Suggestions for racking my Belgian tripel

[NHAnimator]

Brewed my first tripel 9 days ago. Also created my first yeast starter (Wyeast 3787) for this beer which appeared to go well. It has been fermenting at about 66 in a glass carboy with a blow-off tube. Checking it tonight, I am still getting a small 'glug' in the overflow every 13 seconds or so. There haven't been any significant temperature changes, the carboy hasn't been moved, and the fermentation has pretty much slowed as I would have expected.

Question is this: Should I rack to secondary now, or wait until the bubbling slows even more? It will be sitting in secondary for at least a couple of months. I do not, though I should, take gravity readings between my OG and FG.

Thanks in advance,
NHAnimator

[disasterbrew]

Not sure why you would go to a secondary at all with this beer. I'd actually suggest raising the temp to 70 or 73ish to ensure that it finishes completely. Once your gravity stays constant for 3 days you are good to go.... And even then you won't hurt anything by keeping it in the primary after that for an additional week or so. Then you can bottle or keg the beer and enjoy as planned. Of course some age will help to round out the flavor of a bigger beer like this, but I think that should happen in the bottle or keg. I worry about an extra (and unnecessary) transfer to another vessel. My $.02.

[NHAnimator]

Thanks. I'm planning on letting this age 60 days before bottling and there was a little concern about letting it sit on the yeast for that long. I've heard both sides of doing this, so I'm not sure yet what I want to do. As it is, it's in a location which was supposed to be just temporary for primary, then I was going to move it to the basement for secondary. My thoughts were that I would move it when I racked, thus not disturbing the existing trub in primary with a physical move. (If I have to carry it downstairs, but choose to leave it in the carboy, am I doing more harm than good. Or will it just settle back out without an issue).

Regarding raising the temps: After getting the temp up there, then what? In other words, if I raise it a degree every day for three or four days, then what do you do after that? Is it okay to store it in the 50's for conditioning for a while before bottling? I'm in the Northeast and we are starting to get weather which will dictate whether we leave our windows open during the day. So my winter-time climate controlled 66 degrees will soon be replaced with 70+ degree temps throughout the house.

Thanks again.

[disasterbrew]

I'd say to go ahead and raise the temp, let it finish, then bottle it up. Keep it warm for a couple of weeks to let it bottle condition, then put it in your basement and ignore it for a few months. What do you hope to gain by leaving it in a secondary for 60 days?

[whoateallthepies]

I'd let it free rise for 3 days.
Chill for a week.
Bottle and let condition in the bottle for 2 months.

[NHAnimator]

I'd say to go ahead and raise the temp, let it finish, then bottle it up. Keep it warm for a couple of weeks to let it bottle condition, then put it in your basement and ignore it for a few months. What do you hope to gain by leaving it in a secondary for 60 days?

More clarifying?

[grainman]

When I make my tripel, I don't even touch the primary for a month...mine usually takes about 2-3 weeks to ferment and the extra week is just to let the yeast clean things up a little.Then I rack to keg for conditioning....after 3 weeks conditioning it's ready to drink.After some time in the fridge it'll clear up nicely. I would let it primary for a month and check that final gravity has been reached, then bottle. Let it condition in the bottle.

[thatguy314]

If you want to lager it in secondary to let it clear up, that's fine, but use a 5 gallon carboy and make sure you fill it right up to the neck. You don't want any airspace in a conditioning vessel.