3724 Belgian Saison

Folks, searched board and cannot find this answer. There is a lot of info about fermenting this yeast at high temps. My question is that I fermented for 5 weeks at 94 degrees but what do I do now? Current gravity is 1.004. At 94 the yeast is still quite suspended. Should I lower temp to 72 or even lower to crash the yeast in secondary?
Thanks in advance, Marty

Holy cow, dude! Yeah, lower the temp to your room temperature for a few days and then go even colder, down to near freezing for a week or two. I’m sure the beer is very much done by now and the yeast are in suspension because of the temperature. Wow, I honestly never heard of anyone ever keeping a beer that long at that temp! Really curious how this “baked beer” will turn out. Please tell when you taste it!

i’m also very curious. that strain has a crazy high temperature range. let us know!

Thanks! I will post an update after a couple more weeks at lower temps. Even right now the samples taste great so we will see.

Here is the verdict… After 5 weeks at 94F my Farm House Ale was down to 1.004. Lowered temp to 50 and let it rest another 2 weeks. Racked to a carboy this morning. Had to taste it of course and it is absolutely delicious. It has the perfect blend of farmhouse spicyness and the wonderful flavors that make a great saison. Hold it, if you sample your latest batch before work…??? Now back to the point… This is a marvelous yeast as long as you are patient and can ferment hot enough. it “stuck” at 1.030 just like the message boards said it would, but in the end fermentation finished up just fine.

That’s great! Congratulations!

Believe it! This yeast works great at those high temps. I use this yeast during the warm spring and fall of Texas. My garage is 80-100 degrees, and I just let that carboy sit for 5 weeks. My saisons have finished from 1.001-1.008 and taste great. These are well hopped, all malt beers with no spices and they come out with no yucky phenolics or off flavors. I usually pitch the yeast at about 68-70 and then let it go up from there. I do occasionally add some fresh English/American yeast at bottling just to make sure the bottles carbonate. This way I can store the beer at house temp and still make sure they carbonate. I do bottle my saisons, because I like the carbonation level better than I can get in my keg, and it is not a beer I drink on a daily basis. They stick around for a little too long if I keep it in a keg.

I’ve had good results with taking this strain to some crazy temps as well. Starts great but finishes sloooooooow.