Wyeast 3739 - An animal!

[PaulHilgeman]

About 2 weeks ago, I brewed a belgian table beer, about 1.038, about 8oz of Crystal malt in in, and also about 8oz of honey.

The smack-pack alone took that beer down to 1.004 in about 3 days, pretty good performance I thought, gravity samples tasted great, typically belgian, no off flavors, a little dry and tart, but that should be expected with a 1.004 FG!

So the day I transfered it to a keg, I brewed up a BGSA, all base malts, mostly pils with a touch of oats and wheat, 2lbs of sugar in the 5g batch. OG of 1.085

Pitched it right onto the yeast cake at 66 degrees, had krausen in just a few hours, fermentation seemed to go smoothly, and 4 days later (actually less, more like 84 hours), the krausen has fallen and this thing looks like it has consumed the bulk of the sugars. I plan on leaving it in Primary for another two weeks or more to let it really clean up, and I can cool it down to 38 to get things to really start clearing before I keg it.

I will take a gravity sample tonight, but this stuff is crazy, after using 3787 and 3522 for almost every previous belgian fermentation, this stuff works about 4x faster than 3787 and about 2x faster than 3522.

I dont think there really is a problem going so fast, I did a 1.100 Rochefort 10 clone that was simply amazing that went down to 1.015 in 4 days, it was the best belgian beer I have ever brewed. That used Wyeast 1762.



Anyone else had a similar performance with this yeast

 

[weissbierdrinker]

That's pretty awesome, I use the 3787 simply because it's the Westy yeast. I'm might have to give that one a try though. I made up a honey cider recently with the 3787 and the fermentation was so active it blew all up in the airlock. I was still pretty lively at 2 weeks.

 

[PaulHilgeman]

Ha, it was at 1.008

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I have that yeast on order. Haven't used it yet, but based on your story, should be quite good!

 

[mikeysab]

How did those ciders turn out with the 3787? I'm about to get started on a batch of cider and I was thinking of using the 3787.

 

[weissbierdrinker]

How did those ciders turn out with the 3787? I'm about to get started on a batch of cider and I was thinking of using the 3787.

I really like the 3787, after a year the apple flavor really comes out. Plus there is loads of carbonation.

 

[jtejedor]

Yeah this yeast is awesome. I brewed my take on Gulden Draak bumped up a little and figured the beer would finish out around 12% alcohol. To my surprise it took the beer from 1.109 down to 1.010 finishing at 13%, and this was with only a pound candi sugar in the recipe. I was very impressed and saved a few quarts of the slurry. I pitched a half quart of the slurry into a saison that I wanted to finish high to make a sour with it. I figured the yeast were so stressed they should tire out and not finish the beer too dry. Well it took that beer from 1.084 down to 1.007 in 3 days.

 

[osagedr]

Used this yeast twice; first out of the smack pack with a starter on a Dubbel that went from 1.058 to 1.003; took some of the cake from that into a Trippel that went from 1.085 to 1.002. It performs!

 

[Saccharomyces]

The amazing thing about this yeast is that even though it attunates the crap out of any wort, the beer still has a nice, subtle residual sweetness to it, which lends to a nice balance in the beer.

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

I got a smack pack of the 3739 about a month ago. I made a 2 liter starter and used it for what was supposed to be a Belgian Blonde Ale. I took a hydro sample last night and it was down to 1.000... wtf?? I wasn't expecting it to go that low! Now I'm regretting adding the 1.5 lbs of candy sugar...

This strain is a beast. I'm glad I made a few slants with it.

 

[redbone]

did any of you guys get any banana esters out of this while it was fermenting. My quad smells like its gonna be a banana bomb! I hope not!!!

 

[popsicleian]

Zombie thread alert!

I have a Belgian Golden Strong fermenting with this yeast right now. I took a gravity sample after about 8 days of fermentation yesterday, and it took it from 1.074 to 1.004, and it's still bubbling quite a bit. I hope it stops soon, because I'm on kind of a time crunch with this beer. For those who have used it, is this the kind of yeast that tends to really be done when it slows down, or is it like some other Belgian strains that take a while to knock off the last couple of gravity points?

I'm kind of regretting using 18% sugar in this beer--it obviously didn't need that much for proper attenuation.

 

[bolus14]

Did you still have krausen or just airlock bubbling?

Not sure how much of a time crunch you're looking at, or if you're kegging or bottling, but I would give it at least 3 weeks before you bottle or keg it, regardless of whether fermentation signs stop or not. You want to give the yeast time to "clean up" before you package it up otherwise it might taste "green/off" for the first couple weeks that you drink it.

In my experience with 2 or 3 Saison strains and a few other "regular" Belgian strains there's only one or two that are finicky about fermentation, I believe 3724 is the worst and needs the temps to be ramped up to finish. Others seems to be normal to fast fermenters and then just need a little clean up time.

Given that yours has gone from 1.074 to 1.004, that's 94% apparent attenuation, on a strain that Wyeast lists at 76-80%, I would say it's done if the FG doesn't move over 2-3 days. I know many Belgian strains can blow past the given attenuations, but in my experience once the FG is stable they're done, unless that FG is high, like 1.025+.