Wyeast 3726 "Test"

[bethebrew]

Made a rye saison today. I had a big pitch of Wyeast 3726 Farmhouse ale that I pitched at about 60% of into one carboy and 40% into the other carboy.

Big pitch carboy I put inside an Ice Cube cooler and insulated it very well.
The other lower pitched carboy I put inside a carboy box sitting on a couple of towels and put a towel on top and closed the box. Until they get going I covered both with a comforter.

The test is to see how much temperature raises in the well insulated box versus the other box, and if the pitch rate along with more insulation/higher ferment temperature will make a difference in the finished products.

Pitch temperature 71 F. Ambient 70 F.

10 gallons

23 lb. pils
4 lb. Weyermann Rye Malt
2.5 lbs. C&H cane sugar made into homemade candi syrup, amber in color
2 oz. grapefruit juice into the syrup while making for acidity (citric acid)
2 oz. organic molasses added early in candi syrup making
4 oz. Tettnanger leaf hops, 5.9% AA, 60 mins boil
3 oz. mixed wet hops from the garden, 1 oz. at 60 mins, other 2 at 5 mins.
Mashed at 150.
OG 1.073

Gotta say this wort was super good. Very drinkable and that's a good sign.

 

[bethebrew]

Update.

The lower pitched carboy took off a little faster, but when both start blowing bubbles out of blowoff tubes in an hour, it's probably a tie.

The better insulated carboy has risen to 80.4 degrees already as measured outside the carboy about 1/2 way down the liquid level. Both carboys about equal ferment at 2 glugs per second.

 

[bethebrew]

Day 2 update.

Temperature in the well insulated carboy hit a peak of 83 F overnight. It's dropped to 81.8 F now. Ferment for both carboys is about one glug every 2 secs out of the full sized blowoff tube.

Going to wait until weekend after next to check gravities. That will be 3 weeks in.

 

[bethebrew]

Day 3 update.

Temperature in well insulated carboy 77.7 now. Ferment for both carboys about one glug per 4 secs. out of blowoff tube.

 

[bethebrew]

Day 4 update.

Temperature down to 74 with ambient 71. Fermentation about one glug every 20 sec. off blowoff tube.

Pulled a sample and gravity now 1.015. OG was 1.073.

Banana notes, spicy, pineapple notes, a little tart, pleasant bitterness under it all, sneaky strong one this one.

Decided to wet "dry" hop the "less insulated" carboy, didn't check it's gravity, just going to let that one sit a few weeks. Lots of fresh hops in the garden.

 

[bethebrew]

Bottled both batches today with homemade candy syrup. FG 1.014 for both. 8% ABV. Smooth as hell.

 

[beerklyn]

I think this is my favorite saison yeast, and I've made many saisons with the different commercial yeasts available. I made a 5 gallon partial mash that looks like this:
4lb Pilsen Light DME
1.5lb Vienna
1.5lb Flaked Wheat
.5lb Rye Malt
1lb D-90 Candi sugar

1oz Sazzzzzz - 60min
.5oz Sazz -10min
.5oz Citra -10min
1 oz Strisselspalt - 5min
1oz Sazz - 0min
1oz Strisselspalt - 0min
.5oz Citra - 0min

OG 1.051 (I have terrible efficiency, sp I plan for about 50% - no mash tun, basically just a grain bag in the kettle, with periodic hot water infusions to keep the temp up. its primitive but it works ok enough for me)

Fermented with just the smack pack of Farmhouse 3726 (no starter), pitched at 75*, let rest overnight, raised to 83* for 2 weeks w/fermwrap/Johnson digital controller. Had the probe taped to the side of the plastic bucket and insulated w/bubble wrap and a washcloth. Finished at 1.007, bottled w/4oz corn sugar.

I like using all these hops, it was an idea I got from the intro of 'farmhouse ales' to just blast it with low alpha varieties.

I think that something about this yeast and american C hops creates an intense funky reaction, which for me is perfect. It's not like a bretty funk, just a flavor that seems to mesh in one way, the citrus aspect (probably what you got out of the grapefruit), but the other elements-the slight dank and piney stuff-clashes with the esters in awesome way.

I've over-done that in a 'belgian ipa' before and it was rough, but just a bit seems to do the trick for me with this beer.

I really like this beer and will be doing it again for a bretted batch - updated notes in 6-8months, lol.