Long fermentation w/ White 550

[dramirezpa]

Brewed this up, loosely based on a Mosher Recipe:

67% 7 0 Pilsner Liquid Extract 36 0 ~
10% 1 0 Briess Dextrine Malt 34 2 ~
10% 1 0 Piloncillo 46 10 ~
5% 0 8 Briess Caramel 20L 34 20 ~
5% 0 8 Briess White Wheat Malt 37 3 ~
5% 0 8 Briess Caramel 60L 34 60 ~
Batch size: 5.0 gallons

Saaz at 60, 30, 10. A little cascade and Coriander with a couple minutes left. Pinch of black pepper at flame out. Have homemade chantrelle mushroom and saffron extracts ready to add at bottling (if that turns out tasting as nice as I think it does).


Original Gravity
1.072

Partial Mash in cooler at 152*, Mash efficiency seemed low, Prob less than 50%. However, after boiling approx 4 gallons and adding water it ended up right on target gravity at 5 gallons.

Vigorous Fermentation at 24 hrs in a 6.5 gal carboy with blow-off. Krausen much "silkier" than batches with US-05 (I'm still pretty new at this, first time using a belgian) and peaked at about 2 inches thick. Stayed there for 9 days. Temps 68-73 throughout, almost always right around 70 though.

Now at day 10, Krausen has dropped to about 1/4-1/2 inch since last night. still bubbling about every 9 seconds (i know, i know......but I haven't wanted to disturb) and I am still seeing yeast moving up and down, although much slower than before. I've had oxidization problems with previous batches so I don't really want to disturb, but I am tepted to check gravity.

I'm thinking about not even opening it and foregoing secondary and leaving it on the yeast cake for a couple weeks after reading a lot on this forum.

Any advice? Is this long of an active ferment normal with a Belgian Strain? i don't have a 5 gallon carboy so I am worried about transferring to secondary and losing my CO2 blanket. Is there a good way to get a gravity reading without disturbing too much?

Thanks all, have been reading this forum for a while but this is first thread.

 

[bmick]

I'd wait a minimum of 2 more weeks until you do anything (although I know how terrible it is to wait). I think you'd be fine to leave in primary for a month then bottle. I've lost batches by poking and prodding them too much because I wasn't patient.

 

[AmandaK]

Any advice? Is this long of an active ferment normal with a Belgian Strain? i don't have a 5 gallon carboy so I am worried about transferring to secondary and losing my CO2 blanket.

10 days active? Fermentations are all different and weird, but 10 days is not out of the ordinary if you didn't make a starter or aerate properly or if it had a high OG (I suspect you did all three).

I'm thinking about not even opening it and foregoing secondary and leaving it on the yeast cake for a couple weeks after reading a lot on this forum.

Do this. Month in primary will do this one good. Only transfer to the secondary if you taste it and it's full of fusels, then bulk age it around 50* to calm those down a tad. If the sample tastes good, go ahead and bottle.

 

[dramirezpa]

Thanks guys. Guess i should just chill

Yes 10 days active. Did not make a starter (will next time but "trusted" White when they said that one room temp vial was good enough for 5 gallons. i had visible surface colonization next morning and a vigorous fermentation w/in 24 hours. It just was still going nuts at 9 days and now at ten still has some krausen and bubbling.

I do not stone aerate but do pay attention to aerating using more "brute force" methods during wart transfer and pre-pitch.

I like your "stats" Braufguss.

 

[beergolf]

Just let it sit for longer.

Some Belgian yeasts can take a a long time to get down the last few points.

I brew a lot of Belginas and usually let them sit for 5-6 weeks before I even check them.