Saison yeast activity dropped off after short/weak fermentation.

[clockwise]

I brewed on 5/24 and fermentation started after about 24 hours. There was only 1/2" krausen for about 3 days then it just died down. I heated the room up to about 80 and shook up the primary a bit to try and reinvigorate. No dice.

Should I just buy another slap pack of the same (or different) yeast and pitch again? I've read that the Wyeast 3711 is typically a BEAST and can sometimes finish fermentation quite quickly. For other saison strains I've heard they ferment in fits and starts and this causes them to take up to 6 to 8 weeks.

Here's the recipe:

Yeast: Wyeast 3711 - Saison

60 Min Boil Schedule:
1.25 lbs Pilsen Light DME (60 min)
6 lbs pilsner LME (60 min)
.5 oz Saaz pellets (55 min)
1 oz Saaz pellets (30 min)
1/2 tsp irish moss (12 min)
.5 oz Saaz pellets (5 min)

14 oz of honey (directly into primary)

Brewed: 5/24/2014

Cheers!

 

[DarthCitra]

Swirl that baby around and give it some time at a nice warm temp.

what was your pitch rate?

 

[Brewbien]

Did you take a gravity reading? It may be done already.

 

[tagz]

did you take a gravity reading? It may be done already.

+1

 

[CreekBrewery]

Yeah, I'd check the gravity as it's probably done. 3711 is one if my favorite yeasts and it always finishes real quick for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[clockwise]

So.... there was very little krausen and air moving through the airlock. Are these items irrelevant when it comes to actual fermenting.... @ least with this yeast strain?

I'll check the gravity tomorrow.

 

[clockwise]

Swirl that baby around and give it some time at a nice warm temp.

what was your pitch rate?

Just 1 slap pack into 5 gallons. I must admit that the wort was cooled to room temp when I pitched.

 

[pdxal]

So.... there was very little krausen and air moving through the airlock. Are these items irrelevant when it comes to actual fermenting.... @ least with this yeast strain?

I'll check the gravity tomorrow.

Airlock activity is almost meaningless, and krausen doesn't tell much either. Gravity is what tells you the state/progress of fermentation with all yeasts.

 

[Hello]

Just 1 slap pack into 5 gallons. I must admit that the wort was cooled to room temp when I pitched.

You under pitched for one. But it could just be done. Take a gravity reading. Like the above poster said that will be the only way you'll know. Activity in the airlock is meaningless. I had a beer do nothing as far as I could tell and it went from 1.100 to 1.026 in a week. The airlock looked undisturbed.

 

[clockwise]

It's @ 1.006 right now! Unfortunately I didn't take an OG reading. I didn't really care too and figured I would just estimate. Tastes pretty good. Too dark for what I wanted, but that's pretty meaningless. I'm going to stick it on my higher shelf, let it settle again and wait 5 - 7 days. Take another reading to see if it drops a few more points.

I've only brewed with various ale strains and 1 hefeweizen before and they all had obvious signs of fermentation. Now I know. Can't wait to put this in my new, 2nd keg!!!!! :rockin:

 

[tagz]

Nice. Glad it worked out. The small krausen may have been due to the low pitch rate. If you save some slurry for another batch you should get a nice healthy krausen. While the airlock can be an unreliable indicator due to leaks, I think the activity in the carboy can tell you a lot. That's why I could never switch to buckets. You'll start to notice predictable stages of krausen after a while and it can guide you on timing things like dryhop timing.

 

[dyqik]

It's @ 1.006 right now! Unfortunately I didn't take an OG reading. I didn't really care too and figured I would just estimate. Tastes pretty good. Too dark for what I wanted, but that's pretty meaningless. I'm going to stick it on my higher shelf, let it settle again and wait 5 - 7 days. Take another reading to see if it drops a few more points.

I've only brewed with various ale strains and 1 hefeweizen before and they all had obvious signs of fermentation. Now I know. Can't wait to put this in my new, 2nd keg!!!!! :rockin:

I'm sure it will drop some more with your simple extract bill. I did an AG SMaSH with pilsner at 149F, and it finished at 1.000.