Fermentation with Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey

[BitterSweetBrews]

I just put 7 gallons of Belgian Golden Strong into two fermenting buckets in my ferm chamber. My SG was 1.074 (projected was supposed to be 1.076). I had a bunch of Wyeast 1214 harvested from about a year ago. At the time, I bought 2 smack packs of it when it was a month past the use by date (real cheap). I made graduated starters with one smack pack to brew with at the time (then harvested it) and left the other one sitting in the fridge, till now. I was unsure of how the year old harvested yeast starter on the stir plate was working, so I smacked the 2nd pack and left it at room temp for a day or so. It swelled about half way. After about 24 hours I added it to the 1500ml harvested yeast starter. Anyway, I brewed Sunday and crashed, decanted and pitched a 3 day old starter the next morning.

After I brewed on Sunday, I put the wort in my fermentation chamber and set it at 68 degrees F. I had just installed a 7" thermowell on one of the lids for my fermentor buckets at about 2" from center about 2/3rd of the way to center. I pitched the next morning when it was at 68 deg.

I had regular bubbling after about 12 hours and after 24 a decent, 1/2" - 1" kreusan. The Starsan in my air lock had formed a little bubble hat on top of it. So, it is fermenting right along.

I am wondering what others think about where I should keep the temps at. The fermentation range for the yeast is from 68 - 78 degrees. I started it at 68 degrees trying to keep it real clean and not have any off flavors. It has been going well for 2 days. I haven't checked the gravity yet. What would the effect be of ramping up the temperature slowly over the next fews days, kind of like what you would do with a quick lager diacetyl rest after it hits over 50% attenuation? Does this do any good with an ale?

Opinions?

 

[secondbase]

I like to keep the temp at the lower end of the range for this one. It gets very fruity (read: major banana) at higher temps. The character is much more balanced for my tastes when fermented in the 60's. I'll hold it there until fermentation seems to be slowing down considerably and then slowly free rise to about 72º. This one can be a little slow to start sometimes, and can take an extra week to chew off a few more gravity points towards the end of fermentation. Warming it up at the end can help it continue to attenuate.

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

I left it at 68 for over two weeks. It was still bubbling occasionally after 10 days. I just crashed it yesterday and may bottle/keg it tonight or tomorrow. The last gravity check was 1.008 two or three days ago. It tastes pretty good, but you can tell it's an almost 10% beer. I think it will probably smooth out in a few months.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I started it at 68 degrees trying to keep it real clean and not have any off flavors. [...] What would the effect be of ramping up the temperature slowly over the next fews days, kind of like what you would do with a quick lager diacetyl rest after it hits over 50% attenuation? Opinions?

Out of curiosity, why are you trying to keep a Belgian yeast clean? Let those Belgian beasties do what they do best - warm 'em up and get fruity. I just finished a tripel - started at 70 and ramped up to 82 over the course of four or five days. Came out silky smooth, deliciously fruity, and attenuated like a monster - well over 9% ABV with a FV of 1.007, but doesn't taste anywhere near that dry.

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

Out of curiosity, why are you trying to keep a Belgian yeast clean? Let those Belgian beasties do what they do best - warm 'em up and get fruity. I just finished a tripel - started at 70 and ramped up to 82 over the course of four or five days. Came out silky smooth, deliciously fruity, and attenuated like a monster - well over 9% ABV with a FV of 1.007, but doesn't taste anywhere near that dry.

It attenuated to 1.008. I crashed it and now I am tasting butter. I think I might try warming it back up to 75-78, adding some candy sugar, maybe in a secondary and seeing if I can get rid of most of the diacetyl. Otherwise, maybe it will age out. The 1214 yeast said it is good at 68-78, maybe I should have gone on the high side. It has been in primary for a little over 2 weeks.

 

[thehaze]

Belgian beer is and should be estery and phenolic, hence a belgian yeast should be fermented warm, in order to produce and showcase those specific aromas and flavours. I also underpitch with belgian yeast. At least is what I do and what I heard other do. The stress induced by underpitching - just like with hefe yeast - will force the yeast to produce more esters, which you definitely want in your beer.

If you would like a belgian beer, but without the esters and phenols, you could try a " cleaner " belgian yeast or maybe a clean american yeast and add some spices/specialty malts to mimic a clean belgian profile, if possible.

But with belgian yeast, I always ferment warm and then warm the beer even more for a few days, just to give the yeast a chance to clean after itself. I have yet to taste diacetyl or butter in my belgian beers.

Try to warm the beer up to a 72-74F and let it rest for a few days. The fermentation is over, so the yeast will not produce any undesirable esters/flavours at this point.

 

[Calder]

I started it at 68 degrees trying to keep it real clean and not have any off flavors.

If you want to keep it 'real clean', then why are you using a Belgian yeast? You can get the same attenuation out of Chico or PacMan yeast, and be real clean.

Let those Belgian beasties do what they do best - warm 'em up and get fruity. I just finished a tripel - started at 70 and ramped up to 82 over the course of four or five days. Came out silky smooth, deliciously fruity, and attenuated like a monster - well over 9% ABV with a FV of 1.007, but doesn't taste anywhere near that dry.

^+1. I completely agree. I like to start Belgians near the middle of their range, and after a couple of days, ramp the temp up 2 to 3 degrees a day into the 80s; to hell with the max specified temp.

Making it clean and dry will give you a lot of alcohol flavor. A triple after all is a lot of base malt and a significant amount of sugar, not the maltiest beer in the world. You want the yeast flavors, otherwise it is just a thin alcoholic beer. The yeast should be the star of this type of beer, and deliver a fruity or spicy drink that is easily drinkable despite the high alcohol.

I don't think you are doing yourself any favors by trying to tame a Belgian yeast.

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

But with belgian yeast, I always ferment warm and then warm the beer even more for a few days, just to give the yeast a chance to clean after itself. I have yet to taste diacetyl or butter in my belgian beers.

Try to warm the beer up to a 72-74F and let it rest for a few days. The fermentation is over, so the yeast will not produce any undesirable esters/flavours at this point.

I think I am going to do this. I just ordered a couple 3 gallon kegs and want to wait to keg some of the 8 gallons in a smaller keg and bottle the rest to let it age a while. I didn't really want to keg 5 gallons and bottle 3, I would rather go the other direction (keg 3 gallons and bottle 5) with this beer. I have the time to do it Thursday, I hope I can raise it quick enough to make a difference. If not it will have to wait till Saturday. I wish I would have checked in sooner.

It has been crashing for 5 or 6 days with gelatin and is still a bit cloudy so at this point I don't think it is going to hurt anything. It will clear up eventually. I drew off 12 ounces 4 days ago and quick carbed it with my tire valve carbonator. It tasted pretty good, but I can't understand the cloudiness. It may be cold break, but it is pretty thick, even warmer.

 

[luckybeagle]

Hey OP, I know it's been awhile but I'm curious to hear how this one turned out for you if you can recall?

I'm on day 5 of 1214 with my Tripel (just belgian pilsen malt and table sugar with Magnum for bittering and Mt Hood + Styrian Goldings for whirlpool). I started it following the fermentation schedule of my Quad (and used slurry from said quad), which was much colder than yours: 62F pitch, 2 degrees ramp per day. I'm now at 70 and it's still chugging along. Really don't want to go overboard with nanners which is why I've tried to control it a bit, but want it to attenuate well, though what Calder had to say about making a thin, alcoholic beer has me a bit worried. Were you happy with your temperature schedule?

Did yours ever clear? How did the kegged portion stand up to the bottled/bottle conditioned portion?

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

It has been a while but as I recall it turned out OK. It was a pretty good beer but not great. I checked back and it scored in the low 30's in a couple contests. I probably still have a bottle or two somewhere but the keg is long gone so I can't remember how clear it was. I think it was probably alright.

I just brewed another one on July 4th and fermented it with White WLP500 Abbey yeast at 69 degrees. It went from 1.075 to 1.020 in 4 days. I ramped the temp up to 70 yesterday and 72 today. It tastes pretty great with no alcohol hotness yet.