Just wondering if anyone’s ever done this. I love the wit style and have recently discovered Saisons. pretty curious about combining the two. Thinking of using either 3711 (French Saison) or 3724 (Belgian Saison)
I’ve used the 3711 and loved the way it attenuates yet leaves a silky mouthfeel. I think it produces some glycerol which gives that mouthfeel. I only made saison with it and it was citrusy but I don’t recall it being real spicy. I kept the temps down though.
I’ve read the Belgian saison yeast is a little harder to get to ferment out completely, so I’d go with the 3711 personally.
I made a wit style not long ago using the Belgian Bastogne yeast, it wasn’t too far off style-wise. Basically I have to please mama with these as they are her beers, I’m not that big on the wheat styles.
I think 3726 (a Wyeast seasonal strain) is very wit-like. In fact, I made a saison with that yeast and later added some ginger and coriander to the keg to try to make it more wit-like. I thought it worked, and my friends agreed, but I never entered it into a competition to get a judges feedback.
If you can’t find 3726 anymore, I think 3724 would be the closest.
Thanks for the feedback, I think i will try the French Saison yeast if the Belgian one is hard to get to ferment all the way out. Good to know, and ill post back with results if anyone’s interested
You can also try White Labs Saison II. That yeast ferments like a champ! Just brewed with it two weeks ago (and I have used it in the past). Took my OG of 1.055 to 1.005 in a little over a week. Tastes fantastic too. It use to be a platinum strain but they made it year around this year.
Good luck!
I’m using the 3724 (Belgian Saison) and I’m having a hell of a time getting any sort of active fermentation - ever after using a stir-plated starter.
From what I’ve read warmer temps should help. I will have to wait and see. It’s been a week in the bucket and active bubbling has been negligible, at best.
I was planning on whipping up a saison this coming weekend, and using 3724 as well. All the stories say the yeast gets stuck halfway through and needs warm temps to finish, or the addition of another attenuative strain.
Anyone else have experience with the dupont strain, and a recommended course of action? Id like to avoid using another strain and just go the high temp route. I have an aquarium heater in a bucket of water that I was going to set to 88 and submerse a carboy in it, then just wait however long until its done.
[quote=“chaglund”]I was planning on whipping up a saison this coming weekend, and using 3724 as well. All the stories say the yeast gets stuck halfway through and needs warm temps to finish, or the addition of another attenuative strain.
[/quote]
Well, my 3724 started to bubble again this weekend, as temps rose. It’s only been a week in the fermenter at this point - and it had stalled out early with the cool temps in my “fermenting chamber” (aka extra bedroom). From what I’ve read it will need probably another couple of warm weeks. I’ll take a reading in a few days to see where I’m at.
