Saison du Tracteur yeast?

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rhys333

rhys333

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Does anybody know the yeast strain for Saison du Tracteur out of Quebec? I've decided to try harvesting since it appears to be bottle conditioned due to large amount of sediment. Odds are it's the primary strain, so what the heck.

They claim to use a true belgian strain, but thats all I can find out. Tasting the beer, it has a noticeable tartness, slight banana hefe-like fruitiness and spice. Could it be Wyeast Belgian 3724?

Thanks in advance guys.
 
Well I figured I might hear crickets on this one due to the obscure nature of the thread. I notice a few views though, so I thought I'd report back on how the harvesting is going. Following DonOsborn's procedure on Youtube I decided to start with a 200ml 1.020 wort (with the sediment from one bottle of saison in this case), then step up to 1.030 and finally 1.040.

I'm two days into stage one of my process and up until last night there was zero activity. This morning bubbles are rising and there's a thin krausen forming on top. Success! I'll give it another couple days and then sniff the spent wort before transfer to 1.30 to see if I achieved saison-y goodness or Frankenyeast.
 
No idea about the yeast, but I'll vouch for the beers deliciousness. Here in Ontario we get a little bit of TDD on draft and this is always a treat. I do know they dry hop and carbonate very heavily on this one! Happy harvesting.
 
Yes, there was a ton of yeast in just the one 750ml bottle. Stage 1 starter took about four days to do its thing, and stage 2 maybe another two days. I haven't used it yet, so its sitting in the fridge. I probably need to do two more steps-ups to get it to pitchable quantities. Thanks for the link btw. Didn't realize they used a ton of hops.
 
I want to revive this thread, maybe get a clone going out of this? I was reading an interview with them, and they said in it that their inspiration was a classic Dupont, except replacing the hops by really intense american hops. So I'm guessing it's just a classic strain like 565, and confirmed bottle conditioned. Don't know if they use the same yeast in the bottles, though.
 
I don't think different yeast at bottling could change taste substiantially (except Brett and I don't believe that use Brett in this).

As for a clone, hop schedule will be key, but I saw nowhere TDD revealing what hops are in there.
 
If they use a different yeast at bottling and that's what you use to try and make a clone, you wont get the same taste at all, especially not in a saison
 
As for hops I'd probably go with a ton of Amarillo/Simcoe/Cascade/Citra? in late boil/dry hop.

They've talked about lime. Maybe they add a bit of lime zest at end of boil.
 
i tasted the starter i made and it was distinctly saison-ish. 3711-ish to be precise.

...guess they could've used another strain to start and the french strain to lower gravity quickly.
 
It's possible they use 3711... it does have a peppery/citrus notes to it (like Saison du Tracteur does). 3711 is known to enhance aroma hops, which is something they do as well.

I found an old facebook post from 2011 that states hops are Amarillo and Simcoe. This is a craft pub that had Saison du Tracteur on tap and state hops for each beer. See beer #9
https://www.facebook.com/brouepubbrouhaha/posts/115140208563216

If we can get a recipe together before this weekend or the next, I'll brew it.
 
A hoppy Saison with Dupont and 3711 is one of the next thing I wanted to brew... I also happen to have Amarillo and Simcoe in my freezer. I think I'll give it a try, aiming at Saison du Tracteur's numbers.
 
brag said:
A hoppy Saison with Dupont and 3711 is one of the next thing I wanted to brew... I also happen to have Amarillo and Simcoe in my freezer. I think I'll give it a try, aiming at Saison du Tracteur's numbers.
Click to expand...

Lets do it ;)
 
So grain bill:
Pilsner malt
Rye malt
Wheat malt

I do get bready flavors when I drink Saison du Tracteur, like fresh bread from it, maybe a tiny bit of munich in there?
 
I've been overthinking this for a few days, with the flavor, and how to get it... and i'm starting to think it's a classic dupont strain mixed with 3711. Maybe 3724, being a slower strain, I'd think that if you harvested from the bottle, 3711 would be the dominante strain. Just throwing it out there.
 
It could be, I really don't know for sure. What I can say is that I was told they use French Saison strain. There was nothing said about using a second strain, but there's every chance that they do. If it's not two yeast strains though, could the flavor be from hops?
 
I have a recipe down mostly pilsner, 18ish% rye, 6ish% White Wheat, 3%ish Munich. I have a hop schedule of simcoe and amarillo only from 60/30/10/5/0, 90 min boil. I'll use the Yeast Bay Saison Blend and see how the flavors come out.

abv 6%
ibu 34.2
est fg 1.007

I think this is close to the numbers.

I'll be brewing it this upcoming weekend, i'll update in 3/4 weeks from now.

If you have opinions let me know.
 
Awesome look forward to hearing the results! Where are you located if you dont mind me asking?
 
Just tested the starter and it went from 1.035/1.040 to 1.005, or 85-87% attenuation. It also has a mild citrusy taste to it. I believe its WY 3711 French Saison strain or equivalent. Last time I used 3711 it attenuated 89% on an all-grain batch, so ~87% here with extract starter would make sense.

Stepping up one last time to 1.040 and brewing with it this weekend most likely.
 
sweet! Keep us (me?) posted hahahha

Too bad you're so far away I'd steal some of that yeast from you just to see! ;)
 
I should be kegging tonight/tomorrow my version of Saison du tracteur! I decided to go with 3711 due to your notes and modified the % stated above. Will be doing a blind test with mine and real stuff to see.
 
boicutt said:
I should be kegging tonight/tomorrow my version of Saison du tracteur! I decided to go with 3711 due to your notes and modified the % stated above. Will be doing a blind test with mine and real stuff to see.
Click to expand...

Let us know how it goes. Noticing something here with my final starter. I'm doing the 'swirl' method as I don't have a stir plate. Most of the yeast is quite powdery, but there is some modest clumping going on. Did your 3711 starter look like that?
 
rhys333 said:
Let us know how it goes. Noticing something here with my final starter. I'm doing the 'swirl' method as I don't have a stir plate. Most of the yeast is quite powdery, but there is some modest clumping going on. Did your 3711 starter look like that?
Click to expand...


No clumping in the starter, in my fermentor there is quite a bit of tiny yeast balls/clumps the size of a black pepper, about. More than Ive ever seen. Sample tasted great last week.
 
On further inspection it's not really clumping up... more like drifting snow. Sure had a lot of yeast as of 8:00 am this morning! I need to try more bottle harvesting in future. Something about buying a couple beers for a few bucks and turning them into 40 or 50 more is quite appealing. Thinking Schneider Weisse is next on the list.
 
Well, for better or worse its done. Tested the spent starter wort before pitching and this time I only got 75% attenuation. Hmmm. Hoping its down to the DME which I guess is known to finish high. Time will tell!
 
I'm well into my tasting session of mine and theirs. My base bitterness is harsher than theirs, not by a lot but they barely have any harsh bitterness. Color for mine is slightly lighter, so grain % is off.

As for the yeast taste, it is somehow much more present in theirs than mine. Mine is stronger on the fruitness from the hops.

I'm not very good at putting into word what I taste but these are my first impressions. Mine is still undercarbed compared to theirs and I know carbonation affects the taste.
 
I can't say I'm really surprised. 3711 lacks the saison character if you ask me. Unless maybe they have a special fermentation schedule...
 
Colour isn't far off, but I'm not the best judge of colour. Maybe a 10-15 grams of chocolate or bp? I did that with my last saison for a little colour. How warm did you ferment btw? My last one was really citrusy early on and mellowed over time with a bit more spice coming through.
 
As for my harvested strain, its not looking promising. Had a not-so-aggressive fermentation going for maybe 24 hours (at a stretch), but half a day further on and its dead. Still has a dense 1/2 inch krausen on top, but other than that, nothing. I pitched around 18C and ramped over the day up to 24C. Thinking I'll leave it another day or two and check gravity. 3711 didn't behave this way for me before, but do any of the other French Saison brands do this?
 

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