Bottle Conditioning with Saison Yeast - Any adjustments to priming sugar necessary?

Question

I have 6 Saisons brewing, three using Wyeast 3711 French Saison and three using Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison. The final gravities on these have been my lowest ever for any batch of beer.

The 3711's ended up around 0.998-0.999, while the 3724's ended up between 1.004 - 1.0045. *Both started with an OG of 1.050.

Given that these two strains of yeast do such a good job of converting sugar into alcohol (and CO2), do I need to adjust the amount of priming sugar downwards to avoid an over-carbonated beer?

Edit with the recipe:

I made three 6 gallon batches:

1) 100% pilsener

2) 50% pilsener 50% vienna

3) 50% pilsener 50% munich

These were all mashed at 147-148*F/64.4*C for 90 minutes.

I then split each batch into two carboys, giving me six, 3-gallon batches total. I made a 2L yeast starter for both the 3711 and 3724, and split them into 3 mason jars each (brewer's friend said I hit the correct cell count given I was using 3 gallon instead of 6 gallon batches).

The purpose of the experiement was to see the difference between vienna and munich in a Saison, and also see the difference between 3711 and 3724.

Answer 1

Nope, you don't need to change a thing.

Answer 2

Nope. Keep your priming sugars the same.

Explanation: The sugars we usually use for carbonation is 100% (or near 100%) fermentable. Thus, it will cause the same amount of carbonation.

Answer 3

if people are still wondering about these results.. both of these strains were found to be S. cerevisiae var. diastaticus and contain the gene that allows them to chop up dextrins and do this very slowly. Basically you end up with lower FG's than you would expect based on the target and recipe procedure.

I was myself wondering if people have bottle conditioned with either of these strains? I was worried about the yeast continuing in bottle and ended up over-carbed. If you have bottle conditioned, how much time passed before bottling? and how long did you wait before opening the last of the bottles? what were your results?

Answer 4

I just finished a saison using 3724. Gravity went from 1.055 to 1.009. I used the amount of priming sugar for 3.2 volumes, and after 1.5 weeks in bottles they are VERY carbonated. I was thinking I might dial mine back next time.

However, I don't think you are in danger of making bottle bombs just from the bottling sugar, so I would say just try them out in a couple weeks and see if an adjustment needs to be made for the next batch and note it in your brew log.

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Info for the beer mentioned above. I don't have my brew log on me, but original recipe called for:

Single infusion mash, Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb, target 155 degrees at dough-in. Rest for 60 min. I mash in a cooler without heat, so the temperature would have dropped probably into the high 140s after 60 minutes. Fly sparge.

Fermentation was 10 weeks (2.5 months) at 70 degrees (temp controlled with a heat wrap). The temp is on the low end for this yeast. I intend to do another batch at a higher temp to compare the yeast character. It was also at about double the standard pitch rate. I do 2.5 gal batches but pitch a whole Wyeast smack-pack.

Answer 5

I would say "it depends". If you are using corn sugar, dextrose, or any other simple sugar for priming - then no, you don't need to change anything.

If you're using DME for priming or anything that would have "unfermentable" sugars in it, well - the saison yeast is just going to digest those things, meaning typical priming sugar calculators are going to be wrong, and you will get way more carbonation than expected. You would possibly be at risk of bottle bombs.