Fermwrap and Foam - Saison

[klickcue]

Have a Saison in the carboy with WLP565 that was started at 66 oF two days ago. The 565 was fermenting good with lots of activity.

About 2 hours ago, the 6.5 gallon carboy was wrapped around 5.5 gallons of beer. A fermwrap will not completely cover the circumference of the carboy. The temperature controller was set for 80 oF to start the ramp up.

A fermwrap develops about 40 watts of heat. Since the fermwrap is not insulated in my installation, part of the heat is radiated into the surrounding room space. What I see as interesting is that the foam from the fermentation follows the area that the fermwrap is attached.

Hopefully, the beer will make it through the night without going out of the carboy, only time will tell.

WLP565 is not known for it's good attenuation so in a couple of days, a fresh pitch of WLP530 will follow to hopefully dry the beer out.

[Jensen]

I bet at 80 you'll have a boil-over! I always put my blow-off growler in a bucket too-- cause there is sometimes excess growler 'oozeage'! With the rockin' saison you just brewed with a Juggernaut yeast and geothermal heat-- you better be using a Yorkshire stone to catch all the goodness that'll be oozing out!!!!

[klickcue]

Update:
About an hour after I wrote the post, it was basically over. The scum was well up into the neck and then it caved in on its self and the foam was starting to subside. By the next morning, the beer was basically slick with fine bubbles on the surface.

I pitched a Qt of WLP530 at high foam before I left for work.

Here are the notes so far:
8-2-2009 Started 66F - pitched yeast
8-4-2009 Fermenting good. Fermwrap - controller at 80F
8-6-2009 Pitched 1 QT. WLP530 - High Foam
8-7-2009 Fermenting again with nice foam.

[Jensen]

Did you take a gravity\taste reading between pitches? Would be interesting to note any perceived changes.

[klickcue]

Good point but I didn't do it.

I knew it was going to be short on attenuation, so I just moved on. The WLP530 is still chewing through the beer.

Wyeast 3711 French Saison Private Collection is out right now and I am growing it up for the next time. The attenuation is around 80.

[klickcue]

Interestingly, the seems to be another thing going on with the fermwrap, which I believe are thermal currents.

As the wrap turns on the exterior of the glass is heated up forcing the hotter liquid to rise causing a turbulence to form on the surface as well as the CO2 coming out of saturation. The yeast are more active when warm which adds to the current.

The area where the fermwrap is attached is well defined by the activity.

[klickcue]

The saga continues:
8/15/2009, took a FG reading and the beer is down to 1.010 SG which is 84% ADF. The beer tastes fine but doesn't have a fine nose on it so I have decided to take it farther and dry it out some more.

There is a half of a gallon of Orval something growing that I have cultured up and I am going to pitch a pint into a 6 gallon carboy. Going to lay a bed of CO2 into the carboy then rack the beer into it. Orval is supposed to have Brettanomyces bruxellensis in it plus the other flora of the area (smells really good ).

Haven't grown up my Brett b., Brett. c. or Brett. l. yet so will see how the Orval works.

[klickcue]

With the addition of the grown up Orval yeast pitched into the beer, there is an interesting appearance.

The Orval yeast was just pitched onto the top of the beer and was not shaken or stirred into the existing beer. This has created a separation of gravity like a 'black and tan' in which tunnels of yeast are created in the beer starting about 4 inches from the top of the liquid.

Since the yeast has not flocculated the appearance of a sack is formed in the beer with CO2 bubbles rising up through the center of the sack (think of the mud pots in Yellowstone Park).

Going to leave it alone and watch the yeast and Brett spread though the beer.

[Jensen]

Fermenting porn you wort-a-phile!!!!!

[Jdl973]

So very cool ...any pictures ?

[klickcue]

So very cool ...any pictures ?

I looked back and no pictures. Wish now I had taken pictures. Had forgotten about this post.

It turned out to be a fine beer but I took the Belgian bottles to 5 volumes of CO2. One would never know by the sound of the cork removal but one has to let the bottle breathe for awhile. The beer looks calm in the bottle but it will not pour

Neat beer.