Gigayeast GY027 - Saison 2

[snowveil]

Does anyone have first hand experience with this strain?

I bought a pack in early 2015 and it pretty much got forgotten about in my fridge. I made a step starter and just pitched it into 5 gallons of wort that I plan to sour once the primary is finished. I will say, the 1.054 wort has taken off after only 5 hours with a 500ml -> 2000ml starter with WELL expired yeast.

The information I got from Gigayeast when I emailed them last year was:

Hi Mike,
Thanks for writing! GY027 leaves a fuller bodied beer than some saison yeast-- which is part of the beauty of it. Our lab tests on % attenuation were conducted using DME wort and fermented at 71.5 F for 7 days. In terms of your brew: if you want a saison with a modest amount of esters/phenolics I recommend starting fermentation at 70 F and letting it rise to 73-75 F. If you want a kung pao saison pitch at 72-75 and let it rise to 80. We have commercial brewers fermenting this yeast as high as 90 F. Let us know how it turns out.

I asked if they'd share the source of the strain but they didn't reply to that part of the email.

At first I wasn't thrilled with the idea of a Saison strain that doesn't attenuate as well as others, but if the flavor profile is solid it could be blended with other strains (like 3711) that will dry it out some more.

Google has surprisingly little information about this strain.

What are your experiences?

 

[BeardedMicheal]

Well, if you are souring after primary fermentation, then that might be a good strain to be using. The unfermented sugars can be utilized by whatever souring blend you use, which will create a smoother transition into long term breakdown of complex polysaccharides.

 

[BeardedMicheal]

Also, I haven't used that strain before, but generally do Brett Saisons with a lower attenuating Saison strain.

 

[snowveil]

We'll see how the attenuation goes...it took off like a rocket within 5 hours of pitching. It's still bubbling away slowly at 68 degrees 2 days later. I mashed at 160*F and used 2lbs of oats...half of which were capped in the mash just before mash out to keep some starch for the Brett. The krausen of the half of the batch that got windsor ale yeast has already dropped.

I plan on rinsing this GY027 yeast cake and potentially using it in the near future. Id like to get a German Pils rolling and it might be a good 10 gallon recipe to split between Pils and Saison. Depending on the attenuation get I may toss in another, more attenuative strain with it a few days into fermentation. I've got some washed WLP530 in the fridge that drops pretty low.

I'll update the thread with aroma/taste notes once I pull some hydro samples before racking onto the bugs. There is just SUCH a small amount of information out there about this strain. It'd be nice to know the source brewery to get a better idea of what this strain can do. I like a good spicy/peppery saison, but lightly fruity/musty character is a great change of pace. Not sure if there are any Saison strains that produce that without going with Brett as well.