WLP568 fermentation

JHELLERBREW · Aug 15, 2012

I just brewed a saison on 8/12. This was my first time using WLP568. Fermentation is aggressive and I'm feeling encouraged thus far. I was hoping someone could guide me in either using a secondary fermentor or just having a longer primary. This is my first non pale-ale homebrew, and I don't know whether or not 568 benefits from longer exposure in the primary (to clean up off flavors) or if the beer would benefit from being removed from the yeast cake. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!!!

kmos · Aug 15, 2012

Most folks will tell you that secondary is not really necessary unless you are dry-hopping, racking onto fruit, etc.

My vote would be to leave it in primary. The saison yeasts tend to have a really long fermentation anyway, and it would be a shame to rack it off too soon. Leave it in there for a month or so and you should be good.

kingwood-kid · Aug 16, 2012

568 is a blend of saison and non-saison Belgian yeasts, specifically tailored to avoid long and/or stuck fermentations. You shouldn't need a month in primary. 2-3 weeks, or whenever gravity stabilizes, and you're done.

kmos · Aug 16, 2012

kingwood-kid said:
568 is a blend of saison and non-saison Belgian yeasts, specifically tailored to avoid long and/or stuck fermentations.

This is true, and the real benefit to using 568 over 565; however, I did find that it took me a month -- obviously, every fermentation is different. However, the real truth is that there's no real rule-of-thumb: yr beer's done when yr beer's done (e.g. when the gravity stabilizes).