Did I screw this up?

[bbedell]

I recently attempted to brew a clone of Saison Dupont found on candisyrup.com. The recipe was followed to the letter. My pitch rate was according to the help document on their site, with the one difference being that my started ended up being ~1600ml rather than their recommended 1705 ml.

http://www.candisyrup.com/uploads/6/0/3/5/6035776/saison_dupont_clone_-_040.pdf

http://www.candisyrup.com/uploads/6/0/3/5/6035776/pitching_rates_-_rev_1.14.pdf

Brew day went pretty smoothly. My original gravity ended up at 1.062, rather than the indicated 1.058 on the recipe...I'm guessing because I lost a bit more water during the boil that I had estimated for. Another note, the candi syrup and sugar were added with 10 minutes left in the boil (I emailed their site to ask when to add it as the recipe did not mention this).

I used a wrap around carboy heater with a thermowell to control temp, which was maintained at 80 degrees for the first 3 days then slowly decreased to 70 degrees over the next 4 days. The yeast took off at first and hit Krauzen around 12-18 hours after pitching.

The main problem I've had is that at 7 days when the recipe recommends to transfer to secondary, my specific gravity was only down to 1.042. I wish I had read the threads on this site first, but I did not and so followed directions and transferred to secondary after 7 days.

The first thing I'm wondering is why did I get such a small gravity drop here? The second thing I'm wondering is did I screw up majorly by transferring to secondary when the SG was still at 1.042? Should I have given it more time in primary to get down near the target final gravity (1.008)? Is it worth waiting 10 more days then measuring a gravity or do I have no shot at this point since the beer is already off of the yeast cake? Thanks for any help.

Beau

 

[cswis86]

Did you use the yeast in that recipe? WLP565? It's known to stall and take awhile to finish:

http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp565-belgian-saison-i-yeast

I don't know if you made a starter or how you oxygenated your wort but all of those are factors in how well/fast a yeast will attenuate. The fact that you transferred to secondary will slow down fermentation since you separated the beer from the majority of the yeast so I would give it more time. I'd also suggested warming it back up. In the future don't follow a set time frame in a recipe. Check the gravity and transfer when it is near finished... or don't transfer at all and just let the beer sit in primary for 3-4 weeks.

Also did you measure gravity with a hydrometer or refractometer?

 

[bbedell]

Yes, I used the WLP565 yeast. I made a 1600 ml starter as indicated in the pitch rates PDF that I linked in my original post. Decanted off the wort and added some of my new Saison wort prior to pitching on brew day.

I oxygenated with pure 02 as indicated in the recipe.

All specific gravity readings were taken with a hydrometer.

best to leave it in secondary as is until the specific gravity stops dropping? I currently have it sitting around 70 degrees...warmer? Any use in repitching some more 565? Thanks for your help

 

[cswis86]

Yup, just leave it in the secondary and forget about it for a couple weeks. If you saved some 565 from this batch I would add it but if you need to go out and buy another package I wouldn't bother. I would warm it up higher than 70 if you can.

 

[bbedell]

Will do. Thought about harvesting yeast from the brew but didn't. Need to invest in some mason jars. We'll see what happens over the next few weeks. I'll let you know. Thanks for your help!

Beau

 

[cswis86]

No problem! Mason jars are cheap and will pay themselves off after you re-use your yeast a couple times!

 

[bbedell]

After about 4-5 more weeks the SG fiiiinally dropped to around 1.010. Bottled it last weekend...about 6 weeks in the bottle until it's ready. I'll let you know how it does. Thanks again for the advice!