Belgian Saison II yeast attenuation.

Well im sitting here racking my brain on what I want to do with a saison I brewed. OG was 1.086 and right now im only at 1.032 only 60% attenuation, from a yeast that is suppose to have 75-80%. After the krausen dropped I tried raising the temp a little more, but never took off again. Beer taste great, but I wanted a dyer beer. So im thinking either, pitching some dry yeast to try and finish the job, other option is to throw in some Brett that I have lying around, but really dont want to do that cause I want to drink this one some time soon.. Other option is just to leave it alone. What would you do? Also anyone else had this problem with this yeast? I went with the saison II yeast because of the problems I have read about the Saison I yeast not producing a dry beer.

How long has it been since the beer started fermenting? What was the temperature during fermentation? I leave my saisons in the fermenter for about 3-4 weeks at 85F (but pitch at 68F) and they reach over 82% attenuation. Chris White said that it can take a while to for the yeast to reach terminal gravity, especially if the beer is cool. He also said that if a brewer wants the beer to be drier they could pitch another yeast strain, like champagne or chardonnay yeast.

Iordz said:

How long has it been since the beer started fermenting? What was the temperature during fermentation? I leave my saisons in the fermenter for about 3-4 weeks at 85F (but pitch at 68F) and they reach over 82% attenuation. Chris White said that it can take a while to for the yeast to reach terminal gravity, especially if the beer is cool. He also said that if a brewer wants the beer to be drier they could pitch another yeast strain, like champagne or chardonnay yeast.

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Humm interesting, its only been a week, but its been at the same gravity for 3 days. I started fermentation at 70 maybe a tad lower then slowly raised it up to 80-85. Basically im pretty sure its about as low as its gonna go, at least it seems that way.

I have two more questions: what was the mash temp and did you use simple sugars? I like to mash at 145F and I use about 10% cane sugar in my saisons and I can get them down to 1.006. Saison can take a while to ferment, like I said I usually let mine go for three weeks. Sometimes I pitch champagne yeast after it reaches 75-80% attenuation.
I must say, however, I have not brewed a saison with a gravity over 1.070, and I see you brewed quite abig one, so that might be have something to do with it. I think if let your brew sit for two more weeks it will dry out. Take a gravity reading after a week and see if it's any lower. If it isn't try piching a second yeast, any dry yeast like Cal ale, Nottingham, champagne (my fav) or a wine yeast.

Iordz said:

I have two more questions: what was the mash temp and did you use simple sugars? I like to mash at 145F and I use about 10% cane sugar in my saisons and I can get them down to 1.006. Saison can take a while to ferment, like I said I usually let mine go for three weeks. Sometimes I pitch champagne yeast after it reaches 75-80% attenuation.
I must say, however, I have not brewed a saison with a gravity over 1.070, and I see you brewed quite abig one, so that might be have something to do with it. I think if let your brew sit for two more weeks it will dry out. Take a gravity reading after a week and see if it's any lower. If it isn't try piching a second yeast, any dry yeast like Cal ale, Nottingham, champagne (my fav) or a wine yeast.

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Well funny thing about the temp. My thermometer quit working during this brew, so I winged it. However im pretty sure I mashed low, or at least thats what I was going for. Also I used 10% raw sugar in the wort. Ill take your advice and let it sit for another week at 80 and see if it does any good. If not im thinking of pitching some nottingham..

Thanks for the advice.

Good luck!
Yeah, my digital thermometer was not working properly, it was showing the "correct" temp of 149F for my IPA but it turned out that the real temp was 124F! Good thing my analog thermometer works fine.

Iordz said:

Good luck!
Yeah, my digital thermometer was not working properly, it was showing the "correct" temp of 149F for my IPA but it turned out that the real temp was 124F! Good thing my analog thermometer works fine.

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Yeah, im thinking I need to get an analog. My digital showed my temp at 100 when I just put the pot on the burner. So I knew something was wrong, cause the water was close to 55 or so. Turns out the battery was just very low.