Chill Dubbel / Chimay Red clone in Secondary?

[jmc]

Hi

Some advice needed for when to go to secondary fermentation of a Dubbel based on Chimay Red recipes.
Also should I chill the secondary?

Its brewed really quickly from 1061 Friday night to 1010 Tuesday. Its still 1010 on Thursday with little sign of activity. I don't like keeping brews in primary FV (even with a fermentation trap) if its stopped fermenting.
I had one go moldy last year

According to Brew Like a Monk (great book) I think Chimay put the brew in secondary after day 4 and leave at 13C for a few days. Should I do something similar?
For secondary I normally used a 5gal wine fermenter with 4" neck and trap, but that won't fit in the fridge so I was thinking of using a spare plastic keg?

After AG brewing for just 9 months I know I still have lots to learn, but after looking at various posts on here I thought I'd have a go at brewing a couple of Belgian brews and try something other than dried yeasts

Prior to current brew, (7 days prior) I started a lightish Abbey Single of 5% to build up the Chimay Red yeast I harvested. More info here
I used the primary yeast cake from this Abbey Single to start the higher OG Chimay Red clone (last Friday night).

It’s a Dubbel of 1061 using Belgian (Dingmans) malts from Rob at The Malt Miller. I aimed for 1071 but efficiency must have been poor

The Chimay Red clone brewed out in 3-4 days!
Amazing smells of banana etc. coming from brewing fridge..

All good fun.
John

[lancsSteve]

All looking good - you;ve been reading a lot I recon, the table beer > yeast cake > big beer approach seems to be gaining in popularity (I might try it for a trippel)!

Secondary with an airlock in plastic should be fine - no need to lager I don't recon at least not in secondary, colish maturation not a bad idea - tbh you could go to a pressure barrel and vent it frequently for same sort of effect...

Are you going to then go to a bottling bucket and then bottle or keg a while? Any plans to re-yeast at bottling (dunno if you kept any of the yeast as a split, could always tip in dregs of a bottle or two of chimay red into bottling bucket TBH)

SHould be good - one day I'll come in under not massively over gravity!

[jmc]

All looking good - you;ve been reading a lot I recon, the table beer > yeast cake > big beer approach seems to be gaining in popularity (I might try it for a trippel)!

Secondary with an airlock in plastic should be fine - no need to lager I don't recon at least not in secondary, colish maturation not a bad idea - tbh you could go to a pressure barrel and vent it frequently for same sort of effect...

Are you going to then go to a bottling bucket and then bottle or keg a while? Any plans to re-yeast at bottling (dunno if you kept any of the yeast as a split, could always tip in dregs of a bottle or two of chimay red into bottling bucket TBH)

SHould be good - one day I'll come in under not massively over gravity!

Hi Steve

Thanks for your suggestions.

The main reason I suggested the keg for secondary (in fridge) is
a) I don't trust lids on 5 gal fermenting buckets to give a good enough seal in secondary once fermentation has died down. Well not mine anyway.
b) My 5 gal wine fermenter, that I tend to use as secondary FV, won't fit in the fridge.
c) I have a few empty kegs(that do fit in the fridge) that I thought I could use.

The SG has been 1010 for 3 days now so I don't think build up of pressure in keg would be large, and as you say I could vent it every few days to be sure.

I plan to bottle this and I will add back some yeast I skimmed when brew was very lively about 48 hours in.
This sample is in the fridge and it has settled quickly so hopefully these yeast cells are the lively, buy flocculant ones from the brew.

The Chimay yeast is weird stuff.
When I started it initially, using dregs from Chimay Red & some wort from a previous brew (APA), it was slow to start and only got going properly after a few days in a 1/2 gal cider bottle (US growler?).
When this used in the Abbey Singel it went OK after a couple of days, but nothing mad.
When yeast cake from single used in the Chimay Red clone it really did well within a few hours.
It must feel 'at home'
ATB John