Bottle conditioning with wyeast 3724: Belgian saison

[TAK]

Does anyone have advice on or experience with bottle conditioning/carbing with wy3724: Belgian saison?

This yeast is so temperamental and temperature sensitive, I just wonder about a few things.

1.a) My ambient house temps that I carb everything else at is in the 70's. I've been fermenting at 92*. I don't really have any way to control the bottle conditioning temps. Is the mid-70's too low?

1.b) I could bottle condition outside, or maybe the attic, but the temps probably swing from the 70's at night to the 90's or even 100's during the day. Is this a better option? Is there any reason this might increase the chance of bottle bombs if I'm aiming for 3.5 volumes CO2?

2) I've never paid too much attention to the temp variable on the carbonation calculators, but I figure it plays in to this beer. The calculator I use specifically asks for the temp AT bottling. In this case that would be my fermentation temp, 92*. If I calculate my sugar based on 92*, but I'm actually conditioning in the 70's, am I miscalculating?

 

[aiptasia]

1a&b) No, and no. In the 70's is fine and nobody will steal your beer if it's inside. Those damn racoons love a good Saison.

2) No. The carbonation calculators are attempting to take into account the residual CO2 left in saturation in your finished beer. They do this by adding in the average amount of CO2 saturated into water at that given temperature and then adjust the sugar amounts in the calculation so you don't over or undercarbonate the beer. Whatever the current temperature is of the beer is what you need to enter in to your calculations.

 

[duboman]

Here's mine, today, 1 week in the bottle at 71!

Needs another week or two to really shine but its delicious so +1 aiptasia's reply!

 

[TAK]

Thanks for the quick replies.

aiptasia, your answer to #2 totally makes sense. I did a tad bit more research on carbonating and ran into some information about volumes of CO2 already in "flat" beer. I thought to myself, "S%#t," that's one more thing I have to worry about. Now I know!

 

[DSorenson]

Huh... amazing other people have these same questions. I woke up last night thinking, "man, I hope the mid 70s was enough to bottle carb my saison these past almost 3 weeks." My saison did get stuck during fermentation in the high 70s just as I've read about. It became unstuck with use of a heating pad. Here's my question...

Once a fermentation sticks and you unstick it, is it always unstuck?

 

[duboman]

Huh... amazing other people have these same questions. I woke up last night thinking, "man, I hope the mid 70s was enough to bottle carb my saison these past almost 3 weeks." My saison did get stuck during fermentation in the high 70s just as I've read about. It became unstuck with use of a heating pad. Here's my question...

Once a fermentation sticks and you unstick it, is it always unstuck?

Basically, yes, once you get it going again and maintain those conditions moving forward the yeast should fully attenuate

 

[reed1911]

+1 to bottling at normal temps. The only need to get it up high is so it will develop that flavor profile as well as to keep it from sticking at +/- 1.030. Once it gets past that you are safe to go back to room temp and bottle.

 

[DSorenson]

So according to duboman, I would have to maintain the higher temps required to unstick the fermentation moving forward.

According to reed1911, once the problem is rectified I can move back to the temperatures prior to the stuck fermentation.

Do I have this correct?

 

[duboman]

So according to duboman, I would have to maintain the higher temps required to unstick the fermentation moving forward.

According to reed1911, once the problem is rectified I can move back to the temperatures prior to the stuck fermentation.

Do I have this correct?

3724 likes it hot so raise the temp and keep it there until you have verified the final gravity and the beer is done. After that temperature is no longer an issue.

If you drop the temp prior to FG again then it may stall on you again

 

[reed1911]

Yes, you have it correct. Once you have reached FG when you prime it will carb nicely.

 

[DSorenson]

I suppose that I'm only confused because a second fermentation happens in the bottle to carb using the priming sugar. Ergo that might lead me to believe that the same old fermentation problems might still apply...

Thanks for your patience guys!

 

[DSorenson]

Well for what it's worth, experimentation often alleviates confusion. My Saison carbed really well sitting at around 78 degrees for 3 weeks.