Brewed this morning. Haven't pitched yet. Which direction should I take this beer?

[ICWiener]

Hi everyone,

Brewed a batch this morning. Here's the recipe:

9.5 lb Golden Promise
12 oz Blackprinz
12 oz flaked oats
8 oz Aromatic
8 oz Crystal 40
4 oz Special B
1 oz Challenger @ 60 min
.5 oz EKG @ 5 min

Essentially I made a wussy stout. Very dark, but very mild with a bit of sweetness. Not too roasty. I wanted to make a Belgian Weak Dark Ale, if that makes any sense. The beers in the fermenter. I have a starter of WLP 575 ready to rock. My question is this:

Should I play it cool, downplay the yeast and let the beer ferment out at 65-68? Or should I let it fly and really push the temp. as I go...make it more Belgian-y?

 

[Aschecte]

Wow this is a hard one to answer....... It's really a matter of your tastes...... Do you like strong bubble gum and banana ? Or do you prefer a more subtle flavor profile ? I would personally and I'm a huge fan of Belgians play it on the low side only because of your grain bill ..... Golden promise , special b will add a lot of malty flavors as well as raisin plum character if you ramp those temps you may muddy it up too much so to speak. But hey you may have great results ramping the temps as well ...... Only you can make this call.

 

[ICWiener]

I know, tough call. I'm trying to make something different, but I don't want to go too far, you know? Eh, I'll figure something out!

 

[Demus]

Split the difference and start cool and let it rise gradually into the mid or upper 70's. works great for most Belgian strains....

 

[ICWiener]

I pitched at 68. Fermentation is rocking right now. Gonna let it go for 24-36 hours then pull it out to let it free rise to 75 or so.

 

[Aschecte]

that is what I do with my Belgians..... I just did a saison yesterday and pitched at like 66 degrees after my wet t-shirt and fan trick to bring it down..... my tap water was in the 80's I really need to get a plate chiller but I'm getting off topic..... so that said I started at 66 for about 20 hours then I removed the wet t-shirts and hooked up my brew belt and temp controller and set it to 70...it naturally raised to 72 degrees now after about 30 hours in....I'll let it sit there until tomorrow night unless it raises more on its own if not I'll bump it to 74 for 24 hours next 76 for 24 hours and then a 4 degree jump to 80 degrees for a week straight. keep in mind though I'm using wlp566 which is a saison strain I would never ever recommend going tht high with any other strains except saison / bier de Garde. best of luck !!

 

[ICWiener]

I definitely won't go into the 80s!

I let it roll for about 36 hours at 68. It's past the need for a blow off, so I brought it into the house. My bedroom stays 72-75. Going to wait another day, then most likely pitch 1 lb of table sugar to dry it out. White labs says 68-75 for recommended temps (WLP 575), so I think I'm safe.

It's going to be a wacky beer, that's for sure. I think it'll be tasty though. The blow off bucket smelled great, very chocolatey.

 

[Aschecte]

I definitely won't go into the 80s!

I let it roll for about 36 hours at 68. It's past the need for a blow off, so I brought it into the house. My bedroom stays 72-75. Going to wait another day, then most likely pitch 1 lb of table sugar to dry it out. White labs says 68-75 for recommended temps (WLP 575), so I think I'm safe.

It's going to be a wacky beer, that's for sure. I think it'll be tasty though. The blow off bucket smelled great, very chocolatey.

Just remember when they talk about yeast temp ranges they are referring to the beer itself not ambient........I did not say this to sound like you don't already know this so I hope it didn't come across that way..... But if your room is 75 degrees with fermentation rise your about 78-80 or maybe not..... Yeast is weird I've had yeast only raise 1 degree from ambient I would just figure a 2 -3 rise so that would put you out of range.

 

[HawksBrewer]

North?

 

[Aschecte]

North?

Yes north fermentation creates heat.