First Saison

[CTolino]

Just brewed my first saison this past Sunday, I used some Irish moss at the end of the boil to clarify the wort, also ran it through a hopback with whole leaf hops to add some more filtration. It's about 5 days into fermentation with Wyeast French saison yeast. It has a bunch of sediment floating around, which i can only assume is normal for this stage in the fermentation, but it has a kind of bite to it when I taste it. Any idea on what that would be? Could it just be residual bitterness from hops sediment? Maybe some yeast? Any ideas?


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[TheZymurgist]

That "sediment" is yeast doing their job. Fermentation is a fairly violent process, the beer is constantly mixing and churning. Describe the "bite" a little more. Is it a bitterness? Is it an alcohol sharpness? Most likely it's just green and will smooth out once fermentation is done. Post you recipe and more of your process, and we might be able to help a little more.

 

[jnacey]

Agree with the above. I would say that the "bite" that your tasting is what's conveniently called "yeast bite". What you're tasting is actually the yeast still in suspension. All of this is normal. You really have to wait for the yeast to finish fermentation and drop out of solution to get an idea of what the final product will taste like.

Although the 3711 is less finicky than the dupont strain, it'll still help to keep this one on the warmer side for fermentation to really get the saison characteristics. Good luck!

 

[kharper6]

I have used this yeast many times. This is a yeast that you need to be patient with. My saison tastes really awful for about two-three weeks.

At about week 4, two of those weeks being held at about 37 degrees, it begins to clear up slightly and taste awesome.

Until then, it is very yeasty, and the yeast carry a lot of flavor. Once they are gone and their subtle flavor is left in the actual beer, it is great.

 

[CTolino]

I figured some of it was yeast, I wasn't sure if the bite was coming from it or not. It's a sharp flavor that hits at the very back of your mouth, not an alcohol type of bite. I wasn't sure if I was getting some hops sediment. I wanted to make sure I didn't get tannins from the grains.


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[TheZymurgist]

It's a lot more difficult to extract tannin than most people would have you believe. Unless your pH is way off, you're sparge water is way too hot, or you're boiling a bunch of the grains you're not likely to have any tannin.

 

[CTolino]

Yeah, we had a tannin problem in our first brew. It was an IPA, and we sparged too quickly. Then our next brew, our blichmann brewmometer on our mash tun got stuck, and mashed at 170 for around 20 minutes. That was a mess, but with some doctoring got our pineapple pale ale came out pretty good. This saison seems to be coming along nicely. I tried it today, and it tastesuch better. It's still bubbling pretty good, and it's a week in. I'm probably going to drop the yeast cake Friday or Saturday, and let it sit for another week after that. I'm getting a brewhemoth fermenter next Tuesday or Wednesday, so I can afford to let it sit for an extra week.


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[TheZymurgist]

Yeah, we had a tannin problem in our first brew. It was an IPA, and we sparged too quickly. Then our next brew, our blichmann brewmometer on our mash tun got stuck, and mashed at 170 for around 20 minutes. That was a mess, but with some doctoring got our pineapple pale ale came out pretty good. This saison seems to be coming along nicely. I tried it today, and it tastesuch better. It's still bubbling pretty good, and it's a week in. I'm probably going to drop the yeast cake Friday or Saturday, and let it sit for another week after that. I'm getting a brewhemoth fermenter next Tuesday or Wednesday, so I can afford to let it sit for an extra week.


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What do you mean by "drop the yeast cake?"

 

[CTolino]

I drop the all the sediment at the bottom of the conical. I don't have a second fermenter yet to use as a secondary, so I just drain the crap out of the bottom.


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[TheZymurgist]

Gotcha. After fermentation is done, right?

 

[CTolino]

Yeah, I let it ferment out then drop all the sediment out of the conical, and let it sit for another week


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[CTolino]

Saison is clearing up nicely, It'll hit two weeks Sunday. Still bubbling pretty regularly.


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[CTolino]

Dumped the trub out of the fermenter today, and took a gravity reading and we are looking at a high gravity saison! OG 1.061 and it's reading 1.006 right now... 7.2% saison


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