I brewed a saison about two months ago and pitched Wyeast 3724 (Belgian saison) and the dregs of a bottle of BRUX. This went from 1.060ish to 1.025 pretty quickly. Over the past 6 weeks, it has slowly dropped to 1.014. Is there any need to take this off the yeast cake at this point? I have concerns either way... too long of a primary is supposed to be bad, but I don't want to starve the beer of the yeast that is slowly eating away at the sugars. Based on some readings, the beer will likely ferment another 3-4 months at which point I'll rack it onto some peaches for another fermentation. Thanks in advance!
You're racking onto the peaches should start another fermentation. When that happens I don't see why the yeast wouldn't continue to eat any remaining sugars from the malt. In fact I think delaying the secondary would jeopardize that.
My method would be to go ahead and rack it onto the peaches and leave it for 3 or 4 months. Then rack it back to a clean carboy and let it sit 3-6 months, depending on how the taste develops.
My experience with 3724 is that if you dont have that pretty hot it takes a while to get going. That strain should dry that saison out to 1.004 or less fairly easily, but is very temperature dependent, and it does take it some time to get there. Racking it off of the yeast is not necessary for the timeframe you are working with in my opinion, it shouldnt develop any of the autolysis off flavors, but it should help increase the brett character.The majority of the healthy yeast is in suspension and not in the cake at the bottom, so if you do decide to rack it this wont stop fermentation. As yinzer said, a small fermentation should start when you rack your beer onto fruit. Peaches are tricky, as they dont provide a lot of flavor to beer. In my experience, 2-3 lbs per gallon gets it to the level I like. YMMV, but I usually leave funky beers on fruit for at least 2 months (up to 6 in my case), and do this very close to bottling. Fruit flavors tent to fade fairly quickly.
Dang, that's a lot of peaches. I've only got around 4.5 pounds peeled in the freezer. You're talking double that and more! The carboy is in my garage, sitting on a towel and wrapped in another. It's been in the upper 80s for much of that time, but obviously fluctuates some overnight.
Are yours pitted? Maybe I'm waist-full but after I peeled and pitted my peaches I lost about 40% of the original weight. FWIW I bought two three gallon cornies and I have some 3 gallon secondaries. I think that I'll split all my fruit batches half virgin/half fruit until I can proof my results. Fruit isn't very cheap.
Yeah its a lot of fruit, unfortunately its too subtile in my experience. I usually let it ripen as far as it'll go before it turns and tend to be too lazy to peel and I'll very rarely make more than 3 gallons of any one variety, mostly by splitting batches between a few different things. I have heard that pectinase is pretty good at clarifying, but have never used it myself. I dont mind hazy beers but i guess you can rack it off the fruit for a month without sacrificing much flavor. Apricots have been much better in my experience, and they also give you that peach character without having to add the huge amounts of fruit.
Yeah, peeled, pitted and chopped into smallish chunks. Sitting in the freezer to bust up the cell walls and make it more mushy when thawed. Is the 2-3 pounds thing based on gross weight or net? The peaches I have were free ... the last pickings from my aunt and uncle's orchard. Any more and I'll have to pay.
Hmm... I didn't weigh them up front, but I'll guess that I lost maybe 1/3 the weight up front from peels/pits. That would be around 6.75#. Sounds like I need about that much more or I should split the batch in two. Wishing I had some 3 gal carboys right about now!
So if I were in your position, I would split the batch, fruit 2.5~3 gallons of what you have, and leave the other portion vanilla. You can blend them back together if there is too much peach, but its easier to dilute too much flavor than the other way. Best of luck with your brew, it sounds delicious
Forum archaeology... I ended up adding peaches in early October, bottled in mid-February. Nice Brett funk, strong peach aroma on cracking the cap. Moderate low carbonation with no head, perfect for the style IMO. Planning to do an actual sour now. Viva le funk!
