Slow fermenting Ginger Saison

[indiapaleadict]

I just brewed my first Ginger Saison which was a bastardized recipe from "Extreme Brewing". I wanted to do a partial mash so had to substitute the LME for base grains (2-row Belgian). My target IG was 1.072 and I hit 1.070 so I believe the Mash/Sparge went well. The day before brewing I made up a 1/2 gallon yeast starter using Wyeast 3724 smack pack and 8oz of DME. The starter began to bubble within an hour of pitching and all but stopped by the next day. After pitching the starter into my carboy, I had active fermentation within 2 hours and a nice 1" of krausen on top by the next morining. The problem I have is that this activity has slowed significantly and the krausen is gone after 24-30hrs. I do have small bubbles on the surface and very little gas in the blow off. I am considering pitching another smack pack tonight but wonder if the yeast strain I'm using is a slow fermenter with low activity. Almost forgot, I have the carboy in a small closet with 2 electric baseboard heaters set on a thermostat at 80degrees. This should be ideal fermenting temp. Any thoughts before I add to the already expensive recipe?

 

[dwarven_stout]

3724 is very finicky. I did a saison with this strain last fall and barely missed the heat wave. It languished in my garage for 2 months- every time the temp dropped under 80, the fermentation all but stopped. I believe 3724 is the DuPont strain, and they are rumored to ferment at 90. Don't worry about off flavors- this yeast will not produce them at the same temps as normal ale yeast.

I roused the yeast several times by rocking the carboy, which helped considerably. You might consider repitching a neutral dry yeast like SA-05 to finish out the fermentation, but the sooner you do that, the less awesome saison character you'll finish with.

Mine was worth the wait- it was a darn tasty beer.

 

[indiapaleadict]

Thanks very much for the encouraging thoughts. I have the ability to regulate temp pretty efficiently with the thrermostats. I would rather not crank it up to 90degrees if I dont have to but if that is what it takes to wake these cells up then I will. I will rock the carboy tonight and see if that gets anything going.

As a side note, I was encouraged to buy a 4 foot lenght of 1" vinyl hose and stuff it into the neck of the carboy as a blow off. It seems to go in snug but the weight of the line pulls it away from the edge slightly and I worry there may be a slight air leak. Have you used this system before or do you use the old standby stopper and small line? Could this have something to do with the slow fermentation?

 

[indiapaleadict]

Just got home and checked the temp in the closet where fermentation is taking place and although the ambient temp in the room feels warm, near 80 degrees, the temp down at the floor where the carboy is is much cooler. The temp strip on my carboy is only reading 72-74 degrees. I am almost certain this is contributing to the slow fermentation. I have moved the carboy off the floor and closer to the baseboard heat source. I will see if there are any developments overnight and post back tomorrow.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

3724 is a pain in the arse. But treat it well and it'll give you the results you want. Crank the temps up to 80-85 and give it time. My saison took 6-7 weeks but it got down to 1.002.

 

[indiapaleadict]

Can you send me the recipe for comparison?

 

[dwarven_stout]

Mine was very simple- 10lb Pilsner, 1lb Munich, 1lb Candi sugar, with 1.5oz Sterling at 60 and 1oz Saaz at 15 and 5m. I had a 1.062 OG and a 1.004 FG; my notes say the fermentation took 6 weeks.

 

[indiapaleadict]

The carboy temp rose overnight to around 78-80 degrees. There is still very slow airlock activity but I do belive the yeast is working. Unfortunately the weather here is not cooperating and is still seasonably cool. I really dont want to keep my heater going for 6 weeks at 85 degrees. If I were to pitch another Saison strain that ferments at cooler temps would that be a reasonble approach now. Any suggested strains?

 

[dwarven_stout]

wyeast 3711 is a good strain that is less picky. The key here is that even a finicky yeast like 3724 will ferment out in a week if you treat it right. When mine went for 6 weeks, it was because I was having just as much trouble as it sounds like you are in keeping the temp above 75 or so. When I did get it into the mid 80s, the process went noticeably faster.

 

[mattmcl]

I've got a saison bubbling away right now at 80F. I got a bucket big enough to hold my carboy and an aquarium heater. Highly recommend doing this to control high fermentation temps.

 

[indiapaleadict]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[ChshreCat]

Most of the good flavors are made by the yeast early in the ferment. You could always use a neutral yeast like S-05 to finish, though it won't get quite as dry as a saison should be. As said, 3711 is a great saison yeast and you might be able to use that to finish it out if it really turns out to be too much of a pain.

 

[indiapaleadict]

any particular fish tank heater you like???

 

[mattmcl]

No particular brand, but I would suggest getting one for a 15 gal tank, the 10 gal one barely holds 80F.

 

[indiapaleadict]

So I purchased a 100W aquarium heater as recommended by mattmcl, but unfortunately without a method of continuously circulating water in the bath, the heater does not maintain temps above room temp. The water imediately surrounding the heater warms and then the built in thermostat shuts the heater off. I checked the gravity this morning and it is 1.050 so in about 5 days I have taken it down 20 points. At the current rate I will likely need a month to get it down to around 1.015. The beer has a great flavor already and has great belgian yeast esters. I plan on pitching a Wyeast nutrient packet and give it some time.