I am making my first saison. I did it last weekend and using the french saison yeast in a starter. my og was a 50, But I started the fermentation at about 68 and now it is 80 after 4 days. But my question is that after two days the foam disappearred and no air lock activity. I took a reading and it is a 30, but still looks very milky. Someone told me that saison yeast can be very slow and you really don’t see much on activity since it can take three weeks.
What are others opinions on that since it is my first.
Don’t go by airlock activity, just give it more time. It’s kind of unusual for that yeast to take so long, but not cause for concern. What was your wort composition?
Brew TV has a great video called “happiness is a warm carboy” and in it Chip brews a Saison. During the fermentation the beer goes through three different periods of active fermentation (where activity is visible).
That being said, I would definitely give it time and have some home brew.
[quote=“brauer.erik”]I am making my first saison. I did it last weekend and using the french saison yeast in a starter. my og was a 50, But I started the fermentation at about 68 and now it is 80 after 4 days. But my question is that after two days the foam disappearred and no air lock activity. I took a reading and it is a 30, but still looks very milky. Someone told me that saison yeast can be very slow and you really don’t see much on activity since it can take three weeks.
What are others opinions on that since it is my first.
Erik[/quote]
are you measuring gravity with a hydrometer or refractometer? If the latter, are you correcting for alcohol?
Also, when folks mention that Saison yeast can be slow, they typically mean the classic, one-strain version of DuPont yeast sold as Wyeast 3724 / White Labs 565. If you’re talking about the French Saison strain from Wyeast, that strain usually just munches its way down on its own. Be patient, 4 days isn’t that long.
If the beer is still “milky” or cloudy, then it is probably still fermenting. Once it starts to clear up and the yeast start to fall down to the bottom of the carboy it is pretty much done. Try to keep it at 68 or above, and then once the yeast flocculates and drops, take another gravity reading.
