Wlp 530

[Eric_The_Dead]

My first post on homebrewtalk! I've been homebrewing extract recipes for over 10 years now. I've always enjoyed tweeking these recipes a bit and making them my own, so to speak. My favorites are high gravity belgians as they are typically my favorite beers to drink. I've never had the motivation to jump from extract to partial/all grain as I have very little time to even brew extract...I've gone over two years without brewing at all due to family, career and other hobbies (I'm also a part time musician). With that said I've often turned to this website to gain insight. One lesson I've learned from here is the importance of making a yeast starter for high gravity beers.

 

[Eric_The_Dead]

My first post on homebrewtalk! I've been homebrewing extract recipes for over 10 years now. I've always enjoyed tweeking these recipes a bit and making them my own, so to speak. My favorites are high gravity belgians as they are typically my favorite beers to drink. I've never had the motivation to jump from extract to partial/all grain as I have very little time to even brew extract...I've gone over two years without brewing at all due to family, career and other hobbies (I'm a full time dad/husband/probation officer and a part time musician as well as a homebrewer).

My next project I want to do is a medium gravity belgian saison, add some heather (not sure how much but a past low/medium gravity brew that I used it in became a fav among friends - they don't typically like higher gravity beers and are Bud/Coors fans) and use the White Labs Abbey Ale Yeast (WLP 530). After primary fermentaion is done, I'd like to then reuse the yeast to brew a high gravity Belgian Quad (for me!). Was wondering what input other's with more expertise/experince think about this plan before I invest in this whim.

Thanks!

 

[serum]

For a Saison you really want a specialist yeast that attenuates more than 530 will but I'd still go ahead with your plan. What you'll end up with is a blond beer rather than a Saison and it will still taste good. Saison yeast wouldn't work as well in a quad.

Look up recipes for "Patersbier". This is the low strength beer the trappist monks made for themselves and lot of people make these so they can pitch a massive beer onto the yeast cake.

I'm not an extract brewer but if you used pilsner/pale extract and possibly a little wheat to get to a gravity of around 1045 and kept hops to around 20-30 IBU with noble hops then it should end up spot on.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I've used Wyeast 3711 (French Saison) several times with great results. It ferments like a beast. I had a 1080 brew end at 1004! It's a slow finisher (took about 5 weeks) but worth the wait. It has a spicy yet silky profile. It really developed nicely after 6 month in the bottle.