diastaticus - what to beware of?

Zambi

Zambi

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I want to start trying another type of yeast (other than kveik voss).
I got some in stock that can deal with higher temperatures. Some of those are diastaticus yeasts.
Do I need to be real careful with those? Use a dedicated fermenter, syphon etc?
Or just standard hygiene and a decent wait before bottling (4+ days of same SG)?
 
Diastaticus is common among Belgian strains and often found in the wild. My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is that it's not an overly big concern for home brewers. Good cleaning routines can prevent the yeast from contaminating other beers. Hot soapy water is a brewer's best friend. If you have glass or plastic in your brewery, you can use household bleach to clean them up. Stainless steel can be sanitized with hot water above @145F (64C). As with any brew, clean, clean and then clean some more. Diastaticus yeast is a low level risk for homebrewers. Bottle bombs are the biggest risk.

Commercial breweries need to be extra careful because cross contamination can be extremely costly. Loss of product, ruined reputation and loss of reusable yeast can add up enough to cause bankruptcy. They also have more places for it to hide in the brewery.
 
Diastaticus continues fermenting for many weeks, albeit slowly, and cold really slows it a lot. The problem is bottle pressure never stops increasing. For a commercial brewer, it is a disaster, leading to bottle bombs.

The homebrewer can either guarantee cold storage, drink it fast enough, or both. Kegging avoids the problem.

Even a few yeast spores contaminates a batch. If you know and manage it, ok, but to use the equipment without contaminating a batch, it needs to be sterilized, not merely sanitized. Iodophor is effective.

I used a Diastaticus strain once, the beer was ok but not remarkable, but the required cleaning made me swear to never use it again.
 
The diastaticus yeasts I got are French saison, Belle saison and Belgian Tripel.
The first 2 would be real interesting to use now as they can handle my current temperatures.
I could dedicate a specific fermenter to diastatic yeasts?
For deep cleaning I would have to use hot water or bleach.
I got no iodophor and no chance to get it in the near future.

Other question: what hops would go well with a saison? Noble hops?
 
I’ve used Belle and 3711 a few times each (very similar, if not the same yeast, imo) and always clean my equipment as I would for any other yeast, without issue. Everything gets an overnight hot soak in whatever brewery cleaner I have and a dip in some Starsan before being put away.. Am I lucky?

As far as those two yeasts are concerned, I would strongly recommend starting fermentation as cool as you can get it. I like to keep them in the mid-60’s for a few days and then ramp upwards, usually to the mid 70’s. But that ending dial is adjustable for sure. I know they’ll work at higher pitch temps, but I’m afraid doing it that way, you’re likely to get some hot fusels. :oops:

I love the white wine flavor I get from Nelson Savin. My favorite hops for a Saison.

Good luck and Cheers!
 
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I've used diastaticus in my little hombrew setup I'm lucky I keg my beer and I don't package it and leave it at the mercy of ignorant fright companies and bottle retail outlets that might store it in direct sunlight or hot.

Cascade- East Kent Golding -haulertau tradition - magnum have been the hops I've used in these styles.

Earthy citrus and spice I'm thinking.
I don't know what but I always throw spice herbs and fruit in my saison.
This style is right in my vien of brewing I feel as it's a broad style open to the creativity of the brewer and being farmhouse style the options are endless.
I've made some really crap saisons one was a Berry saison i put mixed blueberries raspberries blackberries in it was too tart.
But my fav is ginger ninger using cascade and a good punch of ginger in the WP and DH along with a nice malty wort to add some sweetness to the ginger bite Munich malt wheat malt.

26c had been where I push mine too
I pitch and let free rise and set temp hight to 26 but once there hold it.
Some saison strains Belgian 1 for instance like to take their time to finish:).
I Look forward to what you come up with.

As for other hops I can easily see new world mosaic- Galaxy -Eldorado- Talus all helping push forward fruit qualities.
 
Trialben said:
…
Earthy citrus and spice I'm thinking.
I don't know what but I always throw spice herbs and fruit in my saison.
This style is right in my vien of brewing I feel as it's a broad style open to the creativity of the brewer and being farmhouse style the options are endless.
I've made some really crap saisons one was a Berry saison i put mixed blueberries raspberries blackberries in it was too tart.
But my fav is ginger ninger using cascade and a good punch of ginger in the WP and DH along with a nice malty wort to add some sweetness to the ginger bite Munich malt wheat malt.

26c had been where I push mine too
I pitch and let free rise and set temp hight to 26 but once there hold it.
Some saison strains Belgian 1 for instance like to take their time to finish:).
I Look forward to what you come up with.

As for other hops I can easily see new world mosaic- Galaxy -Eldorado- Talus all helping push forward fruit qualities.
Click to expand...

The opportunity to be creative is such a great point. I’ve mashed a few of my Saisons with cut up lemons, an idea I picked up from Rowley Farmhouse Ales in New Mexico. Of course, that means I’m not creative, I just steal.
 
Bleach will be sufficient. Clean it after you've used all the yeast though. Not necessary before.
 
OK, i think I will just take the plunge...
I actually remembered last night that I had done one before. I'll need to find my old old notes back.

I'm not ready to start dry-hopping yet.
I found a recipe in one of my Dutch beer books, that I was thinking of following. Then discarded it because it said to ferment at 19 oC. And now I'm looking for it, my book falls open on a saison that is fermented at 27 oC :D
Sweet!
I'll go for that one!
Roughly 80% pilsner malt, 10 wheat, 4 carapils, 5 candi sugar.
I haven't got carapils, but will use caramalt 40, at 2% or so. Candi will just be sugar. Should be close enough.
For hops they are using tettnanger and styrian holdings.
I know I got tettnanger, gotta check on the styrian.
And apparently I can use either Belle Saison or French Saison :cool:
 
Zambezi Special said:
OK, i think I will just take the plunge...
I actually remembered last night that I had done one before. I'll need to find my old old notes back.

I'm not ready to start dry-hopping yet.
I found a recipe in one of my Dutch beer books, that I was thinking of following. Then discarded it because it said to ferment at 19 oC. And now I'm looking for it, my book falls open on a saison that is fermented at 27 oC :D
Sweet!
I'll go for that one!
Roughly 80% pilsner malt, 10 wheat, 4 carapils, 5 candi sugar.
I haven't got carapils, but will use caramalt 40, at 2% or so. Candi will just be sugar. Should be close enough.
For hops they are using tettnanger and styrian holdings.
I know I got tettnanger, gotta check on the styrian.
And apparently I can use either Belle Saison or French Saison :cool:
Click to expand...
Lovely.
Personally I wouldn't use any sugar.
Reson is I'm trying to keep as much body in these beers as attenuation of these yeasts can be in the 90's that's a dry beer the sugar will just bump ABV and thin the mouthfeel.
Just my 2c is all.
Try either more wheat or I'd sub in Munich malt to boost that malt.
Remember this is just my taste preference Zambezi you may like the beer dryer.
 
I'll reduce sugar or take it out.
I don't have enough pilsner malt, so will use what I got plus maris otter pale ale or lager malt.
Got Styrian goldings.
Time to plug everything into brewfather ;)
 
I haven't got enough tettnanger, will use what I got as a 10 minute addition and replace with saaz where ever else (at least saaz came up as a substitute and I still got an open pack)
 
I do a fair few diastaticus batches. For me the main thing is don't package until it is completely finished. My standard cleaning has been fine so far and I haven't detected it skipping into another batch unexpectedly. I also use the heavy bottles for those batches. So very little chance of bottle bombs, but I have created one batch of gushers.
 
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