Saison stuck

[pnh2atl]

I just brewed my first Saison two weeks ago:

Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 79.34 %
Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 7.44 %
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.96 %
Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3.31 %
Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2.48 %
Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 2.48 %
Orange Marmalade (with high fructose corn syrup)
White Labs 565

Mash 60 min @ 154F

OG was 1.052 it is now 2 weeks on and it is 1.015ish. Fermented at 86F and then warmed it up for a couple of days to mid 90s. I was wondering if I should just live with it or should I trow a little more yeast and see if I can get it a little lower. If so what yeast would you recommend? The marmalade has HFC in it and I wondered if that might be part of the problem. Next time I spring for the extra $1 and get the good stuff.

It tastes great now by the way.

Thanks

 

[ThoricourtBrewing]

I don't know much about White Labs yeast; my local HBS only really has Wyeast or dry yeast. I am very familiar however with Wyeast's Belgian Saison strain, and can tell you that it is VERY slow to attenuate. If yours is the same, then I say give it time--it will get there. My Saison is in week two right now, and I won't even think about a hydro check until week 3 at the earliest. I usually have to rock my fermentor or crank up the heat to get it to finish, but it does finish (and super dry/low attenuation). My take so far on Saison yeast is that it's a pain in the a$$ to work with, but the taste is so great that for me, it's worth the extra effort and patience. Best of luck with your saison--I'm sure it will be superb no matter what route you take at this point.

Cheers,
Dan

 

[Powers]

I know that saison temps are typically high, but your WLP565 strain calls for an optimum temperature range of 68-75. Although your saison was not very high gravity, white Labs also notes that "[w]ith high gravity saisons, brewers may wish to dry the beer with an alternate yeast added after 75% fermentation." It seems alot of folks using these finnicky belgian yeasts are doing some stirring/shaking to get things rocking again. Here are the reviewers of the WLP565 and their thoughts:
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp565.html

Good luck!

 

[Powers]

Here are the reviewers of the WLP565 and their thoughts:
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp565.html

you will also note from those reviews that this yeast is resilient to a range of temps beyond the recommended range, with several folks saying it produced great beers even in the 90 degree range.

 

[pnh2atl]

I think I'll take your advice Dan. I rocked the fermenter a bit to get things stirred up and I'm going to let it go another 10 days or so and I'll check it then. I made 7.5 gallons so I might take 2.5 and add a little yeast to it to dry it a bit then bottle it and I'll keg the balance. Thanks for all the input.

 

[wonderbread23]

I'd say next time add up to 15-20% sugar and mash 148-149 and you'll have a better attenuating wort.

 

[pnh2atl]

I will try it cooler next time. I wasn't sure how to figure out how much sugar came with the marmalade. I took the sugar per serving and multiplied it by the number of servings I used. I also wasn't sure how the high fructose corn syrup would impact the whole thing.

I'm looking forward to trying it. The flat 86F sample I tried was very good.

 

[pnh2atl]

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks in primary and I just checked it and it is now 1.010. I'm happy with that and it still tastes great. Off to secondary to clear up then I'll keg and bottle it. I ended up fermenting it at 86F.

 

[Bru]

Don't forget to bring me a sample :rockin:

 

[Powers]

I had a saison going for two weeks on a white labs yeast in the primary (78 deg for the first week, 72 deg for the second week), when it finally slowed to a stop. It was down to 1.008 at that point. I moved it to the secondary just for clearing, but it started up another small fermentation cycle. The airlock has been up for about 3 days now with a bubble every 2-3 minutes. I'll leave it there for another couple weeks to see if it doesn't dry up and polish off any off flavors...