Normal for a belgian white?

Normal?

that looks like beer fermenting to me. actually thats what my pilsner looks like right now.

Looks like a nice normal krausen.

Belgians ferment really nasty. First one I made smelled like someone puked in it. I almost dumped it but asked on here and all said it was normal. The beer turned out great in the end. Glad I waited!

Please tell us you are not racking it, looks like an auto siphon in some of those pics.

gcdowd said:

Please tell us you are not racking it, looks like an auto siphon in some of those pics.

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Just a note, mine looked like that well after fermentation was complete.

Normal for most belgian white yeasts. Which strain did you use?

Why are you racking??

im sure (actually im hoping) hes just using the racking cane to show the nasty looking krausen,right?........right?

You can rack from underneath a belgian krausen that doesn't drop. Sometimes these yeasts can stick around for a month without dropping.

My current belgain white was ugly for a few days but it's 2 weeks old and looks dam good. Another week or so and it's goin to bottles.

What's the reason for not racking over into secondary on a white Belgium ??

bsclater said:

What's the reason for not racking over into secondary on a white Belgium ??

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You can, but many people on these forums practice just using a primary for fermentation for 3 weeks and skipping a secondary. It lessens the risk for infection and seems to not have any ill effects. If you are adding fruit or something similar, it may be easier to rack to secondary though.

D_Nyholm said:

You can, but many people on these forums practice just using a primary for fermentation for 3 weeks and skipping a secondary. It lessens the risk for infection and seems to not have any ill effects. If you are adding fruit or something similar, it may be easier to rack to secondary though.

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This is it.

Adding additional fruit, dry hopping or something along those lines require it or simply have better turnouts.

Going to secondary helps clear the beer but you can cold crash it in the primary and do a better job than going to secondary.

I've done it once when adding oak chips and coconut to a stout.

Will be doing it again next week when adding vanilla beans to a stout.

My white looked just like that 1 week into fermenting after a partial mash. It finally settled down after 2 weeks at 68 degrees. After 28 days in the primary all had dropped and the top was clear. Used Wyeast 3944.

Best of luck,

Greg

Fermentation is a very ugly, yet beautiful thing. This is fantastic! Just bring the fermenting temperature down a bit and wait a while and it will clear I suppose.

The people saying that they hope he isn't racking are thinking that the beer is still fermenting.

You shouldn't transfer until final gravity is reached.

You don't need to use a secondary at all. I have not done one since my 5th batch. I have done 34 so far.

I will be racking my Wee Heavy to secondary since I am going to age it for a month before bottling.

How long has it been in primary? What was the OG? What is your FG?

Yeah, I agree with everybody saying it looks like a good fermentation. I've made Belgians before and I also agree that the krausen can stick around for an extended period of time. I would definitely not use a secondary for a Belgian white, but if you really want to you should wait until you reach your FG and then at least a week after that. Leaving it in contact with a lot of yeast will give it time to clean up off flavors and by-products.

bizarrojosh said:

Fermentation is a very ugly, yet beautiful thing. This is fantastic! Just bring the fermenting temperature down a bit and wait a while and it will clear I suppose.

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I wouldn't bring the fermenting temperature down a bit. If I did anything it would be to step the temperature up as fermentation progresses so you get a good ester profile from the Belgian yeast. Also increasing the temp will help the yeast be more active and clean up after themselves more efficiently. You could cold crash it just before bottling to help clear it, but a Belgian white isn't going to be clear anyways.