Post-Active Recommendations for IOY B63 Monastic in a dubbel

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Good morning everybody. I'll start by thanking all of you who have provided answers to the dozens of questions I've had as I got started with brewing a few months ago. Your threads, Google, made brewing possible for me. This forum has been an invaluable resource, and I am grateful to you all.

I'm on my third beer, an Ommegang Abbey Clone (recipe link here). I used a can of Imperial Monastic B63 yeast, which the online comparison charts tell me is similar to Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale and WLP500 Trappist Ale. It is described as having "medium low" flocculation.

The beer is currently in a temperature-controlled Grainfather conical fermenter, and active fermentation slowed down this morning and gravity has leveled off. You can see the live, current progress of fermentation here. (Data is coming from a Tilt Hydrometer). I am planning to ramp temperature up a few degrees per day until we get to 78F/25C, unless I hear recommendations otherwise!

So, my question is: does anybody have recommendations for what I should be doing next for this beer? The recipe was pieced together from various places around the internet, so I don't have a good set of prior instructions.

  • Should I transfer to a glass carboy and place it in my 59F/15C basement for a few weeks?
  • Should I dump the yeast from the conical and cold crash in the fermenter for a few days first? (I don't have a glycol chiller, but I can get it down to about 40F/4C using the cooling pump and ice.) After that, bottle?
  • Should I just wait until next week, dump the yeast, and bottle without trying to get cold?
I know there is no "100 percent right" answer to brewing a beer, but I love to hear people's thoughts, experiences and opinions. Thank you!
 
Belgians like heat and they turn out better when they get heat. So I would pitch yeast at 66F and just let it rise up until it is done. Maybe save the last 2-3 degrees to raise the temp. at end of fermentation. Don't rush it. After 15 days, take a gravity sample. 5 days later, take another one. If stable, cold crash for 2-3 days and bottle. Condition for a few weeks / months and enjoy. Most beers will be good at 2-4 weeks in the bottle. Other will become even better after the 1st month.
 
I think your plan to raise the temp to finish up fermentation is a good approach with this style. After fermentation is done, cold aging it for a little bit will help the beer, certainly. That is pretty much a generally true statement. For this particular beer, with not great flocculation, it should help clear the beer a little. Cold age it as long as works for your process and equipment - from a few days to a few weeks.
 
Cold crash it in the fermenter for sure. Get as much yeast to flocc as you can before transferring it. I really like my Belgians are a long cold storage, almost a lagering. Think it really refines the flavor profile and makes the distinct yeast esters really pop.
 
Hi Chris-in-Seattle. What did you end up doing with the beer? I'm curious because I'm in a similar situation now. My abbey ale just finished primary fermentation after about 6 days at 76 deg F. since this is a low flocc strain, it's very cloudy. did you cold-crash yours? if so, did that clear things up?
 
Hi Chris-in-Seattle. What did you end up doing with the beer? I'm curious because I'm in a similar situation now. My abbey ale just finished primary fermentation after about 6 days at 76 deg F. since this is a low flocc strain, it's very cloudy. did you cold-crash yours? if so, did that clear things up?

Good afternoon, maltman. I “tried” to cold crash the beer with my janky setup, but as you can see from my fermentation profile, it was not entirely successful.

https://www.brewstat.us/share/2769/ommegang-abbey-clone

Nonetheless, I bottled into Belgian bottles at the conclusion of that graph, with corks and cages. The beers have been sitting on the 70F floor for a few weeks now. This week I will take them downstairs for a few months of quiet time in the cool air.

I don’t think I needed to wait so long to bottle, but lessons learned. Also lesson learned: cold crashing with my conical and a cooling pump in a bucket of ice is not, um, super effective. I plan to create a mini-fridge system to hold the cold water and pump in the future, perhaps a mini-freezer with glycol.

I can’t tell whether the “cold” crashing did anythign to the beer, since it’s hidden from sight until bottling, but it didn’t look too bad once I started bottling. I’m hoping bottles in the fridge will help with cold-crashing more than anything else. That, and time.
 
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