brewing a Belgian quad, and I’m in a cooling phase from the primary fermentation (ended after 6 days at 77, cooling now to 67). The instructions in the recipe call for cooling to 67, then racking to secondary before cooling to 50 to age for 8-10 weeks. Is there any particular reason to rack prior to cooling to secondary temp! For instance perhaps retaining a larger amount of yeast in solution for secondary? I’m tempted to cool primary to 50 before racking. Any suggestions?
How does it taste?
Dropping the temp before its entirely done goes against everything I understand and have experienced. I only reduce temp once the beer is totally done done and then only to help drop the yeast out a little quicker before packaging.
Pretty well done attenuating, 1.086 to 1.011 in 6 days.
What yeast did you use, it still may not be done, Belgian strains can finish pretty low. I would wait before crashing it cold
Wlp530. Anticipated Fg was 1.011.
I did a 1.082 quad with wyeast trapist high gravity and it went to 1.008. If I had crashed it at 11 and primed it for 2 1/2 volumes, it would have been bottle bombs.
With a big beer, I think you need to be patient. 6 days is nothing. Wait a couple weeks, there is no harm in that.
I have a RIS that’s sitting for about a month now in primary. I keep intending to check the gravity, but I’m not worried about it waiting. Maybe next week.
That makes sense, but I wouldn’t do it. If you’re only going to age it for a couple months, there’s no reason to rack it to another fermenter. It may actually condition a little more quickly with more yeast in contact.
Racked off the yeast today. In two days the gravity has dropped from 1.011 to 1.008.
In Brew Like a Monk, Stan notes that it can often take as long for the last 10% of attenuation as the first 90% in Belgian beers. Be patient.