Big beer - how long to leave this in the FV?

[WelshPaul]

Hi folks,
my Belgian tripel has been fermenting away vigorously for the last 9 days, having gone from 1105 to 1015. Even though the gravity is not going to get much lower, I think that it would benefit for a longer time in the primary fermenter than I would usually allow (2 weeks on average). Could I leave this one for up to 3-4 weeks before bottling or adding to secondary?
The one time I did leave a beer for 3 weeks it went off, although this was when I was just starting out in the hobby and made all kinds of mistakes; I'm still a little wary of leaving them for too long though.

 

[calumscott]

I regularly leave even normal beers for 3 or 4 weeks before bottling.

I wouldn't be worried about leaving in primary for 3. But if it's all done then you might think about racking it and leaving it off the yeast cake for a few weeks, there will be plenty of active yeast kicking around to tidy up and give you fizz when you bottle. :thumb:

 

[WelshPaul]

That's what I thought. Will it not benefit from any additional flavours or cleaning up by leaving it on the trub or will the yeasties in suspension manage this on their own?

 

[calumscott]

That's what I thought. Will it not benefit from any additional flavours or cleaning up by leaving it on the trub or will the yeasties in suspension manage this on their own?

I'm no expert but I would have thought that the trub will have the remainder of the break material that didn't get filtered after the boil and it's best to get it off that. The active yeast in suspension will do the rest. :thumb: