Home Brew Forum

Been a long time since i've posted a brew day thread. This is a first for me, in about 9 years of brewing i've never brewed a Saison.

I hear this yeast is a bitch

I'll probably tweak the gravity down to 1.060 and i'll be brewing at ambient temps with a brew belt after the lag phase. Another first, i've never used a brew belt. Is the idea that the lower you place it on the FV, the hotter it will get? I'm using a better bottle and a stick on thermometer.

Grateful for any Saison brewing tips.

This weekend I hope to get a chest freezer sorted out...



Saison


Type: All Grain
Date: 04/10/2013
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Brewer:
Boil Size: 6.87 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.54 kg Bohemian Pilsner Malt (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.26 %
0.45 kg Floor Malted Wheat Malt (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 7.56 %
0.45 kg Munich Malt I (Weyermann) (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.56 %
0.06 kg Caramunich Malt III (Weyermann) (56.0 SRM) Grain 1.01 %
12.00 gm Magnum [14.70 %] (60 min) Hops 16.9 IBU
14.00 gm Motoeka [6.80 %] (15 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
14.00 gm Motoeka [6.80 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.45 kg Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 7.62 %
2 Pkgs Belgian Saison (Wyeast Labs #3724) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.61 %
Bitterness: 21.5 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.5 SRM Color: Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: My Mash Total Grain Weight: 5.50 kg
Sparge Water: 3.97 gal Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C TunTemperature: 22.2 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60min Step Add 16.50 L of water at 69.3 C 64.0 C

I love a Saison.

Mostly used Dupont yeast harvested plus Aramis hops.

Dupont yeast is not happy at normal brew temps and can stall if unhappy. I start at about 21c then raise 1-2c per day to around 28c. Lovely spicy complex taste from yeast. Oh and last one's FG was 1004!

Any probs with stuck ferment?

mysterio wrote:Any probs with stuck ferment?

No, luckily mine didn't stick. I think because I kept them warm.

Last 2 Saisons used recipe from this topic
Saison #2 - AG78 (+pics)

That looks good mysterio. I really like the idea of motueka in a saison - I think that will work really well for you.

Are you anticipating the FG getting down lower than the 1,013 predicted by the software?

If I use a brewbelt I tend to put it around the FV in the zone of the lower third of the liquid if that makes sense. The belts make the FV quite hot where it is in contact and if you put it too far down near the level of the yeast cake it could encourage autolysis of the yeast and possible off-flavours...

mysterio wrote:is the idea that the lower you place it on the FV, the hotter it will get?

That is precisely the idea, I usually will leave mine about halfway down the FV.

Cheers

Yeah, motueka is new to me. I think it will work well with the flavours of the Saison yeast.

Currently sitting around 23/24c with the heat belt near the top... will start moving it down towards the end of the day.

Yeah hopefully it drops below 1.013... 1.010 or below would be nice.

Well, it stuck around 1.032... damn. Krausen fell Sunday night despite ramping the temps.

Making a pint starter with the white labs saison blend to see if I can't kick start the ferment.

Give it some time. My saison took 4 weeks to ferment out to 1006. Depends on whether you are in a hurry a suppose.
Wilf

I went in with a starter of BRY97 last night

mysterio wrote:I went in with a starter of BRY97 last night

I understand that there is rather l long lag time with BRY97, I would be interested to hear from you how long it takes before it kicks in for you especially as you are already into the ferment a ways.

Cheers

Yeah, it took over 24 hours. No krausen but lots of bubbles rising so it seems to be doing the job. I hate screwing around with the beer like this so much... will probably use a Saison blend next time.

Wyeast French Saison is much better at fermentation than Dupont strain.

I heard that, but not as great a flavour profile? Yet to experiment.

It did not disappoint me.