Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison HOT fermentation

What is the warmest that people ferment this yeast? I've heard it likes to stop around 1030. I was thinking about doing the secondary in my garage, which usually is around 85-95 degrees this time of year. Will that get the job done?

The 85-95 range is good for the entire fermentation process, but just as important is consistency. If your garage gets cool at night and warm during the day you'll have problems. I'd try to avoid more than a 5 degree temperature swing (less is better.)

I have a heater that I can set the temp on to make sure that it stays over 85 at night. It's pretty hot in there in the mornings though, so I'm not too concerned about temp swings.

I have had the best luck keeping it at 85' and not any higher.

A water bath will help cushion the swings, too.

I too have this yeast, I was going to do an aquarium heater/cooler water bath setup, and keept it at about 92 degrees, I hear this strain lets off good flavors at higher temps. Should I ramp my fermentaion from about80 to 92 over the course of 3 days or so?

Anybody have experience ferment ramping this strain?

I usually ferment mine in the 82-84 range. Don't secondary it. Leave it on the primary cake until it's finished. Even if it stalls, it will finish eventually. It may take another 6 weeks, but it will drop pretty low.

-chuck

I'm using this for the first time too. Temp kept dropping in my ac'd house. I live in Florida and it's July, so I put it in an igloo ice cube and put it in a somewhat insulated shed which kept it around 85-90 degrees. Then it started raining so I brought it in and put a heat pad in the cooler to keep the temp the same. I'm thinking about calling it "The Prodigal Son Saison" since I kicked it's somewhat unruly a$$ out and it's been good since it returned indoors.
I had airlock activity starting at about 11 hours and stopped at about 24 hours. It's been a week now and I have a good layer of bubbles, and I'm at 1.034, so I know it is going well from everything else I have read about this yeast. It has a nice banana bread smell to it. I'll secondary mine, but not for at least 4 weeks or longer depending on when it gets to single digits.
Good luck.

taurean said:

I'm using this for the first time too. Temp kept dropping in my ac'd house. I live in Florida and it's July, so I put it in an igloo ice cube and put it in a somewhat insulated shed which kept it around 85-90 degrees. Then it started raining so I brought it in and put a heat pad in the cooler to keep the temp the same. I'm thinking about calling it "The Prodigal Son Saison" since I kicked it's somewhat unruly a$$ out and it's been good since it returned indoors.
I had airlock activity starting at about 11 hours and stopped at about 24 hours. It's been a week now and I have a good layer of bubbles, and I'm at 1.034, so I know it is going well from everything else I have read about this yeast. It has a nice banana bread smell to it. I'll secondary mine, but not for at least 4 weeks or longer depending on when it gets to single digits.
Good luck.

Click to expand...

You are at the dreaded 1.030 range - unfortunately 3724 1st gen often stalls at this gravity and creeps towards attenuation. Just be prepared to wait it out for another few weeks.

2 months with this yeast i finished at 1.02. the finished beer is a little too sweet for me. Next time i think i will use the french strain.

3711 is so much better.

While 3711 blasts through the fermentables, 3724 makes a better tasting Saison im my opinion. I have mine in my garage with a heating pad/ temp control set to 87F. It has been bubbling steadily for about a week. I'm not worried about the fermentation time and expect to have it in the fermenter for at least 6 weeks..

I'm thinking I'll wait until next summer to use the 3724 strain, and I'll just brew it in June so I can still drink it in the summertime. It sounds like this is going to take 6-8 weeks to completely ferment out...

I'll just use 3711 for now. Lots of good suggestions in here too. Thanks!

I used a reptile heating stone in my fermenting fridge to keep it warm. I was able to keep it in the upper 90s, but wasn't happy with the flavors (too mellow) so next time I'll see if mid 80s is a better balance.

Yeah, time is lame.

I think the flavors you get from this yeast are superior to any other saison yeast, and the balance tends more towards the tropical esters of Dupont in the 80-85 range. I usually ferment it at 80-82 and accept that it's going to take a while to finish out. I will occasionally add 3711 after a week to take it all the way down, but usually I just let'er go slow and steady.

BigBadMikey said:

While 3711 blasts through the fermentables, 3724 makes a better tasting Saison im my opinion. I have mine in my garage with a heating pad/ temp control set to 87F. It has been bubbling steadily for about a week. I'm not worried about the fermentation time and expect to have it in the fermenter for at least 6 weeks..

Click to expand...

Did you pitch at 87??? and hold it throughout fermentation?

I am wondering if I should pitch at maybe 75 ish and ramp it over a week to 88 then hold it there till it finishes.

dwarven_stout said:

I think the flavors you get from this yeast are superior to any other saison yeast, and the balance tends more towards the tropical esters of Dupont in the 80-85 range. I usually ferment it at 80-82 and accept that it's going to take a while to finish out. I will occasionally add 3711 after a week to take it all the way down, but usually I just let'er go slow and steady.

Click to expand...

I hear the best flavor comes from the high 80's with this strain, and someone just said they fermented in the high 90's and the flavor was too "mellow", wyeast says this yeast "benefits" from 90+ temps. But does it flavor wise?

I've had mine between 85-95 degrees for 9 days. I had mine in an Igloo Cube with a heat pad in there to keep a constant temp. So, after 9 days I went from a SG of 1.065 and a FG of 1.008! Not sure if I just got a superpack of 3724 or what! Taste is great so far. I racked it, and will let it sit for 2-3 weeks before bottling.

lukem5 said:

Did you pitch at 87??? and hold it throughout fermentation?

I am wondering if I should pitch at maybe 75 ish and ramp it over a week to 88 then hold it there till it finishes.





I hear the best flavor comes from the high 80's with this strain, and someone just said they fermented in the high 90's and the flavor was too "mellow", wyeast says this yeast "benefits" from 90+ temps. But does it flavor wise?

Click to expand...

I've actually been using the WL-568 Saison Blend, and I've heard others comment on subpar performance over the 80's. I'll try to keep this next batch in the 80's.

I know we're talking about different strains here, but do you guys start hot, or start normal and then apply heat after a few days?

Taurean, I had similiar luck with my 3724 I made a starter and pitched at 75-80 degrees. kept it there for 2-3 days then it started to slow. I put it out in my garage which easily gets up to 100 during the day. I put 1 lb of sugar in at that point. the OG with sugar was 1.065 like yours and it ended up fermenting down to 1.010 in a 3 weeks in the garage. I figured it was done at that point and brought it back inside the house where ambient is 76 and continued to let it sit just because i didn't have a keg available. Just checked the gravity today and it is actually down to 1.006! It did stall out at about 1.025 at about 1.5 weeks into fermentation but with the hot garage and aquarium heater which kept it at about 85 at night fermentation took a month which isn't too bad at all. And I should mention the sample does taste amazing.

I don't think this yeast is a pain as long as you have a way to keep it at 85-90+.

I'm excited tonight to brew a big saison which I'll just throw on top of the yeast cake!

Camneel, I thought mine was done at 1.008, but after racking (4 days ago!) I'm getting one bubble a minute, and my temp is only 78. Wonder how low it'll drop? I'm hoping to bottle it in 10-17 days, unless it's still going.

taurean said:

Camneel, I thought mine was done at 1.008, but after racking (4 days ago!) I'm getting one bubble a minute, and my temp is only 78. Wonder how low it'll drop? I'm hoping to bottle it in 10-17 days, unless it's still going.

Click to expand...

The bubbles may just be CO2 coming out of solution.

I've had good luck and speedy fermentation using 3724 and 3711 in combination, the flavour tends to lean towards the 3724 profile, but gets nice and dry in a reasonable amount of time.

Maybe. But I racked about 10-12 degrees cooler than fermentation. CO2 usually leaves the solution because it expands when racked at a warmer temperature than what was used to primary.... or so I thought.

yeah it may keep creeping but shoot I don't know it was my first time using it. I did mash really low for a long time and added sugar towards the end of fermentation which probably helped me dry it out so well. I'm a little worried right now because I did a second saison on top of the first yeast cake and went on a three day trip while leaving the beer in my garage. During this time Denver experienced a heat wave and it easily was over 100 in that garage consistently. Hopefully this isn't too hot but it smells fantastic. Didn't taste it yet because it is still going crazy fermenting. I'm guessing it will be fine.

taurean said:

Maybe. But I racked about 10-12 degrees cooler than fermentation. CO2 usually leaves the solution because it expands when racked at a warmer temperature than what was used to primary.... or so I thought.

Click to expand...

CO2 will come out of solution if the temperature rises.

I brewed a 1.067 saison with WLP565 (supposedly the same strain). 20# Pils, 4# rye, 3# sugar. [10 gallons]

Pitched in the low 70's, started raising it as soon as I saw fermentation activity up to 86 degrees over about 2 days, and held it there until 21 days after pitching.

Finished at 1.004 and tastes superb.