Wit Beer Fermentation Question

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jjoyner55

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Brewed a Wit on Friday night, and everything seemed to go as planned and normal. Sanitized the fermentation bucket and utensils with one step cleaner like normal.

I store the buckets in my spare bedroom closet, and I checked on her first thing Saturday morning, and the airlock was bubbling like crazy, and it was very auromatic in the bedroom. Checked on her again later in the evening, and still steadily bubbling, very steady.

Sunday morning through today...no activity in the airlock at all. Checked the airlock to make sure it wasn't clogged, nothing... Peered through the hole where the airlock goes through the lid, and I don't see activity.

What's going on? What do I need to do?
 
What yeast? OG? Have you checked the gravity since the activity stopped?

I've brewed twice with WLP400 and the first took about 5 weeks or so for the krausen to fall and my second batch is going now, pitched on Saturday (stir plated starter) and had a complete layer of krausen in under 5 hours and it's still going strong.
 
jjoyner55 said:
Brewed a Wit on Friday night, and everything seemed to go as planned and normal. Sanitized the fermentation bucket and utensils with one step cleaner like normal.

I store the buckets in my spare bedroom closet, and I checked on her first thing Saturday morning, and the airlock was bubbling like crazy, and it was very auromatic in the bedroom. Checked on her again later in the evening, and still steadily bubbling, very steady.

Sunday morning through today...no activity in the airlock at all. Checked the airlock to make sure it wasn't clogged, nothing... Peered through the hole where the airlock goes through the lid, and I don't see activity.

What's going on? What do I need to do?
Click to expand...

Rdwhahb. Leave it e for another 4 days or so then take a gravity reading... if its dropped significantly and the fermentation is stopped either bottle keg or trx to 2ndary...
 
Nothing - let it sit. Don't confuse 'airlock' with 'hydrometer' and let time be your friend. Speaking of which, do you have an OG? Your receipe probably suggests at least a week before your next step (rack, bottle whatever)

Most likely you've had about 80-90% conversion and are about done. In a house what are your temps? 65? 70? 75? higher temps are going to speed it up. If you have a good way of getting a test sample and have a hydrometer, you could take a test...

And of course after getting a sample to measure gravity, you can then.. um.. measure flavor... :)
 
@jtkratzer, the yeast was WLP550 Belgian Ale Yeast, as LHBS was out of 400 at time of purchase. The OG was 1.050

@ACbrewer, the temps have fluctuated over the past few days with Spring springing. The wife had all of the windows in the house open Saturday, and then Sunday it got cool again outside. I would say the temps have ranged inside from 60-68ish?

I have not taken another gravity reading, as I am relatively new with this being only my 5th 5 gallon batch made, and I have never seen the airlock go completely idle in the process before.

I appreciate the advice, and thanks for the reassurance that time continues to heal all beers.
 
I let my honey wit sit for at least 5 weeks before bottling. It was a crowd pleaser on Sunday at my daughter's first birthday party. You don't have to bottle or keg as soon as fermentation ends or appears to end. A lot of beers will improve and do well with 3-4+ weeks in the primary.
 
which yeast did you use? my last wit (imperial wit) hit 74% attenuation in three days... 3944. blew the lid off my fermenter, the best "ceiling" beer i've ever had. went nuts and stopped.
 
jtkratzer said:
I let my honey wit sit for at least 5 weeks before bottling. It was a crowd pleaser on Sunday at my daughter's first birthday party. You don't have to bottle or keg as soon as fermentation ends or appears to end. A lot of beers will improve and do well with 3-4+ weeks in the primary.
Click to expand...

:off: sorry but I read this and pictured a bunch of babies holding bottles filled with your honey wit.
 

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