White Labs WLP568 Belgian Style Saison Ale

[nigel_c]

Have a vile of this coming to me in the new year. Looking to brew a nice refreshing saison. After doing a bit of research I've found this yeast can be a bit of a pain in the arse. Pitch at high temps 20-22 and increase to 30 over the next few days.
Has anyone had success with this yeast strain in the past? If so all tips welcome.

Nigel

[rukkus]

I haven't tried using it yet but i just harvested some from a couple of bottles of saison dupont.

Looks like its going to be a saison kinda 2013

MAF has brewed with it before so maybe he'll give a few pointers

[nigel_c]

yeah had one of his. lovely. hopefully he looks in 

[MAF]

Haven't used WLP568, I only have used WLP565 and 566 in my saisons - both these originate from Saison Dupont. Apparently there are 4 (or more) strains in Dupont, so culturing it's yeast could be very interesting!
WLP568 is a blend of saison and belgian ale strains. I've tried find out which strains they are, but can't get a definitive answer, and it appears White Labs won't tell anyone. There are suggestions on other forums that the saison strain is WLP565, and this is blended with WLP530 (Westmalle) and/or WLP550 (Achouffe). WLP565 can be a troublesome yeast on it's own, and is known to completely halt fermentation. By adding another strain(s) into the mix, fermentation should complete on a more normal time scale.
Nigel, I don't think you will have any issues with WLP568 stalling, or any of the other potential issues with the pure Dupont strain. Given the fact that this is not a pure saison strain, I'd treat it like a Belgian Ale ferment rather than a saison; pitch somewhere between 22-24C and ramp up the temp after that. If you were to pitch higher (as for a saison), you could end up with excessive phenols from the Belgian Ale strain.
Be interested to hear how it goes

[nigel_c]

Nice one Maf. Will post details when u get around to brewing