Brewing a wheat beer, suggestions

I’ve repitched it with great results. I assume that one strain will eventually dominate the other. I repitched 3 times and seen the same results. Using a little of the slurry and and making a starter. Together these two yeast strains work great giving you both fruity spicy peppery classic dry Saison taste. That using just one strain has yet to match it. Both Wyeast and Whitelabs say they are the same yeast used by Brasserie Dupont (Saison Dupont) on the yeast comparison chart. But if you ever use them side by side there is alot of difference in the two.

This is one of the books that will help you that most of us brewers have read and started with. How to brew by John Palmer. It’s free online and is a great book to learn from http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A2KLfRvLfbhaMdkAHUBx.9w4;_ylu=X3oDMTEyNTJqZzNsBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjQ1ODRfMQRzZWMDc3I-/RV=2/RE=1522069068/RO=10/RU=http%3A%2F%2Fhowtobrew.com%2Fbook%2Fsection-1%2Fyeast%2Fpreparing-yeast-and-yeast-starters/RK=2/RS=u4x3CA92M0lxD6VWks6vkybtdTc-

If I do the saison and yeast you all recommend, do you have to do the yeast starter or is it just an option? Thanks in advance everyone!

You can just pitch it to a saison. Some beers you can pitch a couple if you don’t have time or inclination to do a starter.

All right, well I placed my order :grin:, going to try and make an elderberry saison. I bought the yeast starter kit too.

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Good choice! So you’ll have time to read up on starters… Loopie introduced me to “shake the living bejesus into the starter” method… I tried that, and was able to give away stir plate… It works well! This is my method.
bring 1 quart of water to a boil. turn the burner off, now add 3/4 cup of DME to the pot and cover… I leave it on the burner, still off. The DME will dissolve in a few minutes or so…
Now, I have a 5 gallon bucket with Star San solution, there I soak my beaker, you could have enough sanitizer to just fill the beaker. A foam stopper is also being soaked/wetted with sanitizer also… The use of sanitizer is so important here…
After the water and DME, called a starter, is down to 70*, empty your beaker, (save the star san) , pour the cooled starter into the beaker. Be sure your hands have been thoroughly soaked with sanitizer too… Now cover the mouth and shake the living bejesus into the sarter… You’re making alot of foam (putting air into the starter solution)
Now, briefly sanitize your yeast pack, and whatever is going to touch that, open it and dump it into your starter… Again, shake it vehemently… And whenever you are walking past it, do the same…
It will take a few times, but you’ll figure out how the yeast acts, then, timing it at full activity, is the best time to pitch into your brew. Sneezles61

I did the yeast starter today and it is going well, I swirl it around anytime I am near to stay active. I am brewing tomorrow and adding elderberries. Just a question, what do you all recommend for amount of elderberries? I was thinking 1-2 cups and add during the 60 minute boil. Should I add the whole time? Should I have the elder berries in a bag of some sort? Thanks in advance!

I don’t know much about fruit in a brew… I would think after fermentation is settled down… Sneezles61

I brewed my saison today, added about 3.3 oz of elderberries during the last 25 minutes of the boil. I doubt it will be much, but we will see. Does anyone know if the saison does better with the blow-off tube?

Head space, How much yeast is pitched, and temp are some big factors to consider… If you put 5.5 gallons into a 6 gallon fermenter… I would use a blow off tube… In fact, I don’t use air locks for my brews any more… I will use them when doing a starter though… Sneezles61

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So my saison is almost at 2 weeks. It is still pretty cloudy, will it clear up by the weekend (with others experience) or should I give it a few more days. The more time I give it in the first fermentation does it do anything different or just make higher alcohol content?

Might clear but it may not. Now would be the time to take a specific gravity reading with a hydrometer. Take another reading in three to four days to determine if the fermentation is finished.

It was still bubbling as of yesterday.

Bubbles might just be the CO2 off gassing. Temperature change or atmospheric pressure change can force CO2 or air out to make bubbles in the air lock. I usually take the first SG reading at 10 days even though the fermentation probably finished in 4 to 6 days. I don’t rack to the bottling bucket until the beer has completely cleared around day 21 so I don’t rush it.

I suspect the fermentation is done if the beer was at a fairly steady temperature in the primary.

I am planning to bottle my saison this weekend. Since I added elderberries I was curious if anyone had any suggestion for how much sugar to add. Currently, this site (Homebrew Priming Sugar Calculator) is telling me to add 166.42 grams of sugar. I was wondering if I should reduce that because of the potential sugar added from the elderberries. I don’t want the bottles to explode while carbonating. Thanks in advance!

If the elderberries have been in the beer longer than a week, any sugar in them has probably fermented out. Otherwise, if you just added them, I would try and find out how much sugar they contain. It’s probably not a lot.

Cheers,

Ron

Edit:
Just went back and read a little more of the thread. If the berries were added during the boil, this will not effect the amount of priming sugar since the sugars in the berries has by now definitely fermented fully.

Got it, thank you! I added during the brew process and then the last (2) weeks of fermentation. Sounds like it will not be an issue and I can use the amount of sugar recommended.

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