First Saison - First time with high temps

[yinzer2]

Greetings all,

I've been brewing a while and am satisfied with my base Ales. I'm comfortable with making starters, using oxygen to aerate and temperature control. I'm making the Saison from Brewing Classic Styles and it states to let the fermentation ramp up to 80*F. Because of a few factors not relevant to my post, I ferment in a freezer and I use the light bulb in the paint can trick to set the ambient temperature inside the freezer warm enough so the yeast don't drop out. Basically the freezer is in a very cold room.

So first off could someone chart for me the ramping up steps? Just average where I started @ 68*F and figure a seven day ramp up to 80*F? What would be the clean up temperature and for how long?

The thing is a don't want to heat the fermentation manually, I'd rather have the yeast drive it. I'm thinking that instead of monitoring/controlling the fermenter and just moving the set point up, it might be better to set the freezer's controlling probe to control the ambient air of the freezer. Maybe place the probe in a thermowell to be placed in a very small water container to buffer the rush of cold air from the freezer. Again, keep the ambient air about 72*F and let the yeast do what they want to do naturally.

Comments? I'm very excited about this project. The starter had great esters and tasted very good.

TIA

 

[MalFet]

The trouble is, you want the temperature to be stepping up just as your yeast activity is starting to wane, which is exactly the opposite of what you'd get with a natural temp ramp. Why don't you want to use external heat?

 

[yinzer2]

The trouble is, you want the temperature to be stepping up just as your yeast activity is starting to wane, which is exactly the opposite of what you'd get with a natural temp ramp. Why don't you want to use external heat?

I think you've answered my question. TY.

I don't mind external heat but I can't heat the room where my freezer is. And yes I'm probably making problems for myself.

So I have the probe monitoring the carboy but I set it to 80F, virtually making it moot. I slightly opened the freezer lid and have my internal heat source on the lowest that I can. I have a stand alone thermometer in the freezer to try and tell me if it getting artificially hot. If that temp is leading my yeast I'll assume that I need to kill it.

Basically I'm coming for a world where I greatly improved my beer by controlling/suppressing yeast and I'm lacking faith.