Saison Summer fun: questions on a new technique

[tannnick]

Hey guys, I brewed a saison back in feb and it came out awesome. 1.072 OG, fermented 7 days to 1.004. This was Wyeast French Saison yeast. I love this stuff. Ok this time, I didn't do a big enough starter and it only dropped to 1.025 after 7 days. I want to do another starter with French saison and then some Brett Brux as well. I have not done too many experiments with Brett.

Here is my questions: I would like to drop the gravity a little bit more and then keg the saison and naturally carbonate using the Brett Brux. Would this work? How much would the brett continue to eat, and therefore how much more potential gravity do I need for the Brett to continue to carbonate the keg. I have been fermenting for 7 days at 78F with an OG of 1.074 and it is now 1.025.

Should I add the brett at the same time as the French Saison starter, or should I let the Saison yeast do its thing, and then transfer it to the keg and add the brett? I think there could be many ways to do this, I just do know about carbonating with Brett Brux. Thanks guys for your help.

 

[Almighty]

Well, that is a difficult question to answer without knowing how you brewed the batch. Mash temp? % Sugar? Plus this is just hard to know.

I have also used this yeast in my past 3 batches. For one of the batches I chose to under pitch it a bit to see if I could get some different flavors (subtly different). It was slower to finish (about 2 weeks), but still did finish down to 1.006. And this was an all malt Saison mashed at 149. So I don't think you need to make a second starter. The Saison yeast or the Brett don't need it. And add the Brett whenever it is slow to grow so the the extra gravity points will probably be eaten by the Saison yeast anyways. I'd add it now to speed up the process. Or wait on the Saison to finish and then bottle some without Brett. This way you have 2 beers from one batch plus it is fun to compare down the road

Your question about how low the terminal gravity will go cannot be answered by anyone. To carbonate the keg the Brett would only need to drop the gravity a few points depending on your desired CO2 level.

Here's the math
.5 oz sugar/ 1 gal of beer = 1 volume CO2
.5 oz = .03125 lbs * 40pts/lb = 1.25 pts = 1.00125
This does not account for any carbonation that is already in solution this just shows you once the beer is sealed (bottle or keg) that every 1.25 pt drop will give you an extra volume of CO2.

If you are going to keg this then it is easy. You just make a pressure release valve that can be set at a certain pressure for you given temperature. Just search the forum or internet on how to make one of these.

Or just wait for the beer to hit terminal gravity which for this yeast + Brett will be relatively quick ( guess ~1 month but you should check, wait, check). Then add priming sugar as you normally would.

 

[tannnick]

Thank you very much for that response. I brewed the beer 150 for 1 hour. Then mash out at 168. I am going to check the beer today, most likely keg the beer and then add the brett to it. I did add the other saison starter on Friday.

I will respond with what I end up doing later. Thank you for your help and the tip about the pressure relief. I forgot all about that.

 

[tannnick]

I transferred this beer into kegs right away. I was so wrapped up with pitching the brett b in 1 keg and naturally carbonating that I wasn't event thinking about the other keg. I normally transfer into 2ary and cold condition for a couple weeks then keg. So, now I will have to be very careful not to disturb the keg when I serve it!!

By the way, the fg was 1.005 with that yeast after like 12 days. I then pitched in a corny with 3.5 gal saison 2.5 oz priming sugar and a brett b. starter. I did build the pressure gauge with valve to monitor the pressure. I am at about 10 psi right now at 70F.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Calder]

It will probably take a long time for the Brett character to develop. Several months at least

 

[jtakacs]

95% attenutation...? dayum - i gotta get my saison on...

 

[tannnick]

wyeast French Saison yeast. That stuff is the bomb. It has done it twice. If you have a big starter it will ferment faster, but if not, it will ferment down, with a few extra days.

I woulda liked it done in about 7 days, but took about 12 because I had too high of brewhouse efficiency and overshot my OG.