Saison w/ WLP 565 Saison I yeast

Hey y'all! I'm new to homebrewing as well as this site. Both totally cool stuff!!

I just started a batch of saison w/ WLP 565 Saison I yeast. I pitched the yeast 42 hours ago and it's still crankin'. It's been fermenting in a room at 80-82 deg. I've read lot's of different things about when to rack w/ this yeast to the secondary fermentor - everything from 2-3 days to a month or more.

My question is this: How do I know when to transfer to the secondary fermentor??? I've read/heard that this yeast takes patience. It just seems that some folks want it to spend more time in the primary vs the secondary fermentor, and I'm a bit confused over the right approach. BTW, OG was about 1.049. I've read that with this yeast, if patient, it can get to a TG of < 1.010.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help...

I would wait until your hydrometer samples are constant over several readings. That is the only sure fire way to know it is fermented out.

Wait until it's done fermenting. Let it get to your expect FG (within a couple points) and is steady for a while. Then you can just leave it there to clear like many folks on here do, or you can go to secondary. Me, I'd give it another week or so, then a week in secondary, but I'm just anal that way.

1. i'd say don't bother with secondary. there's no point unless you're aging it for several months, and instead the beer will benefit from sitting on the yeast cake.

2. that yeast strain tends to slow down and play dead before the beer is really done. the first time I brewed with it, I had bottle bombs. keep the temperature up and make sure it's DONE before you bottle. that yeast likes it hot, up into the 90's even.

3. enjoy, it will be a great beer.

I would wait at least 3 weeks with 565. Just give it time. 80+ is a good temp for the yeast, but keep it up there and it will finish out. There's no real need to secondary, but if you want it super clear or something, you can. Just make sure it finishes. Take your hydrometer readings and be sure.

my experience with this yeast was 4weeks in primary, and swirling the fermenter after 2 weeks to rouse the yeast. No secondary, streight to keg.

I brewed with the same yeast on sunday. Fermentation started by Monday morning, with bubbles coming out nicely from the blow-off tube.

The bubbles had all but stopped by Tuesday night (only 2 days) and now I don't see any airlock activity (switched from blow-off to airlock).

My room temp is averaging about 77 degrees...

I'm a little worried that it is stuck. I'll take a first hydrometer reading probably on Friday, and start going from there. I don't know if I can heat it up much more than room temp, I guess i could buy an electric blanket if I have to.

My O.G. was about 1.047 (though I think my reading is light due to partial boiling), so with 65-75% attenuation I'm expecting a FG of around 1.011-1.016 (did I do that right?). If I don't get down to around 1.014 I'm worried about bottle bombs, so I might add in some dry yeast to be safe... we'll see.

I brewed a saison with this about 2 months ago. SG was 1.058 and it ended at 1.012. It was in primary for 28 days @ 78-82 degrees. Then racked to secondary for 14 days for clearing purposes. After it fermented, I didn't conrol the temp so much. I let it drop to room temp which was 74-76 degrees. I just bottled it last week and it tasted pretty damn good.

Just took my first hyrdro reading 6 days after brewing. It's down to 1.014-1.015, with an OG measured at 1.047 (though it was partial boil, so I'm guessing OG was actually higher).

So despite the fact that fermentation seemed to die out really fast (only about 2 days), it looks like it didn't get stuck. Phew. I'll wait 2 more weeks and bottle.

That might wanna go down further than that. Saison's should ferment out quite dry. I'd give it a swirl, keep it warm and check it in a week and see if it's dropped further.

ChshreCat said:

That might wanna go down further than that. Saison's should ferment out quite dry. I'd give it a swirl, keep it warm and check it in a week and see if it's dropped further.

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I used wlp565 which has an attenuation range of 65-75%... the 566 is 78-85% so it would go down further...

Will yeast ever beat its attenuation range? 75% for me puts me around 1.011-1.012 or so...

jigidyjim said:

Just took my first hyrdro reading 6 days after brewing. It's down to 1.014-1.015, with an OG measured at 1.047 (though it was partial boil, so I'm guessing OG was actually higher).

So despite the fact that fermentation seemed to die out really fast (only about 2 days), it looks like it didn't get stuck. Phew. I'll wait 2 more weeks and bottle.

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I'd wait 'till it finishes.

My last saison stalled at 1.018 in the mid to upper 80s for a while before it finally finished below 1.010.

definitely wait. 2-4 primary, 2-4 secondary. also, crash cool the secondary before you keg. this will give you a crystal clear saison. it is truely a bizarre yeast.

THANKS to you all!!! I've been out of town for awhile so I haven't seen all the responses until now - COOL! Just wanted to let y'all know that the advice is appreciated and I'm learning quite a bit. I have a pale ale to bottle either tonight or tomorrow and I think I'll take a hydrometer reading on the saison during the same session. I'll let you know how things progress. Thanks again...

I am also a HomeBrew Newb. I also started with a saison beer as my first. I started with the same strain as you, on Saturday, 06/20/09. I had the wyeast pack and popped it, waited about 5 hours, and pitched. I swirled the hell out of it, and sealed my bucket. I checked the gravity today and was still at 1.024(started 1.062) uncorrected at about 76 degrees. I gave it a gentle swirl, and now my airlock is going crazy again. I brought it to a warmer level in my house(about 80) constantly. I'm going to keep it in primary and not go to secondary. I want to try it with as little help as possible. Plus I like cloudy beer. Good luck to you. And let me know how yours comes out. I'll be happy with a FG of 1.015 or less...

Are any of you going to bottle your saison? I'm wondering how much priming (corn) sugar to use... the recipe I have calls for 1 cup, which makes me a little nervous because every other recipe I see uses 3/4 cup...

And then it seems like every carbonation calculator I find online has a different answer about how much sugar to use, and then often times the answer is in weight not in volume.

Confusing.

jigidyjim said:

Are any of you going to bottle your saison? I'm wondering how much priming (corn) sugar to use... the recipe I have calls for 1 cup, which makes me a little nervous because every other recipe I see uses 3/4 cup...

And then it seems like every carbonation calculator I find online has a different answer about how much sugar to use, and then often times the answer is in weight not in volume.

Confusing.

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I don't know much about it, but I can tell you that the recipe I used calls for 3/4 cup cor sugar @ bottling.

You want to measure your priming sugar by weight rather than volume. Volume can be variable while weight is constant.

Last night the saison was at 1.020, after about 15 days fermenting. It appears to be doing nothing, which would normally have me thinking it's stalled (temps have been a bit lower - mid 70's) and probably a bit worried. From what I'm gathering from the advice on here, I am planning to just keep the temps up and wait another couple weeks, then check again. Sound good?

How'd this one turn out?

Yeah, how did it turn out?