Beer Forum

Hey all,

I brewed up my first ever Belgian beer last weekend. I made the Belgian Dubbel from BCS. OG was 1.068. I used the Wyeast High Gravity Trappist yeast. I pitched at 64F. Ferment took off like a rocket and blew the lid off of my bucket the next morning. I put a blow off tube in after that.

A week later the beer is still fermenting away. The blow off tube is still bubbling with not much slow down from the start.

Is this normal for such a long ferment with Belgian ale yeast? I am also a little worried that I caught an infection when the lid blew open.

Thanks in advance,
John

Fremont Brewer wrote:Hey all,

I brewed up my first ever Belgian beer last weekend. I made the Belgian Dubbel from BCS. OG was 1.068. I used the Wyeast High Gravity Trappist yeast. I pitched at 64F. Ferment took off like a rocket and blew the lid off of my bucket the next morning. I put a blow off tube in after that.

A week later the beer is still fermenting away. The blow off tube is still bubbling with not much slow down from the start.

Is this normal for such a long ferment with Belgian ale yeast? I am also a little worried that I caught an infection when the lid blew open.

Thanks in advance,
John

You're good. Don't worry about your lid blowing off. There's a cushion of CO2 that'll keep away the bad guys. Lots of breweries do or have in the past used open fermenters with no problems...Sierra Nevada and Anchor to name a couple. If you're still fermenting away in a couple of weeks, then I'd start to worry. If it's just a bubble every minute or so, then don't worry because that's most likely just extra CO2 escaping your airlock. But it sounds like you're doing great. A lot of people like to ferment their Belgian ales @ 70 degrees or higher, and I'm sure it works great for them, but I've always gotten the best results with an internal fermenter temperature of 68 degrees or less.

Thanks BB for your reply and reassurance. I forgot to mention that I have been ramping up the temperature one degree/day. I have it now at 72F. It is still going.....

Hold it at that temp or even bit higher (ie 75F) will do as well. This will help the yeast to finish out and attenuate completely. That WY 3787 is a HUGE top cropper and likes to sit on top of the wort. Don't be afraid to swirl your fermenter to get that yeast back in suspension so it can finish the job. Just be aware that it will rise to the top again after swirling so be prepared.

brewinhard wrote:Hold it at that temp or even bit higher (ie 75F) will do as well. This will help the yeast to finish out and attenuate completely. That WY 3787 is a HUGE top cropper and likes to sit on top of the wort. Don't be afraid to swirl your fermenter to get that yeast back in suspension so it can finish the job. Just be aware that it will rise to the top again after swirling so be prepared.

Ok. Will Do... I've got it up to 73F now. Going on 2 weeks still fermenting now. I'm still getting a bubble out of the blow-off every 10 seconds. Starting to slow down I think. Thanks guys for the advice. I've never had a ferment go this long. Plus this is my first attempt at a Belgian and am a little anxious about it all.