Low yeast character in dark belgians

[GurraG]

When I brew pale belgian beers I always get a nice yeast character. I usually use wlp500 and pitch the yeast at around 65 Fahrenheit and ramp the temp up to the mid 70's or so over the course of a week.
However, when making dark belgians using the same yeast and fermentation schedule I seem to get much less yeast character. I suppose it is masked by the flavor of the candi syrup/dark grains. Of course an obvoius way to increase the yeast character would be to ferment warmer, but then I'm afraid of getting fusels etc. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Vale71]

Masking certainly plays a big role with such big beers. As for gettng fusels just pitch cold (like 17-18°C) and then let free rise like the Belgian breweries traditionally do and you won't get a significant increase in fusels. But I wouldn't do that with 500 though as you risk getting a ton of bubble-gum flavor which might make your beer taste like cough syrup, I would use 530 instead which is my favorite BTW (currently have a dubbel with 530 conditioning).

 

[RPh_Guy]

Masking certainly plays a big role with such big beers. As for gettng fusels just pitch cold (like 17-18°C) and then let free rise like the Belgian breweries traditionally do and you won't get a significant increase in fusels. But I wouldn't do that with 500 though as you risk getting a ton of bubble-gum flavor which might make your beer taste like cough syrup, I would use 530 instead which is my favorite BTW (currently have a dubbel with 530 conditioning).

What causes the bubblegum? Pitching cold or letting it free rise?

I used WLP500 in a triple and it pretty much had the exact yeast character as Chimay White, but I would have liked a lot more of the cherry and plum I tasted early in fermentation, and a bubblegum note would also be good in my opinion.
I need to try again....

 

[Vale71]

What causes the bubblegum? Pitching cold or letting it free rise?

I suppose it's the pitching cold as it suppresses fusel alcohols but increases ester character, but I didn't experiment with it as the resulting beer was one of the few true dumpers I've ever had...

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I would have liked a lot more of the cherry and plum I tasted early in fermentation, and a bubblegum note would also be good in my opinion.
I need to try again....

Sounds like you need to stop it cleaning up after itself by cooling after the free-rise phase, see this thread on British-style temperature control : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...emps-and-profiles-cybi-other-thoughts.221817/

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sounds like you need to stop it cleaning up after itself by cooling after the free-rise phase, see this thread on British-style temperature control : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...emps-and-profiles-cybi-other-thoughts.221817/

Thanks! I'd heard of this technique and I'm glad to see more evidence that it works.