Saison Restart

[jvetter]

So I brewed a Saison on the 4th and I ended up being a little more efficient with my extract than expected (1.082 sg versus 1.074 sg). Thus, the amount of yeast I pitched was probably a little low even though I used a 2 vial 3 liter started on a stir plate.

I pitched the yeast when the beer was around 74 degrees F and set the ETC to 82 F by the end of the day (my research shows the WL565 likes it warm). After 2 days the primary fermentation seemed to stop, the gravity was only at 1.060 or so, and the top of the wort had no activity. Four days after the brew I was only seeing bubbles every 25-30 seconds.

Not really knowing if the problem was a yeast problem or fermentable sugar problem, I added some yeast nutrients, oxygenated, and raised temp to 85 F. Then submitted this post to help determine whether it was a fermentable issue.

Well today, three days after my addition of oxygen and nutrients (5 days after the brew) I'm seeing a every 4 second bubble rate, and significantly more activity on the top of the wort.

So my question is WTF! Did it really take 3 days for the oxygen and nutrients to get to the yeast or is there something else at work here?

Thanks,
Jaime

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Which Saison yeast is it? I've heard some of them are really finicky.

 

[jvetter]

Which Saison yeast is it? I've heard some of them are really finicky.

White Labs 565 - Saison I.

I've also heard things and read about it in the "Farmhouse Ales" book.

 

[henrychinaski]

good to see this thread. i've used wlp565 for the last time. it produced a great classic saison for me about two years ago, but it hasn't finished out any of the last 6 batches i've used it for.
the last one was a 10 gallon batch (a rye saison, o.g. 1.074) for which i did two starters. thinking that the previous problems were due to the fact that i wasn't getting the temperature high enough, i put one out in the garage that was getting up to about 88 - 90 deg. during the day and staying pretty warm through the night. after two weeks of lackluster bubbling from both carboys i racked them and they were both 1.020. after pitching some wyeast 3787 on them they only got down to 1.015.
i sent a message to white labs explaining the problem, and they just said that you can either ferment at higher temperatures (i did!) or be patient (uh, even with nary a bubble?) or use another yeast to finish it out.
i can't see how saison dupont gets such good attenuation from this yeast. they must be way overpitching or something.

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

I think that's the one that Jamil complains about, too.

At least there's always champagne yeast to finish out a Saison since dryness isn't an issue...

 

[jvetter]

Yes, but the weird thing about this is the restart. I haven't heard anything like this happening before. Especially since I oxygenated and added nutrients 3 days prior to the restart.

This morning the bubbles are even faster! So the question remains, was it the oxygen and nutrients that caused the restart or something else. I would expect the yeast to react quicker to the introduction of these.

Jaime

 

[The Blow Leprechaun]

Only way to know is to look at it and taste it. If it's something else, it's too late now!

 

[zoebisch01]

We had a thread on the Wyeast Saison here a bit ago. It literally stuck text book at 1.035. Then after about almost over a week I think it was it went down to 1.007 in like a day or two after it started or something like that.

here is the thread