AG#09 - Saison de Joshua

[coatesg]

I'd go with some rehydrated champagne yeast myself if you want to dry it out as much as possible - you're more likely to get lower with that than with WLP001 I should think. 1.013 is a bit too high FG for saison really.

[lancsSteve]

+1 on that - you'll have got the flavours in and champagne will dry it out and carbonate it up nicely. Aren't saison yeasts originally derived from champagne? (May be another wine yeast but I know they have an odd heritage!)

[TheMumbler]

have you checked both hydrometers at 20*C? 1008 sounds OK if a touch hight, I think mine went down to 1004. I'm not sure I'd want it as low as 996 or whatever a champagne yeast will do. How does it taste?

Steve - I think it was a wine yeast, the speculation/info is in your wild brews book

[lancsSteve]

have you checked both hydrometers at 20*C?

Fair point - I have one special hydrometer which showed ALL my brews had 'stuck' at 1.020 - pics at viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36379&hilit=+hydrometer

Maybe bottle some now and see what more drops slowly in bottles (STRONG bottles advised!) and then champagne the second half to compare?

[FarmBrew]

I think the Saison strain is "apparently" a descendent of a red wine strain hence the ability to ferment at 35C.

That's the prob with champers it will take your OG into the really dry area...a stepped mash or lower infusion mash temp would give more fermentables and a lower FG.

I'd be patient with the Saison yeast...and any other funkiness in there to get it to terminal Grav

[mr.c]

my god the Saison starter i got for lancsSteve went off like a rocket, ended up droping to 1004 in no time,looking forwords to doing a Saison soon, Mumbler your saison was amazing

[Gricey]

Barely budged in nearly a month. Tastes lovely though. Decisions decisions...

[lancsSteve]

Tastes lovely sounds fine to me... Seems a little late to add champagne yeast but could be good to re-prime before bottling...

[Gricey]

Re-prime with yeast, or just as usual with sugar? I know its recommended to carbonate these pretty highly... I also have 3 vials of expired WLP001 burning a hole in my fridge

[Gricey]

Ok, so I got some champagne yeast today. Racked to secondary (some tap swapping required) and dropped to 25ºC - the yeast claims to work between 12 and 30.

Noticed some weird brown bits on the sides and floating, hope its not an infection. Sample tastes nice though so if I'm lucky just a by product of the farmhouseyness.

Still at 1.014 ish ...


Racking to secondary by The Grice is Right, on Flickr

Champagne Yeast to the Rescue by The Grice is Right, on Flickr

Possible infection... by The Grice is Right, on Flickr

Possible infection... by The Grice is Right, on Flickr

What is this stuff? by The Grice is Right, on Flickr

[lancsSteve]

Looks like typical fermentation gunk to me, sort of stuff I try and skim off top of yeast head (sediment, hop bits, break material etc)
I started my reculture of saisons dupont yeast split from the mumblers saisons he made last year and hoping to get it going for Thursday and planned saisons with nelson sauvin. Bought some gervin restart/champagne yeast just in case!

[Gricey]

Yep, I used the Gervin 3 myself on this, can't say its bubbling furiously, not seen it 'blorp' since last night, but there are bubbles in the blowout bottle so stuff has been happening. Will leave a couple weeks and see where we are.

[lancsSteve]

Well my saison reculture is going great guns despite being a year old in the fridge - started it off in 200ml wort in a milk bottle, slow start and then moved it onto a heated propogator to pick temp up to 23 or 24 and it's building a LOT faster. Making up a 2l starter this eve and planning to brew on Thursday (or possibly tuesday) planning on pitching a MONSTER starter (and splitting out the liquid in the starter to a sanitised bottle to settle out and then use for the bottling refermentation) and start fermentation at 27 stepping up to 30 and on to 33-35 fr last little bit.

.

[Gricey]

I've loved the Saison experience, though it has tied up my brewing having only one FV and fridge - should have another fridge soon though, and need to pick up another FV/ATC-800+ combo.

[Barley Water]

Sounds like you lads are having some good fun to me. Yeah, you need to at least buy a couple of carboys so you can get a proper production schedule going. Actually, one of the reasons I like to make Saison is because it doesn't tie up cold space, I just do it at room temperature but I like to wait until the summer when it's good and toasty. One other thing you can try, rather than use champagne yeast, what about a bit of brett? I have not tried it yet but it sounds like good fun to me and it will for sure get the beer to dry out and really drive up the carbonation. Also, I could argue that it would be very authentic since you know those Belgian/French farmers had all kinds of stuff going on in their beers, it's all about getting rustic. Besides drying out the beer, it should add just another flavor (well ok, flavour). Oh and by the way, save your WLP001 for an IPA or whatever, there is not enough sugar in there for it to survive. I bottle my Saison in Champagne bottles, some you can actually crown cap if you want to, you can also drive in wine corks then cap over the top if you are going for a little cork flavor (if you do that, be very careful when you pull off the crown cap as that cork may go balastic). Anyhow, carry on, it sounds like you guys are starting to really have some fun, pretty soon you'll all be brewing like a bunch of yankees.