Beer Forum

I've got a saison thats been in the primary for about 10days now, fermentation has slowed down now thought I've not checked the gravity yet. The recipe is very similar to Jamils strong saison, although I used WLP586 Belgian Ale Saison blend. Its split between 2 carboys at the moment so I'm going to treat the two differently, but I'm not entirely sure what to do so I'm after some advice.

I was thinking of putting the dregs of a couple of bottles of Orval in one of them to get some bugs in there. If I were to do that how long should I leave it before bottling?

Then with the other half of the batch, I don't know whether to bottle it as is or dose it with something different. I've got a couple of bottles of Goose Islands Sofie lying around so could throw the dregs from those in. I guess this may lead to a different beer to the on dosed with orval dregs so could lead to an interesting comparision. Has anyone tried using yeast from a bottle of Sofie?

As far as Im aware both Sofie and Orval are fermented out with a sasion ale yeast before brett is added later on, so I'm hoping that the yeast in the bottle will lead to some interesting results.
Any ideas?

Oh & I've also got a couple of bottles of Cantillion lying around which I could try and get some yeast from. Think I've got a Rose de Framboise and a gueze.

I think its all your choice at this time. My thoughts....the dregs only will take many months to start impacting flavor. You will want to make a starter with them to save some time and give them a good start. Something like a 1.020 100ml starter for 2-3 days, then step that up to 1000ml. I'd go with the Orval dregs (I've used them before very successfully) and the Sofia in one.

Nothing wrong with using any of them. It's all in how you want your beer to taste. The cantillons will take a long time vs the Orval because you are dealing with Lacto, Pedio, and Brett. Pedio can get very fussy and make you beer "sick" then you can to wait even longer to let the Brett clean up. Over a year.

Cheers for the quick reply!

I think I might use half the batch as a control batch and use the other half to experiment with. I think I'll avoid cantillon for now then, I'll have to brew up another batch which I can stash away somewhere for a year or so!

Going down the Orval & Sofie route sounds pretty goood. Sounds like I need to do some drinking tonight!

Quick question, I've been fermenting quite warm at about 75F cos the saison yeast like it hot. When I add the bugs do I need to change the temp? Should I be dropping the temp down to start conditioning the beer whilst the brett does its thing?

From what I have been told Brett likes to be stressed, so the extra few degrees isn't bad.

Cheers eltharyon, I think I've heard that too so Im leaving it at the same temp.

I've done a bunch of reading but cant really work out how long to leave it before bottling. Should I just leave it until its "done" fermenting out? The O.G was 1.070 & I added the brett when it was down to 1.015, I at a lower temp than usual to try and dry the beer out a bit (about 150). How low do you think the beer will go before i should bottle? Or should I keep taking readings at intervals until the gravity stops dropping? I've read a bunch of posts online about how long to leave in secondary which have varied from 2months to 2years.
Or would I be best to bottle a bit sooner & do the aging in the bottle? Im a bit worried about over-carbonating if I do that, but tbh would prefer to age in bottle rather than carboy if I can.

Just out of interest, is there a way of converting gravity points into volumes of co2? For example, if I can guestimate what my final gravity will be can I just bottle when it gets down to 1.00x in order to end up with the correct carbonation level?

Your best bet for bottling is to wait until the gravity reaches around about 1.008 or lower. That way you won't have to worry about bottle bombs.