Belgian Wit on top of Wyeast 3711 French Saison Cake

[av8er79]

I brewed a Saison a couple weeks ago and it is done fermenting. I am planning on brewing a Wit tomorrow. My idea is to rack the saison and put my wit in the bucket that my saison came out of. I have never done this. Is it as simple as draining the cooled wort out of the kettle onto the cake into the existing bucket or is it necessary to sanitize a new bucket and pour the yeast cake from the old one?

 

[sweetcell]

a whole yeast cake is over-doing (over-pitching) it. a quarter of the cake is probably too much.

you should look into washing the yeast first - see the stickie in this sub-forum. it'll separate some/most of the trub so you're not carrying over old crap to affect the taste of your wit. after washing the yeast, pitch it and the wort in a clean, sanitized bucket.

i'm not sure how "wit'ty" you wit is going to turn out using 3711. seems more like you'll be making another saison - with a wheat-ier base and with zest and/or spices. wits and saisons are primarily defined by the yeast. changing what the yeast munches through won't change the fundamentals of the beer. that being said, a saison with lots of wheat can be very tasty. in order to make this batch even more different than the previous, try fermenting at different temperatures. maybe a wheat saison would be good at lower temps.

 

[av8er79]

Thanks for the input after reading that I think I will scratch the idea and just use my wit wyeast.

 

[Oldsock]

Sorry to drag this one up, but I just took my first sample of a relatively standard wit fermented with 3711 in the mid-high 60s. I think the flavors are coming together really well. The yeast is certainly more expressive than a wit usually is, but given the flavor and cloudy appearance, I'd still say it is more wit than saison. I mashed at 158F and the French Saison still took it from 1.049 to 1.009. Hopefully it's done!

 

[eastoak]

Sorry to drag this one up, but I just took my first sample of a relatively standard wit fermented with 3711 in the mid-high 60s. I think the flavors are coming together really well. The yeast is certainly more expressive than a wit usually is, but given the flavor and cloudy appearance, I'd still say it is more wit than saison. I mashed at 158F and the French Saison still took it from 1.049 to 1.009. Hopefully it's done!

my buddy and i both brewed saisons with 3711, his stopped at 1006 and mine stopped at 1008.

 

[Oldsock]

my buddy and i both brewed saisons with 3711, his stopped at 1006 and mine stopped at 1008.

What was the OG and mash temperature? Most of my standard saisons with 3711 end up ~1.002 with an OG ~1.050 and mashing in the high 140s

 

[sweetcell]

Sorry to drag this one up, but I just took my first sample of a relatively standard wit fermented with 3711 in the mid-high 60s. I think the flavors are coming together really well. The yeast is certainly more expressive than a wit usually is, but given the flavor and cloudy appearance, I'd still say it is more wit than saison. I mashed at 158F and the French Saison still took it from 1.049 to 1.009. Hopefully it's done!

obviously only time will tell, but between the high mash and low ferment temps i would expect this to be just about done. 3711 is a beast under the conditions, doesn't sound like you provided those conditions. since higher temps are required to get those crazy saison esters and phenols, your clean taste description seems to make sense. congrats on what sounds like a tasty beer!

my only experience with 3711 was low mash (~149) and high ferment (started at 67, ramped up to 80 over a week) and i ended at 1.007. so ending at 1.009 doesn't seem crazy to me.

please let us know how it tastes once it's ready (that'll be my cue to trek on over )

 

[eastoak]

What was the OG and mash temperature? Most of my standard saisons with 3711 end up ~1.002 with an OG ~1.050 and mashing in the high 140s

my OG was 1.053 and i mashed at 152.