Saison yeast question

[promontory]

OK, so I was at my local brew club last night, and I was talking to a guy about brewing this Cherry Saison tomorrow. Anyway I didn't have the yeast yet so the guy said I could go buy a Saison Dupont from the store, drink the first part, swirl and make a yeast starter out of the last 2 inches. So last night I bought the beer, made the yeast starter outlined in palmers book like I usually do and swirled up the beer and dumped it in.

It has bubbled a little but not as much as normal starters seem to... Any advice before I brew tomorrow at like 10am?

thanks

 

[twigboy2000]

How much starter wort and what OG did you dump the dregs into? Was it just one bottle of dregs? Normally I step dregs up twice before making a full sized starter and usually I do it with a couple of bottles worth of dregs.

Also, have you read up on the Wyeast 3724 (Dupont) strain? There are some special considerations for this yeast.

A quick search of the forum for '3724' will yield plenty of experience.

-chuck

 

[promontory]

I did 2 cups of water with 1/2 cup of dme... haha so I should have stepped it up at least once, possibly twice... After reviewing your link it also looks like I should be fermenting hot... 70+ is this true.. New to this style, glad I am learning now before I brewed...

I can step it up tonight but with only one step up sounds like I might be under pitching anyway... any other thoughts?

 

[dawgman]

Try popping over to the cellar or mountain home lhbs and getting a couple 3711's

 

[Mmenges]

Not sure what the yeast that you're going to be using is but generally they don't seem to finish as dry as they should. Start your fermentation at about 68 for the first two days and bump it up two degrees every day after until you hit 80. This should help you to hit a low finishing gravity and get some more of the peppery/spicy yeast character without the hot alcohol taste.

 

[dwarven_stout]

I did 2 cups of water with 1/2 cup of dme... haha so I should have stepped it up at least once, possibly twice... After reviewing your link it also looks like I should be fermenting hot... 70+ is this true.. New to this style, glad I am learning now before I brewed...

I can step it up tonight but with only one step up sounds like I might be under pitching anyway... any other thoughts?

70+ is the minimum for that yeast. You really need a way to keep it at 80 for the bulk of the ferment time, which can be weeks. DuPont ferments at 90 for a week, but that's a production decision rather than necessarily a requirement (according to Markowski, anyway).

Can you push back the brew a day? Overnight is barely enough time to do a starter from a smack pack- much less bottle dregs of uncertain condition. Like you've learned, it's best to step it up.

The DuPont strain is actually a blend, whereas the Wyeast #3724 (great yeast btw) is a single strain. I bottle-cultured Dupont a while back, and I slightly preferred the flavor profile over the single strain. I didn't have a quicker ferment, but it did attentuate more easily than the single strain. Keep at it, and you won't be disappointed.

 

[promontory]

Thanks for all the notes everyone. I just stepped up the starter... if I wake up in the morning and its not bubbling pretty strong, I'll head up to mountian hbs... and grab some 3711. I just hoped this would work, makes for a fun story for the beer. Wish I had known this a week ago... Would have setup the starter then...

Mmenges, the yeast is pulled from the dreg's of a Saison Dupont, This is a crazy experiment that I didn't think this would be this hard.

Glad to be having fun though.

 

[dwarven_stout]

The yeast is pulled from the dreg's of a Saison Dupont, Twigboy noted that is Wyeast 3724...

It's a fine distinction, but #3724 is one of the several (3 or 4, no one is 100% sure) strains that you'll get from culturing out of the bottle. The wyeast cultured strain is responsible for most of the flavor, while the other yeasts seem (at least in my previous experience) to aid a little in attenuation.