Saison carbing?

[Banbeer]

Hello, first saison being kegged (corny) tomorrow and just wondering what volume to carb it at. I'm thinking 2.5 - 3.0 as a set and forget (looked at the carbing chart) or 50psi overnight, any other suggestions?

 

[strange-steve]

The higher the better for a saison in my opinion, so as high as you can set it without getting a glass of foam.

 

[UKSkydiver]

Sorry to jump on your thread, but I'm after pointers for one of my latest brews, and the title is spot on.

I've tend to over carb my beers even though I try to stick to the correct calcs.

I purposely lowered the priming sugar in a porter I made and it's still pretty highly carbed. I primed at 1.2g/330ml = ~3.6g/litre which is still less than the 4.5g/litre suggested by the priming calc

The measuring spoon I used is so small it's called a "pinch" - and I used digi scales to check and balance:

That's the preamble, now - on to my most recent 'saison' brew.

I started off with a Pelforth clone, but I changed the yeast to MJ M29 French Saison. Don't ask.

Stepped mash was 62/68/73/78 for each of 10/30/20/15mins

OG was 1.065 and having fermented for about 3 weeks at 22/24/27c the saison yeast ripped through it and it finished slightly under 1.000 No idea how. I cold crashed for a day and a half IIRC.

I noted that carbonation should be high, but due to my previous propensity for over carbing, I erred on the side of caution and primed at 1g/330ml 1.5g/500ml = ~3g/litre

After 3 weeks, I tried one and it's pretty flat and pretty sweet. I'd have thought that any remaining saison yeast would have munched through any residual sugars.

I've agitated the yeast and I've left for another week in an ambient room which is 22-23 during the day.

I'm planning to open one this weekend, but I don't hold out much hope.

Notwthstanding the actual outcome, should I add more sugar - or add more yeast - or both?

Thanks

 

[chthon]

@UKSkydiver : I regularly ferment with the M29, it always goes around to 1.000 in a normal wort, all that remains is not fermentable (based upon 6 recipes fermented with it). My last saison was carbed with 9,4 g of glucose/dextrose per litre, for 3,2 volumes of CO2.

With respect to porters, I had the impression in the past that one thinks that they are fermented out, then bottle, but after a couple of months indeed, they seem to be carbed up much more. Dark malts tend to make the fermentation a bit more sluggish.

Let's look at it this way, 1 gravity point on 1 litre of wort is around 4g/litre. With most hydrometers you won't see the difference between FG and FG+1 or FG-1 point, which means that you have 4g/litre extra. Which means that in your first case, you would reach 7.6g litre of carbonation sugar.

In case of the M29, you don't need to be afraid of that, though. This one ferments OUT! (and you get really clear beer)

I haven't had this problem with my imperial stouts, because I tend to bulk age them for a couple of weeks, and then they are really fermented out.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Hello, first saison being kegged (corny) tomorrow and just wondering what volume to carb it at. I'm thinking 2.5 - 3.0 as a set and forget (looked at the carbing chart) or 50psi overnight, any other suggestions?

That sounds about right. I'd go with about 3 volumes. I tend to go 40psi for 24 hours then down to 14psi and leave it. That works fine on my system as serving pressure. You may have to play with line length to get a good pour.

 

[Banbeer]

That sounds about right. I'd go with about 3 volumes. I tend to go 40psi for 24 hours then down to 14psi and leave it. That works fine on my system as serving pressure. You may have to play with line length to get a good pour.

Thanks for the reply, I did exactly that, it still needs more though but it's OK as it is. The pour is good as I have 3m 3/16" line. I tried a few (halves) this afternoon and it was good, thanks for the advise all.