Just finished my Belgian white.

Well my 3rd batch is in the primary.

This one was a Belgian white kit from Midwest. Here is my procedure.

1: boiled 2 gallons of tap water and set aside.
2: steeped provided grains for 30 minutes at 160 in 4 gallons.
3: brought to a boil, removed from heat and paddled in the LME.
4: returned to boil and added the liberty bittering hops. I put them in a nylon bag.
5: boiled for 50min.
6: added orange peel and coriander
7: boiled for 8 min
8: added aroma hops.
9: boiled for 2 min.
10: dunked the pot in a ice water bath and covered.
11: star saned fermenter
12: rehydrated yeast
13: poured wort in primary
14: using the preboiled water I made the total volume ~4.5 gallons.
15: temp was 60 and SG was 1.045 when i finally pitched the yeast.


I'm really really excited about this batch!

Wow.....

I just realized I made a mistake. I removed the nylon bag.....did I really screw that up?

i highly doubt you messed up your beer. its like the cockroach of alcoholic beverages....it will survive most things.

Did some searching and it seems there's a debate on when exactly to pull the bag.

I pulled mine right after I dunked the kettle.

I had my first belgian white last night and must say I like it. The yeast really adds a spice and nice bite at the end.

when you say you removed the nylon bag what do you mean you removed it an when?? Did the bittering hops boil for 60 minutes??

Yeah they boiled for 60 min.

I just thought I was supposed to leave them in the fermenter.


I'd love to find a clone recepie for this:


Hands down my favorite beer.

You have no worries my friend and that beer is pretty cool it floats.

I wonder if willy wonka made it since he has that magic stuff to make you float???

I just walked downstairs to find my airlock blown out of the bung......and a small mess of beer everywhere.

I cleaned a new airlock, and put a few drops of bleach in the airlock water.

I'm pretty concerned that this is going to end up infected now. With my first beer ruined by acetobacter, I'm pretty paranoid.

You should be fine, everything is getting blown out, hard for anything bad to go in. You might want to put a blow off tube on though instead of the airlock

Ok so I have another problem.

After the blowout, there's been diddly in the way of airlock activity.

I took another sg. It was 1.40. My OG was 1.45.

Now, as far as reading the hydrometer goes.... It's hard for me because my eyes aren't the greatest and that font is TINY. But I'm almost positive about those numbers.


Should I order some more yeast and repitch?

Whats the temp of the beer?? Not room temp but do you know what the temp of the actual beer is?? Might be that your temp is too low and most belgians need a little warmer temps to ferment.

Thermometer says 61.

Too low?

Edit:
And I can't get over how active this forum is. I post and get a reply in less than an hour. You guys rock.

wowser that is super duper low my friend.

Kick that beotch up to 68 once it gets up there leave the lid on the bucket or cap on the carboy, shake it or do what you have to, to get some yeast back into suspension and I would think things will get better for you.

Your temp is simply too low for that style yeast.

Be careful if you're going to shake it. It will probably create some positive pressure in the vessel you're fermenting in. I've had some bucket tops start to pop off, which could become very messy.

If you're using a ale pail or the like; I think the best way is to remove the airlock, sanitize your hands, then use your thumb to cover the airlock hole. Gently shake a few times and then release the pressure by moving your thumb. You can repeat until you belive you've ressupended the yeast.

Now, this is arating your partially feremented beer, which is a no-no. However, it is the easiest (and sanitary) way to kick your yeast back up.

sicklesr said:

Now, this is arating your partially feremented beer, which is a no-no. However, it is the easiest (and sanitary) way to kick your yeast back up.

Click to expand...

I think he will be ok as there is no air/oxygen in the primary since it's already fermented a little.

I've done this before and had no bad affects. Now opening up the lid and exposing it to air and areating might have some ill affects. I've done this once and the beer was drinkable not that wet carboard flavor everyone speaks of just a weird twang but def. drinkable.

What about spinning it with as little surface splashing? I have a paint mixer I can put the bucket in that will spin it.

I'd leave the lid on and gently get things stired up no reason to go crazy. BUT get that temp up first before you do anything. You might get the temp up and the yeasties get active on their own, they are kinda smart in their own little way.

Looking into ways to heat it up now.

Thanks!!

Got a plastic tub? Put some warm water in it and set the fermenter in that. Just make sure you don't have too much water to the fermenter can tip over.

So.

I'm gonna do the tub/aquarium heater deal tonight when I get home tonight.

My question is....

I'm assuming the water temp will have to be a little higher than your fermenter target temp. So What temp should the water be? 75ish?

hard to say to be honest that sounds about right but keep a close eye on it, when it gets around 68 turn it back. Also keep in mind that usually when wort starts to ferment it can raise the wort temp 4 degrees so don't get ti to hot and then your lookin at 80 degree wort and your now to high. lol

The heat transfer from water to wort is only limited by the insulation value of the vessel which won't be much. Set your aquarium heater at about 70 for a day or 2, then cut it back to 68.

Alright. Going to to take care of this tonight.

Thanks very much gents!

I'm assuming the stall won't affect the beer much, will it? Just take longer to ferment.

Ok I went to petsmart and picked up a heater. When I came home the thermometer read 58.

I put some water in an old igloo cooler of mine and dunked the bucket in it.

The heater is set on 68. There is already airlock activity.

Alright!

I figured I would update this.

I took a direct reading with my thermometer and the wort temp is 68 degrees. The airlock is bubbling well and fermentation is well on its way thanks to you fine gents.

Now, I have a question.

Through some reading I learned that dry hopping with citra leaf hops, licorice sticks and chamomile really makes a big difference and is how Blanche makes their amazing witbeir. I also had a thought of adding the tiniest amount of wormwood and ginger in the dry hop as well.

My question is, how much of this stuff should I use? I've been unable to find any hard numbers.

Ideas?

Any ideas?

OK, I'll bite. I've used Citra but only as pellets as I just got my leaf hops in last weekend. With Citra pellets, I used an ounce for dry hopping a pale ale and found that I got quite a bit of aroma from that small amount. You might like that much or more.

Licorice sticks? How much sugar do they add? Hard to guess, isn't it. How about adding anise, the licorice flavoring. Go easy on any spice you use. You can add for the next batch but you can't take away from this batch if you get too much.

True true.

Didn't even think of the sugar in the licorice. Maybe I'll use it in the boil next time.

I have some anise, maybe I'll try a small amount if that instead.

Thanks!

Ok,

I tested the gravity today. The OG was around 1.40 and the gravity today was 1.20.

Does that sound right?

The wort was freaking tasty though!

I've heard that the Belgian Wit yeast can be a slow one and mine seems to be following that. Into the fermenter before noon on Tuesday and still slowly bubbling today, the fifth day. With an OG of 1.040, yours should ferment out more yet. Give it time. If you started it pretty cool, now might be a good time to bring that temperature up.

What is the FG supposed to be?

I just made a Wit with Wyeast 3944. It fermented out well at 63 degrees most of the time. I left it in primary for 3 weeks before bottling. It had a OG of 1.042 and a FG of 1.010 after a week but still let it sit for 2 more weeks based on advice from here.

The one thing that spooked me was your comment about using blench in the airlock. I know generally that won't reach your brew but I've never seen folks talk about using bleach so close to beer. I wonder what folk's thoughts are on that? It just sounds like a chance for trouble. I've put a mix of starsan and water and also cheap vodka in the airlock before.

I dumped the bleach water in the airlock and filled it up with starsan from the spray bottle.

Ok.

So I just realized after looking at the prep date based on this thread that its only been in the fermenter for 11 days.....feels like forever.

I pulled the dry hop bag out. I was dry hopping with 1oz of leaf citra hops. When I tasted it, it seemed much more bitter than I want. It has that citra grapefruit taste. So I yanked the bag. I didn't think that dry hopping was supposed to add any bitterness? Or is it something else causing it? It's not a bad taste, just not what you want in a Belgian wit.

But anyway.

I don't even know why I'm taking gravity readings this early, but fermentation is still going strong. 1.014 from 1.040. Which is down from 1.020 last week. I'm hoping to get it 1.010.

I'm just going to stop screwing with it until at least next weekend. Next sat. That will make day 21. Hopefully I can bottle by then.

tacket you better get another primary or two, more kits and get a pipeline going or your gonna go nutz...

I'm no mega brewer but I got 2 primaries fermenting at all times and now have 3. Gettin another one tomorrow while I'm actually out of the house working and not at home working...:rockin:

I only have two going right now.

Patience is not one of my virtues.

In fact, I am probably the world most impatient person. The only way I'm making it through this is buying the ole panst standby....