I did a double batch this weekend saison with wy3711 and Belgian pale with wl530. I chose these because my basement is 72deg this time of year so I figured those beers I would not to cool them. I want to let them run. Pitched them under 70 deg now they are both fermenting like mad at around 78. Did they warm up to fast or is it ok.
Hey Cat, thought about this a lot in recent yrs. and what I found was most Belgian yeasts are beasts and eat like crazy. So at higher temps they almost overproduce those great yeast flavors, but I noticed also those ‘burning’ alcohol flavors in the end, and didn’t like that. So I started my ferms at 66-68 deg. until initial ferm was over, then kicked em up to the 70’s. I also went to 1/2 gal. starter pitches and 50-60 sec. pure oxygen thru a stone for the ferments for the beers that were around 1.050’s. I tried different yeasts too like WLP 575 blended[ 500-530-550 combo]. Those initial temp changes, plus big starters and the pure oxy injections made all the undesirables go away. I’m lovin’ Belgians more than ever now. I’m thinking of doing a large Golden now using 3/4 gal starter and those same temps and see where they go from there. Save some of your batch, then experiment on another one and see what the taste diff is. For me it changed my strategy. Let us know what you think. Good luck…B.C.
That’s about we’re I started 68 dg.yesterday afternoon this morning they were around 72 when I got home this evening they were 77. Probably should have put them in a swamp cooler for a couple days. You think it’s to late to try and cool them? And I agree I’m really growing fond of the Belgian styles since I started home brewing.
Sorry about the late rep, I just remembered to tell you about a couple of really good references I read in 2 back issues of BYO. One is an article from Mike Heniff [ byo jan/feb 2007] the other is from Jamil [ byo may/june 2013 ] I know you will get a lot from them like I did. I guess you could try to slow it down by cooling now that it’s still early, I went 7-10 days before my initial ferm backed off, before I started to warm em’ up. That’s up to you. I just knew I had to do something different than what I was doing, and the change was significant, at least I thought so. I usually milk the hell out of a style before I get sorta tired of it, but it’s not been that way with the Belgians. And ya know, I don’t care if someone else doesn’t like em’, I do! Let us know what you get into…B.C.
I’m a big fan of starting my Belgians and saisons on the mid to low 60s and then bringing them up to the 70s or 80s. As mentioned, fermentation that occurs too fast often results in the loss of those precious flavor and aroma compounds.
