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Clarifying a Belgian Strong Golden for competition

Northern Brewer General
#1

In February I brewed a Belgian Strong Golden Ale for a competition in August. It sat for a month in primary and went from 1.088 to 1.009 and it’s been cold conditioning for a month around 38 degrees. I almost never bottle so I’d like some advice.

With all my other brewing I’m doing I kind of need the carboy the Belgian is sitting in. I’m considering using a clarifier in it to shine it up a bit. Idealy I’d like to let it bulk age longer, but if I hit it with Super Kleer or gelatin I wouldn’t mind the piece of mind from having three months to let it bottle condition. As this is a competition beer, I’d like to avoid re-yeasting if at all possible.

This is my first belgian strong golden ale so I’m in somewhat unfamiliar waters. Is one month of cold secondary going to be ok? With a 10%ABV beer can I get away without re-yeasting if I have three months to wait?

I’ve also not used super kleer before, any ‘best practices’ info on that? Pitch cold? When to bottle after using it?

Thanks much!

#2

A long secondary, a cold secondary, the use of a clarifier, and high ABV - any of these variables would make me want to re-yeast, especially for a competition. The fact that you have all four in one beer means that you pretty much have to re-yeast or else force-carb and then bottle from the keg (this is what I would do given the choice, predictable and easy).

#3

I haven’t had a lot of luck… or more accurately, I haven’t had a lot of pleasant experiences bottling from the keg. Last year I tried to get way too fancy and took what was looking to be a pretty nice doppelbock and pushed it through a 1 micron filter then force carbed it and bottled with a Blichmann beer gun. Big PITA, big mess, and it absolutely destroyed the bock (although I’m guessing something bad happened during filtration).

It sure looked pretty though :oops:

I’ve got three big beers working right now and I’m going to try to bottle condition them all. Just really, really trying to minimize the sediment in the bottle. I’ve actually never re-yeasted before. What kind of sediment footprint does adding 1/2 pack of US-5 add to a typical 5 gallon batch?

#4

[quote=“CapnJB”]What kind of sediment footprint does adding 1/2 pack of US-5 add to a typical 5 gallon batch?[/quote]Not much sediment - Sierra Nevada uses the equivalent of 1-2 grams per fermenter in their Pale Ale, so use that as a gauge for what you’ll get using 2-3x (5g). If you rehydrate the yeast, you can probably get away with as little as 2g for a big beer.

#5

Awesome… thanks for the tip. That doesn’t sound terribly bad :slight_smile:

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