My Belgians Always Have Trouble

[pmolou]

ok so the last couple of belgians i've had trouble to get fully fermented the first was a saison (was expecting that) but now doing a golden ale and pitched a 3litre healthy starter of abbey II which went from 16celcius to 21 in like 4 days but now its stopped having bubbler activity and has got a sg of 1.02 consistent for 2 days. how can i get this lower temp is at 20 c now and recipe was as follws

Ingredients
-----------
Belgian candi sugar, dark 0.80 kg, Sugar, Other
Crystal 20L 0.20 kg, Grain, Mashed
Light malt extract 1.50 kg, Extract, Extract
Wheat malt extract 1.50 kg, Extract, Extract

Abbey II 3l starter

15g nelson sauvin @60mins
10g golings @60mins
15g goldings @15mins
3X rooibos tea bags at flame out

OG @1.062
sg ATM 1.02 been 8 days

looked at the bottom of the fermentor and there wasa large amount of trub

 

[jimmyjack]

Belgian yeast strains are ugly little beasties when it comes to temperature. I think you should raise your temp to around 24.
I am in the middle of doing an ag belgian. Mine went from 1.080 to 1.014 in three days. I am pretty happy with this result as it is quite dry and has attenuated by 84%. I allowed it to free rise and the temp got up to 26 degrees. I put in an aquarium heater to maintain 24 for the rest. I believe by maintaining this higher temp I was able to get better attenuation. The Duvel website says the primary fermentation starts at 18 and gets up to 27.

Cheers,

Jj

 

[DarkFaerytale]

dubble troubles?

could not help myself

i would suggest stir up the trub a bit by rotating your fermenter, obviously be carefull of splashing and as JJ suggested, higher temperature. I'v been using abbey II quite a bit latly and so far have gotten the best out of it at around 24C.

-Phill

 

[braufrau]

Getting good attenuation of high gravity extract beers is very difficult (impossible??).
Depends on the type of extract.

Time to step up to partials if this is the type of beer you want to make.
You can combine a low temperature mash with extract and get a better attenuation.

Actually I used to get terrific attenuation before I figured out why my mashes were all too cool.

Oh and when you add the water to the fermenter (unless you did a full boil??) pour it from as high as you can to get splashing / oxygenation going.

 

[braufrau]

BTW - that's a curious recipe?
What are the tea bags for :unsure: ?

 

[pmolou]

ithey recently came in at work and i love the flavour and heard of people putting spices etc. in belgians so giving it a whirl and it tastes awsome sofar not too spicy but can taste it( not sure if this si the teabags yet though) but i overbittered it and its pretty obvious :angry: in the flavour but hey iv heard of way more ibu's in belgians before so ill c how it goes

 

[pmolou]

i think i might just start adding more sugar/dex to my belgians although i though 800g would be a heap already and was actually scared id get to much attenuation and get a watery beer. My next brew is partial (but not belgian) so ill see how it goes

 

[rich_lamb]

I wouldn't go for more sugar to get the attenuation - listen to the frau, she knows what she's talking about. There's a limit to the attenuation you can get from extract.

(that and the whole low temp thing)

You put too much sugar in there and your flavour will tip over to cidery.

If you push this one as far as it will go by rousing and heating a bit, it should still be a tasty brew. Put it down to learning as the first try of a new recipe is rarely what you want.

 

[Insight]

I wouldn't go for more sugar to get the attenuation - listen to the frau, she knows what she's talking about. There's a limit to the attenuation you can get from extract.

You can make your LME or DME more fermentable by mashing with a bit of base malt (which adds the enzymes). See topic below, with excellent commentary from Mark.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry286612

 

[pmolou]

You can make your LME or DME more fermentable by mashing with a bit of base malt (which adds the enzymes). See topic below, with excellent commentary from Mark.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry286612

damn i wish i had've known that like a week ago haha

but thanks alot will keep it in mind