not mixed enough. Thanks for that and ill wait for a while now to check it again.

 

[richwyso]

Don't take this the wrong way, but you should have bought a book on brewing. There are many out there, "How to Brew" by Palmer is a good place to start. I've got at least 6 books on brewing...

There is no "normal" for a Belgian; their beers span a very wide spectrum. I'd try not to predict fermentation times. I guess it's good to have an idea, but having a certain number of days in mind rather than paying attention of the actual fermentation will probably miss the mark every time. There are just too many variables at play. "When in doubt, give it another week" has been my policy since graduating from "follow the instructions" crowd. In my experience, the more knowledge you gain the better your beer will be. I used to make a decent batch here and there, with a lot of mediocre in between until I started reading more. Now I've been urged to enter competitions by friends and a former AHA judge. This forum is an awesome resource but you need a solid foundation to start...

Funny you should say this.. I read how to brew by palmer and went back to it numerous times after reading it and then while I was brewing. This book got me really excited for it. I even took notes on the laptop until then i realized his entire boook is basically online ha! I felt prepped and good to go but then I just think you need to just jump into it and learn from your mistakes and ask questions. This place is great for it. I dont mind going to the brew shop but there is one guy that always works that is always a jerk and makes you feel like an idiot for asking questions so this place makes it a lot easier for that.

 

[Demus]

Funny you should say this.. I read how to brew by palmer and went back to it numerous times after reading it and then while I was brewing. This book got me really excited for it. I even took notes on the laptop until then i realized his entire boook is basically online ha! I felt prepped and good to go but then I just think you need to just jump into it and learn from your mistakes and ask questions. This place is great for it. I dont mind going to the brew shop but there is one guy that always works that is always a jerk and makes you feel like an idiot for asking questions so this place makes it a lot easier for that.

That's a brew shop that doesn't deserve your business!!! With all the online retailers out there these days that type of behavior from a shop baffles me. The one shop here in Orlando (Heart's Homebrew)has a pretty surly guy in there too. I order almost exclusively on line now with no regret of not supporting the local business . I miss Strange Brew in Marlboro Mass. Great guys, very helpful and they have samples on draft!!! Now there was a place I didn't mind spending a few percent over online prices!!!

By the way, check out "Yeast" by Chris White. No single book made a bigger difference in my brewing...