Brett Saison - Fermentation Temp

Hi Everybody. First post on this forum. So, I am starting to work on a Belgian Saison with Brett Brux. This will be my first attempt, but I think I have everything figured out except the fermentation temp of the Brett... Here's why.

So first, I have a tub with a fish tank heater and circulator so the water temp will be consistent throughout the tub. Got that figured out so far.

I want to do a 5 gallon batch and split it up into two car boys so I can pitch brett at different times to see which one I like better and then build and perfect my saison.

I plan on pitching brett into one of the fermentors either at the start of primary pitched along with the Belgian Saison yeast or when the fermentation dies down. The other fermentor I plan on re-racking, saving a couple bottles un-bretted, and pitching brett into secondary on the second batch.

So I will have in the end - Regular Belgian Saison, Brett pitched in primary and Brett pitched in secondary.

I want to ferment this sucker pretty damn high... Probably will start 80 and end at 90.

That's my plan... Anyway, my REAL question is this:

How will the Brett react to this high temperature fermentation? Is it useless to even attempt this?

This is my bill, by the way for anyone interested. I would take recommendations as well.

Franco-Belges Pilsen Malt – 10 LBS

Franco-Belges Vienna Malt – 2 LBS

Unmalted Spelt Berries – 3 LBS (Cereal Mashed before adding to mash)

Hallertau Hops – 2 oz (Bittering)

Strisselspalt – 1 oz (Late Addition)

Saaz – 1 oz (Finishing)

Orange Peel – 8 Grams (Last 15 Minutes)

I did a 100% brett b batch a few months ago. I kept the temp between 76 and 80. It turned out good with a nice funk to it.

Brett will be fine with those temperatures.

I forgot to add that I'm using WYeast Belgian Saison yeast and WYeast Brux

The late hops might fade considerably in the time it takes for the Brett to do its thing. You may have better luck dry-hopping immediately before bottling. Brett also does interesting things with acids, so you might squeeze some of the orange into the beer too. However, ReverseApacheMaster is probably--no, definitely--a better source of info about these sorst of things than I am.

The Belgian Saison strain is the most annoying strain in brewing, IMHO.

You can follow all the guidance and internet lore with increasing the fermentation temps, "waking it up" with simple sugars, using less O2 than normal / more O2 than normal, only brewing during a full moon while wearing a wolf costume, etc... and no matter what you do that sucker is going to stop fermenting after it eats 2/3rds of the sugars and the PH drops like a rock -then you just have to wait and I mean WAAAAIIIIIITTT for it to finish. That Brett is going to be an order of magnitude even slower, too.

I love the Belgian Saison flavors but I still think I'd choose the French Saison first just to free up my fermenters in a reasonable amount of time.


I fermented 80 - 90 when I last used the Belgian Saison (Dupont) strain and I wished that I hadn't; just too phenolic for me.


Do what you want to but the ultra hot fermentation temps just don't do it for me; the flavor suffers, IMO, and it doesn't really help that particular PITA yeast strain to finish any faster. -After reading "Brew Like a Monk" I brushed off Jamil's advice on a normal fermentation temp (or only slightly higher than normal) for a saison and I regretted it. -His ultra safe fermentation profiles seem a bit "boring" and non-traditional according to the modern advice for brewing Belgian beers but the results seem to speak for themselves. (I admit that I am particularly sensitive to phenolics and don't care for anything other than a hefeweizen strain's clove phenols so my opinion should definitely be viewed through that lens.)




Adam

biertourist said:

The Belgian Saison strain is the most annoying strain in brewing, IMHO.

Click to expand...

that's why its good to use with brett.

The Wyeast Brett Brux does great in the high 70's, although I never take it over that. I'm doing a 100% Brett Belgian blond right now and it didn't take off for 3 days at 68 degrees. Put my space heater near it to get the temps up to ~76 and it started chugging away, no problem.

Got the saison in the fermenters. Fish tank heater and fan to circulate water. This is going to be great for perfectly regulating temps. One has saison yeast and brett pitched together and one just has saison yeast. I thought that the Saaz hops might fall out, but I am bottling a few straight saisons because I simply can't wait long enough to try this. It will give me a really great idea what certain yeasts do to the flavor.