One week fermentation with Wyeast 3724?

mrvilhauer · July 2, 2012, 12:20am

The situation:

Purchase Northern Brewer Petite Saison d’Ete kit.
Don’t get the yeast right away, as I’m travelling back four hours and figure I’ll find it later.
Discover that the local brew supply store doesn’t carry the Wyeast French Saison (3711) and that Northern is now out of 3711. Buy Wyeast Belgian Saison 3724 instead.

In doing research of the Wyeast 3724, I discover that it takes high fermentation. I use this as an excuse to finally get a temp controller and electric ferm heater. I brew, I carboy, I set the heater for 85-87, and I sit back and wait.

It’s been a week. I’m curious if it’s “stuck at 1.030” like everyone talks about.

It’s not. It’s at 1.008.

I’m a year into serious extract brewing, and am preferring to get this part right before pushing forward to all grain, which means I’m sure there’s something simple I’m missing here. My two questions:

How low should I expect this to go? It’s a recipe designed for the French yeast, and I’m using the Belgian, so I’m assuming it’s going to work a little differently than others have talked about on this board. BeerSmith suggests a final gravity of 1.008, but there’s no way this can be done, can it?
With that in mind, should I sit on it even longer? Should I hold off and hope it goes down further?

Thanks in advance, y’all.

belpaire · July 2, 2012, 10:27am

Being an extract brew with no sugar, it’s probably at FG. Your warm temps are what got your there without sticking. Most brewers, m,yself included, keep the ferm temp down at least at the beginning of the ferment.

I would still keep it at the temperature your fermented at for another week to let the yeast clean up after themselves.

nighthawk · July 2, 2012, 11:50am

1st, toss out the notion that any brewing software will tell you what the FG should be.

As Belpaire said, your warm temps from the beginning more than likely allowed the fast, stop free ferment.

mrvilhauer · July 2, 2012, 1:21pm

[quote=“Belpaire”]Being an extract brew with no sugar, it’s probably at FG. Your warm temps are what got your there without sticking. Most brewers, m,yself included, keep the ferm temp down at least at the beginning of the ferment.

I would still keep it at the temperature your fermented at for another week to let the yeast clean up after themselves.[/quote]

It sounds like I should have ramped up the temp on this? Start at, say, 78 and move up from there?

Have I done anything goofy by just blasting the heat from the beginning? It smells fantastic right now, but I have yet to taste it.

Thanks for your help and patience.

belpaire · July 2, 2012, 9:22pm

You might be alright with your temps, it is an unusual yeast. There’s only one way to know.

Give an update when it’s done, I’m curious to hear how it turns out.

mvsawyer · July 2, 2012, 9:32pm

[quote=“mrvilhauer”][quote=“Belpaire”]Being an extract brew with no sugar, it’s probably at FG. Your warm temps are what got your there without sticking. Most brewers, m,yself included, keep the ferm temp down at least at the beginning of the ferment.

I would still keep it at the temperature your fermented at for another week to let the yeast clean up after themselves.[/quote]

It sounds like I should have ramped up the temp on this? Start at, say, 78 and move up from there?

Have I done anything goofy by just blasting the heat from the beginning? It smells fantastic right now, but I have yet to taste it.

Thanks for your help and patience.[/quote]
Cooler. Yeast do their cleanest fermenting in the 60’s for most ales. Try and maintain a constant temp throughout fermentation and start ramping up the temp at the end to let them cleanup.

mrvilhauer · July 25, 2012, 5:11pm

A bit of follow up on this.

After a month of sitting at roughly 83, I pulled the heating element and let it sit at 67 to get the yeast to settle out. Bottled it last night (FG 1.004) and took a taste - surprisingly bitter, which seems off style but doesn’t taste horrible. In fact, it’s much more complex than I’d imagined.

Time will tell if this experiment turns out okay, but for a first-timer using both controlled heat and an awkward yeast, I’m pretty happy.

Now to throw that temp controller on the outside fridge and try my hand at a lager …