WY3724 starter

Fat Woody

New Member
Premium Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
Messages
7
Reaction score
3
Points
3
Greetings all,

Long time lurker, first time poster!

I am making a saison and using WY3724 for the first time. Pitched a 2L, 1.040 starter from a single smack pack and let it ride for 36 hours on a stir plate. Tossed into the fridge for 4 days and took out to pitch today (brew day). Noticed that - as described for this yeast - there was still a ton of yeast in suspension in my starter.

Decanted into a pitcher so I could sample; I like to sample the starter wort for yeast I'm not familiar with to get an idea of the flavor. Couple of takeaways: 1) wondering if I should have made my starter farther out to account for the low flocculation of this strain, 2) that starter wort was, umm, kinda good! This yeast is SO tasty it actually (call me crazy) made a batch of starter wort drinkable, granted no hops and a bit thin, but still!

Bottom line: any tips or tricks for 3724? Anyone do their starters a bit early?

PS - planning to bottle with Belle Saison to help dry out the finished beer if needed (pending FG), thoughts?
 
When making some starters, it makes sense to just make a small batch of beer and use the leftover cake.

If you're bottling with a yeast that will use up more sugars than the yeast you used to ferment the beer, you may have trouble predicting final CO2 volumes and may have bottle bombs. Most likely you won't need any extra attenuation with any Saison yeast. Bottle when it's done without any extra yeast addition or add any extra yeast into the fermenter so that it finishes completely before bottling or adding priming sugar.
 
Expect it to slow or stop at around 1.030. Let it warm. A lot. This yeast can go into the 90s and still work well, in fact, it loves the heat. Without the heat, it can stall. And it despises pressure. After you're sure it's not going to bubble over, replace the airlock with some aluminum foil held on by a rubber band. It's a finicky yeast but if you let it go and have patience when it stalls, you will get a funky Saison. A bit too funky for me but to each their own.
 
Expect it to slow or stop at around 1.030. Let it warm. A lot. This yeast can go into the 90s and still work well, in fact, it loves the heat. Without the heat, it can stall. And it despises pressure. After you're sure it's not going to bubble over, replace the airlock with some aluminum foil held on by a rubber band. It's a finicky yeast but if you let it go and have patience when it stalls, you will get a funky Saison. A bit too funky for me but to each their own.

Thanks, I've read that about the back pressure somewhere...? Anyway, planning to move to my 82* garage after 3-4 days around 70* and with temps in the 100s forecast for our area next week, she could well see a few days at 90* in there!
 
Expect it to slow or stop at around 1.030. Let it warm. A lot. This yeast can go into the 90s and still work well, in fact, it loves the heat. Without the heat, it can stall. And it despises pressure. After you're sure it's not going to bubble over, replace the airlock with some aluminum foil held on by a rubber band. It's a finicky yeast but if you let it go and have patience when it stalls, you will get a funky Saison. A bit too funky for me but to each their own.

Pressure... as in if you are spunding?
 
Pressure... as in if you are spunding?
It's finicky enough that the back pressure from the airlock can slow or stop it. I've got it to ferment through but only through warmth and care.
 
It's finicky enough that the back pressure from the airlock can slow or stop it. I've got it to ferment through but only through warmth and care.
I just used this yeast for the 1st time 2 weeks ago. I also read about the pressure issues and went with the sanitized foil over the carboy. I did a gravity check today and it was 1.007 with an og of 1.055, probable done but I'm going to let it go another week and check again, I put an air lock on it about 5 days ago.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/513012/for-all-seasons
 

Back
Top