Saison Fermentation Question

Hey all-

I am looking for advice on continuing the fermentation process of my first Saison. It has been in the primary for 3 weeks now and I decided to check it today. The OG was 1.072 (I know, a bit high for this style) and it is down to 1.040 and tastes great but still needs to come down significantly.

I know that this style can take a while to come down fully (end should be between 1.008 and 1.002) and the yeast (Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison) is still doing its work as the airlock is still off gassing regularly (about every 4-5 minutes).

My question is about racking, I am worried about racking to a secondary and losing much of my yeast activity, so I am thinking about leaving it on the trub for at least another week and then racking... Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks!

have you roused the yeast by rolling the carboy back and forth?(after swapping airlock and stopper for solid stopper) and what is the temp.? if you saved some yeast to bottle condition you may have to add in that yeast and save some from the yeast cake to condition.,

Saison yeast can be stubborn and you can be in for a long ferment. What temperature are you at? You might need to ramp up the temps.

Thanks for the replies so far!

As far as temps go I had a heating pad on the fermentor for the first two weeks keeping it at between 80-90 degrees. This is what I had read about doing in many threads (and at least one book). The temps have come down to around 72-78 degrees since I took the pad off.

I had not thought about needing to roust the yeast as I can still see it working. I am more concerned about possibly ruining its flavors if I leave it on the yeast cake much longer.

Do you all have any advice about this? Should I raise the Temp. again? I had read that it only really needed to ferment at that high a temp through the first stages of fermentation.

Again, thanks for the responses so far.