Drying out a Saison

[Yeastfridge]

Actually that's a good point - my sulphates are quite low at 34mg/L.

My Water book says that for a Saison, my sulphates should be in the 100-400 range (ouch! I'm way under!).

Chloride - 15mg/L - Water suggests 0-100, so I'm not too worried about that for the moment.

I haven't played with water chemistry too much in the past - it always seems like a very broad area to get into, but you've given me a relatively simple area where I should be able to make clear improvements - thanks!

Just a thought - since I'm not now worried about mash PH etc, is it possible to adjust the sulphates at this point of the process (i.e. late fermentation)? I'm guessing not, but thought it worth asking.

Cheers,

Rob

I don't see why it wouldn't work! That said, I don't actually have a scientific answer why it would. It'd be a shame to ruin a whole batch by going too far but that said I've adjusted acidity/salts before with a mead and it worked out well.

 

[Yeastfridge]

Jeez really sitting on the post with that answer aren't I!?

 

[redbarron]

I generally bottle everything high carb in Champagne Bottles and find 3 volumes plenty. Saisons are highly carbed but often you can hardly get the beer in the glass its that high. If your nervy aim for 2.8 and enjoy the beer

2.8 would still be ok? 2.5 is as high as I've gone.

 

[Charst]

Cant offer you a guarantee but its what id be doing if bottling in a standard crown seal bottle.


Have search for threads on carbonation if your still unsure.

 

[GeorgiaBrewer]

Sorry slightly off topic but I'm planning on brewing this recipe myself. Jamil says carbonate at 3-3.5. I've never gone that high before and I certainly don't want bottle bombs. What do you guys think?

Generally speaking, bottle bombs are only a problem if you bottle with a large amount of unfermented sugars still in solution. (Either by incomplete primary fermentation or a large amount of crystal/caramel malts which will break down over time) If you have a saison that is below 1.010, you won't have issues bottling even to the 3.5 vols. 3.5 vols is only 50 psi at 50 C. I know I'm mixing imperial and metric, sue me, I'm American Bottom line, with the level of fermentation that you've achieved, I wouldn't worry about it. Carb away!

 

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Generally speaking, bottle bombs are only a problem if you bottle with a large amount of unfermented sugars still in solution. (Either by incomplete primary fermentation or a large amount of crystal/caramel malts which will break down over time) If you have a saison that is below 1.010, you won't have issues bottling even to the 3.5 vols. 3.5 vols is only 50 psi at 50 C. I know I'm mixing imperial and metric, sue me, I'm American Bottom line, with the level of fermentation that you've achieved, I wouldn't worry about it. Carb away!

Hi -

Something that's worrying me about what you just said is that all of the carbon calculators I could find don't go above 50PSI - and some of them just give a warning e.g. "EXCEEDS 50PSI".

Have a look at the one here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator/

If I increase the temp, the highest I can get to is 24.5C, which results in a PSI of 49.5 (this is at 3.5 Vols CO2).

25C and upwards gives the "EXCEEDS 50PSI" warning - all the other online calls (that my quick googling can find) also seem to stop at 50.

I'm sure it's possible to look up the actual formula, but .... I haven't.

Rob