suggestions for scheduling secondary/bottling on Saison

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by poopinmybutt, Apr 19, 2012.

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  1. poopinmybutt

    poopinmybutt Zealot (643) May 25, 2005 Nebraska

    hey guys, my girlfriend and i brewed a 5g petite saison from extract this past saturday. i was curious as to your recommendations/critique of what i have scheduled:

    this is the kit that i used:
    http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/petite-saison-d-ete-extract-kit.html
    and i used the wyeast 3711.

    my plan is to leave it in the primary fermenter until may 8th, then racking to two 3g secondary fermenters, as my gf and i will "split the batch", meaning she will choose an ingredient to add to her secondary, and i will do something different with mine. i am choosing the 8th to do this because we will be on a "beercation" from the 12th-21st of may, so i can let it sit for 2 weeks in secondary while we are gone and bottle on the day after we get back, may 22nd.

    what do you guys think of this schedule? i am slightly concerned because the recipe (http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/PetiteSaisondEte.pdf) says that this only takes 2 weeks in primary and then 2 weeks of bottling. i missed the target gravity by .04 short, so it will be even more petite. do you think it's a bad idea to "get cute" and change things up with a secondary? is this just too much fermentation time in general?

    also, in case anyone is wondering, she is thinking about adding crushed apricots (possibly soaked in wine?) to her batch, and i was thinking about adding green tea (possibly with some honey, but i know this can add to fermentation time..)
     
  2. jbakajust1

    jbakajust1 Pooh-Bah (2,552) Aug 25, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    No need to wait that long unless you have to. You could rack it next week or the 28th. A couple thoughts. I did a 5 gallon batch of Saison that I added 3# of apricot puree to and ended up with 3 gallons of beer due to all the fruit debris, not a whole lot of apricot flavor/aroma, bottle bombs, and sulfur. Stone fruits can throw off sulfur if the fruit gets into the bottles and isn't fermented all the way. If doing 2.5 gals with enough apricots to get the desired flavor/aroma you might get 1 gallon at bottling. I say this, and yet I am planning on sending 4 gallons of a sour blonde onto fresh apricots this summer. I've had a green tea Saison before that was nice, but not great, but then they didn't actually use a Saison yeast to make the beer either so it was more of a green tea belgian blonde. If it were me, I would bottle half, then choose one of the other options to try out now. Rebrew it again if you really like it straight, and split it again doing the other option. That way, if the tea doesn't work out and the apricots flop you at least got to drink 5 gals worth of good Saison.
     
  3. MrGreengenes2

    MrGreengenes2 Initiate (0) Aug 9, 2008 Indiana

    Yes do some research on here or the "other forum" before adding anything strange. I am tempted to say just bottle this one alone like most other people but I know that if you are anything like me the temptations is too great to experiment since that is why we get into homebrewing.

    Use a beer thief to taste a sample after 2 weeks and see what you think, if it is boring or lacking then you can mess with it. I have had a beer in the fermenter that I planned on flavoring, but tasted so damn good I did not want to mess with it. I taste my beers out of the fermenter all of the time, I see it as a chef tasting something while cooking to see what, if anything is missing.
     
  4. LeeryLeprechaun

    LeeryLeprechaun Savant (1,094) Jan 30, 2011 Colorado
    Trader

    You could always just add flavoring to the beer instead of the fruit. In this case it would save you time and you would not have to worry about messing the beer up with off flavors.

    To answer your actual question, letting the beer sit too long on the yeast could cause some off flavors from yeast autolysis (cell death). That being in my experience Saisons take a long time in primary (2 weeks) to being with so letting it go a little longer might not hurt it too much. If the yeast are still living to 2 weeks out then I would assume it would take them a longer time to start dying as well.
     
  5. ryane

    ryane Initiate (0) Nov 21, 2007 Washington

  6. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    I don't believe in prescribed times for primary fermentation. A beer is done when it hits terminal gravity, i.e., when the yeast stop fermenting. With saisons, patience can be important, depending on yeast (see recent saision thread). If you are using 3711, two weeks is probably going to get you where you need to be; if you are using 3724, could be another story. Normally, I do not secondary, but the details of your experiment require it. Be sure that you reach terminal gravity before you tranfer. Check for stability with your hydrometer or refractometer a few times, with a couple days inbetween. Call it done when you get two stable readings in a row, provided the gravity is where you want it. If not, wait some more to see if it is slowly changing.

    In the secondary: not sure I would like the tea. The apricots sound good to me, though.
     
  7. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    My personal experience with 3711 brewing 1.060 OG Saison beers is that primary fermentation has always been complete in less than a week. I have always let my 3711Saison beers sit in the primary for two weeks (1 week of ferment and 1 week of bulk conditioning).

    3711 has always created very dry Saison beers for me. My Final Gravity has always been around just a few points above 1.000 (e.g., something like 1.002).

    Cheers!
     
  8. poopinmybutt

    poopinmybutt Zealot (643) May 25, 2005 Nebraska

    thank you guys for your suggestions with everything, fermenting times, stone fruits, other fruits...i know that it's very easy to google search this kinda stuff but i ask these questions to just get some BA opinions on this stuff and all input is greatly appreciated.

    what do you guys think about soaking (cooking maybe?) a fruit like apricots or raspberries in wine before adding to secondary? i see the soaked wood all the time but i don't see much about fruits and think it could be very interesting here..
     
  9. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    I believe that several years ago BA Old Sock (the homebrewer behind the mad fermentationist blog) brewed a batch of something funky with dried cherries soaked in brandy. I think the apricot wine thing could work out, although I don't have any idea how much apricots and soaking you would need to do to get the impact I would want on beer. If you figure it out or any others have a clue, I hope it gets posted.
     
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