Saison acting strangely - Low FG after primary.

[BoogBrew]

Hey all!

Brewed a part-extract saison last weekend with a recipe from the owner of my LHBS. OG was 1.071 @ 5.25gal, pitched Wyeast 3711 at 75f and fermented between 72-80f. After 8 days in primary, the adjusted gravity reading was 1.005.
The gent that drafted the recipe said that the expected FG should be around 1.015.

Took a sample from the hygro-cylinder to find a sparkley, fresh Saison with notes of light fruits and hot alcohol.

Racked to secondary, only to find that after 3 hours, beer had begun to clarify to middle of carboy and a small krausen had begun to develop at the top of the carboy neck. (It seems as though I'm still fermenting as there are millions of little air bubbles rising to the top of the beer, off-gassing maybe?)

I only decided to move to secondary because the FG seem to have been reached. I have double-checked my hygro with tap water and all measurements seem to be within spec.

Why would I see such a low FG after only a week? What is the bubbling in my secondary? Will my FG go back up? Why the hot-alcohol?

edit:spelling

 

[beergolf]

Simple answer......

3711 is a beast. It will ferment low every time. I cannot see expecting 3711 to finish at 1.015. 1.005 is about what I would expect, it may even drop another point or two.


Let the brew sit for a couple more weeks to clean up. I have never had hot alcohol taste from 3711, but I never taste it after just a week. The bubbling you are seeing is probably just some off gassing.

 

[BoogBrew]

Beergolf, thanks for the feedback!

The plan is to allow this brew to sit for at least another 3 weeks, maybe more. I was thinking about bottle-priming with some orange-blossom honey for half of the batch and clover honey for the other half.

Any recommendations for priming sugars?

 

[lowtones84]

Honey can be fun but a little unpredictable. I've had good luck with regular table sugar or corn sugar for priming my saisons. And what Beergolf said is absolutely true. Saison yeasts attenuate very well and usually produce a really low FG. Mine last one got down to 1.001. Yowza.

 

[DisturbdChemist]

The saison i made with this yeast got down to .998ish and it was amazing. I need to brew it again.

 

[looneybomber]

If saison yeasts finish that low, why not use them in IPA's? Do they impart that much flavor?

 

[BoogBrew]

The saison i made with this yeast got down to .998ish and it was amazing. I need to brew it again.

Sounds like this yeast will eat everything!

 

[DisturbdChemist]

If saison yeasts finish that low, why not use them in IPA's? Do they impart that much flavor?

Yes it will have because i think theses are yeast heavy styles that get alot of flavor from the yeast. Maybe a Belgian/saison IPA perhaps?



I didnt even use a starter because i didnt have the equipment for it. I love my saison (7.2% 42 IBU's) it's smooth and refreshing in the summer time and have a few bottles left of it. I'm debating should i drink it or wait for a competition to enter it in. :rockin: So dont worry it took it that low. IMO saison should be on the dry side not sweet side

 

[homebrewdad]

Lesson to the OP - don't take one gravity reading an assume things are done. Had you done that and gone to bottles, you'd have lots of glass shards scattered about.

 

[frailn]

Lesson to the OP - don't take one gravity reading an assume things are done. Had you done that and gone to bottles, you'd have lots of glass shards scattered about.

So, how would one stop fermentation when it reaches desired FG and still have yeast for bottle priming? Or is that just not in the cards? I'm thinking if I need the FG higher, maybe I justt need to start mashing higher to get more unfermentable sugars.

 

[BoogBrew]

Lesson to the OP - don't take one gravity reading an assume things are done. Had you done that and gone to bottles, you'd have lots of glass shards scattered about.

...another reason that I firmly believe in secondaries.

 

[BoogBrew]

So, how would one stop fermentation when it reaches desired FG and still have yeast for bottle priming? Or is that just not in the cards? I'm thinking if I need the FG higher, maybe I justt need to start mashing higher to get more unfermentable sugars.

It has always been my assumption that yeast stays in suspension even after your beer has settled out in the secondary. Correct me if I'm wrong, the flocculation % will tell you how much of the yeast actually 'falls out' of the beer.

 

[ChessRockwell]

So, how would one stop fermentation when it reaches desired FG and still have yeast for bottle priming? Or is that just not in the cards? I'm thinking if I need the FG higher, maybe I justt need to start mashing higher to get more unfermentable sugars.

You wouldn't. I mean I guess you could pasteurize it or something to kill all the 3711 yeast and then add a different yeast for bottling, but the short easy answer is: If you need the FG higher, use a different yeast. 3711 will eat through anything and some have tried mashing higher just to have it eat all their "unfermentable" sugars.

The real question is why would you want your saison to have a HIGHER fg? They're typically pretty dry, it's kinda part of the style.

 

[beergolf]

So, how would one stop fermentation when it reaches desired FG and still have yeast for bottle priming? Or is that just not in the cards? I'm thinking if I need the FG higher, maybe I justt need to start mashing higher to get more unfermentable sugars.
frailn is offline Report Post

You can't stop the fermentation. You have to just let the yeast do what it is going to do.

Give it plenty of time to be sure that it is done.

The real question is why would you want your saison to have a HIGHER fg? They're typically pretty dry, it's kinda part of the style.

I agree. I like my Saisons dry.

 

[homebrewdad]

So, how would one stop fermentation when it reaches desired FG and still have yeast for bottle priming? Or is that just not in the cards? I'm thinking if I need the FG higher, maybe I justt need to start mashing higher to get more unfermentable sugars.

The only way to stop fermentation is to kill the yeast (pastuerization or a similar process). Brewing beer is not something with perfectly set guidelines, especially when doing new recipes; you are dealing with living organisms that do what they need to do.

The better choice is to adjust your expectations and understand what's going on.

 

[frailn]

The real question is why would you want your saison to have a HIGHER fg? They're typically pretty dry, it's kinda part of the style.

I was just asking in general - not for this particular style. Sounds like it's just as I thought. Fermentation happens until it stops happening.

 

[philipCT]

Well, even though this is an old thread, I'm really glad I found it! I just took a reading from an OG 1.041 Saison with 3711 working in Primary and got 1.001, 1.002 corrected. I was shocked. 95% attenuation. Holy crap!

I've never seen anything like that before in all my brewing experience (all six previous batches . I wasn't really worried, but I was definitely thinking that I might bottle it straight out of Primary instead of racking it to secondary for a while like I usually do. It's been fermenting now for 2 weeks and three days.

I was kinda thinking it's done, right? Or should I go to secondary and let it "finish"? Or just test SG again tomorrow and see if it's changed? This is the first recipe I've done that doesn't call for secondary. It calls for bottling about 2 weeks after pitching. I am a fan of conditioning longer to get a better flavor. Seen that happen on at least two of my brews, but I think this one may want to be "fresh".

Any thoughts?

EDIT: when I did that reading yesterday, there was no apparent fermentation activity. I replaced the blowoff tube with a bung & airlock, just until I figured out what to do. Now I do look at it and there's regular bubbling - like 1 per sec - activity! It's not done yet!

So now I really don't know what to do. I was about to cold crash it to prep for bottling tomorrow...

 

[looneybomber]

Take gravity readings. The airlock activity might be due to off gassing. If your gravity readings stay the same for 2+ days, you're done.