Beer Forum

I brewed the dubbel from brewing classic styles today. I pitched and set the temp controller at 64 like the book says but now I need to figure out the ramp schedule.

I had planned on raising the temp 1 degree per day up to 70. Unfortunately I will be headed out of town so I can't do that now. Do I wait 4 days at 64 and then start to ramp up or ramp to 65 in the morning 66 tomorrow night 67 the next morning and then let it ride while I am out of town and pick up the ramp when I get home?

Basically, ramp aggressively right away or leave it at 64 for a while then ramp.

As long as you have healthy yeast, you aren't out of town for like 3 months straight and there is no risk of the fermentation getting up into the 80's, ramp aggressively. I wouldn't give this advice for all yeast strains but belgian yeasts are pretty forgiving and 70 degrees is not out of their comfort zone. Your flavor compounds are developed in the first few days of fermentation so after 3 or so days you are free to raise the temp without fear of fusel alcohols and other undesirable off flavors.

If you leave it at 64 and come back a week later you may or may not be too late to attempt to ramp up.

Thanks. I will go turn it up to 65 now. I wish I could try to let it "free rise" while I am gone because I could set the cooler upper limit temp to 70 but I have no way of moving the heater temp up to make sure the beer does not cool too much once ferme ntation slows down. I need some remote access for my temp controller....