finishing a saison and moving across the country / packaging

Post #1 made 9 years ago
hi guys,

would love some opinions here. i just brewed a 1.055 saison on 8/30 with WY3711 and mashed 148–149 for 120 minutes, and it's going to be my last brew in this apartment/region. in 3–4 weeks i'm moving across the country from cambridge, ma to austin, tx (a long way). the beer will be on it's 3rd or 4th week by then. i usually keg, and do so at week 3 or 4, but i was strongly considering bottle conditioning this batch (because it's a saison). the problem is, i'm not sure i'll have the time / resources to do it if my apartment is mostly packed up at that time.

from previous saison experience with this yeast, it gets most of the job done in the first 1–2 weeks, and then over the next 2 weeks it continues to chow on remaining sugars to a very low FG. i'm not sure that it will be completely finished by the move, though probably very close. i was thinking of just kegging it when it's close to done as a "secondary", and bringing a little chunk of yeast along for the ride, then transporting it in the car to the new place and give it a little burp now and then, but leaving some pressure on it. then when i get there and settled, it will be done fermenting and i could either bottle or just keep in the keg and carb it.

am also considering priming in the keg and letting it carb up in the keg after the 3–4 weeks in primary, but would this be too soon? maybe it would be the perfect time. i have a beergun, so i could bottle it if i wanted to, or just leave in the keg and serve it.

thoughts? better ideas? thanks!
    • BME Brewer With Over 20 Brews From United States of America

Post #2 made 9 years ago
You can definitely finish fermenting in a keg when it's half way done and at room temperature (70-75 F). Transfer your unfinished beer and a scoop of yeast to your serving keg. You do not need to release any pressure at that point, just let it ramp up to whatever it does. Your keg will travel well too. When you are in TX, let it set still and chill it to serving temp. Your first pint will be yeasty.


I go as far as pressure fermenting in a corny from start to finish; http://biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1933#p34902
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #3 made 9 years ago
cool, thanks for the vote of confidence. so i could transfer to the keg to finish, and a few weeks later i could chill it down and force carb to serve from the keg. alternatively, i could rack from the keg to the bottling bucket, prime, and bottle if i wanted to.
    • BME Brewer With Over 20 Brews From United States of America
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