Saison fermentation temp

[Chrisharvey]

I have seen many opinion out there. I have a chamber with a reptile bulb and my garage is at 80 degrees. I don't trust my chamber at a high temp. Any suggestions on a yeast and if 2 days at 74 in the chamber followed by the garage anywhere from 75-85??? Help!

 

[LandoTheGambler]

I have tried a couple of saison yeasts that descend from the classic Dupont yeast... White Labs 565 liquid yeast and the Belle Saison dry yeast from Lallemand/Danstar. These yeasts will work great at high temp, and actually prefer to be over 75 degrees.

What I do with them is either make a starter with the WLP 565 liquid yeast to get my cell count up, or rehydrate two packs of the Belle Saison dry yeast, as per the instructions (you are not supposed to make a starter with them as they have been "fattened up" ahead of time, so to speak). Then I pitch at about 73-75 so as not to shock the yeast, put it on a heating pad set to 80 degrees. I measure the beer temp with a thermowell, and because fermentation is exothermic, it will free rise to 83 or 84 within 24 hours, then the temp will settle down to 80 (but not go lower because of the heating pad).

One thing about these yeasts from the Dupont strain though is that if the temperature gets too low they are more likely to stall out. So I would say just ferment in the garage and let the beer sit in the low 80s right from the start. Three weeks of fermenting (maybe a little longer if it stalls) and you should have great saison!

 

[sptaylor70]

If you can rig a wet t-shirt swamp cooler with a fan, in your garage, you could buy yourself 8-10 degF.

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison can go up that high, but is notorious for stopping around 1.030-1.035. 3763 Roeselare (lambic) can go pretty high, as can 3787 Trappist HG, 3944 Celis Witbier, and 3711 French Saison. I have heard of people using Fermentis US-05 at those temperatures and getting Belgian flavors, and Fermentis T-58 might work as well. If it were mine, I'd probably use 3711, 3944, or US-05. If you go with a liquid yeast, as Lando points out, make a good sized starter.

 

[shattstar03]

I made the mistake by fermenting this one too low at around 68 degrees then ramped up to +75. I got aboslutely no funkiness or distinct flavors from the yeast (I was using WLP565). Next time I would just ferment at 70+

I think you'll be good with WLP565, especially at 70-75+ fermentation that kind of yeast thrives in warm weather.

 

[Rugrad02]

I have a chamber with a reptile bulb and my garage is at 80 degrees.

Does your reptile bulb emit UV light. If this is the case, then the heat emitted from the bulb would be fine for most saison yeasts but the UV light may skunk the beer up a bit. Granted many commercial saison producers use green bottles, I would personally stay away from UV light the duration of fermentation.

 

[Chrisharvey]

Thanks guys! I went out and got a brew pad and will ferment in my chamber with the pad set to 80