Wyeast 3711 French Saison in IPA?

I just had some friends over for a party after kegging a saison which was fermented with Wyeast 3711 french saison. The keg was empty in no more than 2 hours between 8 people. I guess that's about 6 beers per person so not too big of a surprise. This beer was GOOOOD. It was an extract kit from Northen Brewer (petite saison) and it really didn't disappoint.

I love how this yeast can ferment at my room temp (72-74) and attenuated so well.

My fermentation chamber is full and i want to brew a DIPA this weekend. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if using the french saison yeast for a DIPA would be a good idea. I'd like to use 1056 or 001 but my ambient temps are a but too high.

Assuming the yeast dries it out as it should, you'll have a lower amount of residual sugars to balance the DIPA bitterness. I did this using 3724 and the bitterness was super harsh at first. After a couple months it mellowed and was great, but after that much time the hop aroma faded quite a bit.

If I did it again, I'd reduce the bittering addition so that the IBU level was more in line with a typical saison (30IBU or so), but leave the flavor and aroma hops as is.

You would most likely get something similar to a belgian IPA, but drier. I'm a big fan of belgian IPAs, so I'd be interested in seeing how it turns out. I agree with mu11igan that you'll probably want to drop the IBUs down a little. I'd say go higher than 30, like 50, but I like some hop bite. Maybe add some crystal malt 60 or 120 to balance the hop flavor. Check out the info on a belgian IPA like New Belgium Belgo IPS, which is available all over the place.

I'm thinking this might not be a good idea for the recipe I plan to brew as it's a DIPA with 100+ IBU.

Maybe I could double the amount of crystal 40 which the recipe calls for? This would equal 1lb

Couldn't you also mash higher? Seems like that would keep some body in the beer...

bjohnson29 said:

Couldn't you also mash higher? Seems like that would keep some body in the beer...

Click to expand...

+1....I mash my BIPA at 156....comparatively, I mash my saison at 148 (and the FG is 1.004 w/ 3711...)

I still use an abbey/trappist yeast for my BIPA (currently WLP 500), but I do want to try it with 3711, as I do really like that yeast (my LHBS actually stopped carrying Wyeast, so that was one of the main reasons why I didn't use 3711...I'm going to be making a Wyeast order at some point, and will get some more 3711 to redo my BIPA as well as my saison again.)

Mashing higher with 3711 won't help that much, it's a monster, I've yet to have it finish higher than 1.005 regardless of mash temp (anywhere from 145 to 155 so far).

If you have a recipe in mind for a DIPA, it's not going to taste like you expect if you ferment with 3711 at your room temperatures. If you can get it to low 60s then you could mute a lot of the saison flavour, but then you'd be in S-05 range anyway.

Save your hops for the DIPA and brew another saison? That's what I do when my ferm chamber is full.

+1 to 3711 being a monster. Just you try and stop it above 1005

That being said, I like the idea, so here are my thoughts.

I think this could be really good because I tend to like my IPAs on the dry side, and there is nothing worse than a cloying DIPA, and I bet that won't be a problem with this yeast.

With the right hop combo, I think the yeast would add another layer of complexity, and 3711 isn't as overwhelming as some others.

It WILL dry the beer out . . SO . . I would just make it like you were planning on, but leave out your bittering additions. Hopburst the sucker - and shoot for something under 100+ IBU. To get the flavor and aroma necessary in a DIPA, you should have plenty of hops in there to get enough bitterness out to balance a 1.004 beer.

Also, keep in mind that a 1.080 OG that goes to 1.003 FG is close to 11% abv, so you can still get into DIPA abv territory with a OG of 1.070

Anyone else have any thoughts / criticisms?

Thanks everyone, I don't want this IPA to be too much on the dry side so it'll have to wait.

You could try adding some unfermentables like lactose or maltodextrin to the recipe. I wouldn't be surprised if that yeast could chew through a bit of those though.