Another Saison Thread

hmm, I'll assume that you know whose fermenter is. I don't see this as being an open one. It's deeper than mine for sure.

Chuck Cook's cation: Photo, [below]: a fermenter at Dupont. All of are
of the short, squat variety, as the brewery feels this produces
a more complex beer than tall, conical fermenters.



This is starting to sound like the guy on another site that wanted to do Saisons is a five inch deep container.

 

I'll just go pour it out now and get it over with. Thanks again!

 

This thread just got weird.

 

ISO: your Saison(s)

 

Walloon humor?

 

If the height differential of the water in your airlock is 1 inch, then the pressure differential between the gas in the carboy and the air is only ~ 1/400 of an atmosphere. Fluctuations in atmospheric air pressure are much greater than this.

 

The temperature wasn't the culprit. The pitching temperature was. Even with these strains that do well at high temperatures, you still need to start off in the mid 60's and ramp it up over a week. Otherwise you will end up with the hot/fusel alcohols. As long as it's below 70F for the first few days you are fine. That is when ANY stain is performing the bulk of attenuation and is most vulnerable to high temperatures.

 

I remember you talking about that beer in the old forums. Do you have details on where the gravity was throughout different times in the fermentation?

 

Shoot.. lost my original reply here...

The story about 565/3724 being two parts of a whole has been told to me by several people with letters after their names that are close to the matter.

The bit about Dupont being sensitive to back pressure is something I wrote about last year in Zymurgy. That information came directly from White Labs and seems borne out in my experiments at home. I usually only cover my beers with a big honking piece of foil sprayed with sanitizer and let her ride. Of course, this means you have to be diligent and get the beers moving on their way quickly and sometimes.. I'm not so good at that.

On more Saison news... White Labs is releasing a new strain WLP585 Saison 3. I highly recommend it. When I gave my Saison talk at the San Diego Homebrewer's Conference that strain tied with the ECY Saison Brasserie as everyone's favorites. People came out of that talk and pestered the WL folks into releasing it. It may have had to do with the fact that I said in the talk "If you like this one.. email White Labs and ask them for it, cause you can't get it otherwise"

 

Drew,

Thank you for responding to my query on the WY3724 vs. WLP565 topic. It is interesting to know that these are two different yeast strains (from Dupont).

Thank you for the tip on WLP585 and your efforts on lobbying to get this yeast available. I did a web search and leaned that this strain is scheduled to be available now:

July/Aug

WLP006 Bedford British Ale Yeast

WLP540 Abbey IV Yeast

WLP585 Belgian Saison III Yeast – NEW

I will be brewing a Saison this summer and I will utilize WLP585 based upon your recommendation.

Cheers!

Jack

 

No problem!

I do love that style. Usually have one or two on tap at home. Right now after NHC, my supplies are pretty decimated. I have two beers left and one is my Cali-Franco Saison which was dead simple - GW California Select Pale Malt, a bittering charge of Magnum and 3711 French Saison yeast. Delicious and easy.

 

I did a web search and I found your article entitled: A Saison for Every Season. It was very educational and extremely entertaining as well.

Saison beers are one of my favorite styles as well. My first homebrewed Saison (1999) was made via culturing up from a Brewtek slant: CL-380. That yeast made an excellent Saison but culturing up from a slant is not for the faint of heart. I found out recently that this strain is available from East Coast Yeast Co.: ECY14. Unfortunately it is not an easy task to obtain East Coast Yeast strains.

A brewpub chain local to me makes an excellent Saison: McKenzie’s Brewpub. They won the Gold Medal at the GABF three times (2007, 2009, and 2010) using a different yeast strain for each of those three years. Apparently they used While Labs Saison II (WLP566) for the 2007 version and then used ‘house versions’ of that yeast for the subsequent years.

I was intending to try WLP566 for my Saison this summer (since McKenzie’s had ‘good luck’ with it in the past) but your education about WLP585 got me to re-think that. I called my LHBS and ‘ordered’ a tube of WLP585 earlier this morning.

Cheers!