Wednesday I’m brewing my 3rd batch, a Belgian Imperial IPA. The Belgian part is coming in primarily from the yeast (Wyeast 3522 Ardennes).
I can controll the beer fermentation temperature to within one degree. They say the temperature range of this yeast is 65*-76*. So here is what I’m planning:
-Pitch at 68, raise to 70 during lag phase.
-Primary fermentation at 70
-As primary is ending, bump up the temperature 2 degrees per day (one in AM, one in PM)
-hold at 76 until I keg 8-10 days later
-then I’ll keep the keg in a closet in the house which maintains a stable 70* year-round for another week or so, then cold crash it to 34* until Christmas.
So I’m looking for your advice on this plan, but as important as your recommendations, I’d also appreciate the reasoning behind what you recommend. Thanks!
Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. The one suggestion I would make is to cold crash the beer before you keg it. This will keep most of the yeast out of the keg.
seems complicated to me. I like to pitch ~65, set the temp to 70 and let it rise to that. after a week or so bump the temp to 76 and let it ride till done. crash, keg, go.
my reasoning is that I can’t think of a reason to bother with 2 temp changes every day.
I suppose if you are applying direct heat to raise the temp the beer right next to the brew belt or heating pad or whatever might get a bit warm but the temp change in the beer is going to be pretty slow anyway.
Part of the issue is that I am fermenting in my garage which is consistently 40-50* this time of year, so heating is the name of the game. I have a dual stage controller and a kegerator fermentation chamber, with the temperature probe sitting in the middle of the fermenting beer in a stainless thermowell . I use a thermo-wrap for heating.
In the previous fermentations this has led to exact temperatures with no fluctuations as I have the the settings set very tight at 1* difference. So if I set the target at 65*, the heater gets it there and if it goes to 66*, cooling kicks in.
I love precision, and I love messing with stuff, so doing two temperature changes in a day are enjoyable to me. I know, serious dork.
But regardless, are you saying that I should set the base heat, say 68*, and the cooling at say 76* and just let it rise as it will? The goal is not my control, even though I do enjoy that, but to get the best Belgian character out of the yeast.
I just used this yeast for the first time, and Fermented right at 71-72*. Has a very nice, peppery flavor. Was kind of slow to finish fermenting, but finished very nicely after 3 weeks. 1.084-1.010.
I typically start my Belgians at 65, then after 3 days, move 1* a day until 75-76*, and let them finish.