Recipe Clarification Needed

Hi all,

Finally found time to brew my first Witbier using Jamil's recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. The recipe says "Begin fermentation at 68F, slowly raising the temperature to 72F by the last third of fermentation."

Does he mean "fermentation" as measured by specific gravity? My OG is 1.051, my target is 1.010, so the temp should be at 72 by the time the gravity is 1.023 or so...is that right?

Or does he mean "fermentation" in the broader sense of the (typically) three-week period in which the wort is in the fermenter? Thus I'd want to be to 72F by the start of week three.

I assume the former (gravity) is the intended meaning. Please tell me if I'm wrong (or confirm that I'm right)! Many thanks.

What yeast are you using? Fermentation will happen a lot faster than 3 weeks... maybe even closer to three days.
How long has it been going?

I bet if you kept the temp at 68° the whole time, it would come out fine.

But to answer your question, I would take it to mean the latter of your two scenarios.

The 'last third of fermentation' could be a day or two. I'd let it go at 68 for 3 days of vigorous fermentation then put it at 72.

It went in the fermenter late Monday night, about 48 hours ago. Had activity Tuesday morning. Activity (as measured by bubbling) picked up somewhat by Tuesday night, but seems to have re-stabilized or even slowed a bit today.

I just took a gravity reading after letting things settle, 1.042. With an OG of 1.052, I'm nowhere near the last third of fermentation yet...seems slow.

Usually my brews' activity accelerates, peaking in the first 2-3 days, then tapering off slowly over many days. I've never worked with this yeast (White Labs WLP400) or anything resembling this style (first time using wheat, oats, and rice hulls for filtering) before...hope I didn't do something wrong.

Perhaps foolishly, I made a small starter which I pitched after only 24 hours. It was certainly active, probably not at high krausen but definitely foaming up real good. Kept it in the target fermentation range of 68-72F, slightly under 70F. Wort was 68F at pitching time.

I'm sure it'll be fine if I just leave it at 68, but it wouldn't be hard to let it slowly rise to 72...given the mixed answers here thus far, I'm still unclear on what Jamil really means.

There's plenty of time to worry about temp adjustments throughout the fermentation. Going by your post count I'd say you might be better off just focusing on the basics for now. No offense intended, but you're asking about fairly minute details. Good that you're thinking about that, but I'm hoping you're not overthinking one of your "get your feet wet" brews.

I haven't posted here much, but I've brewed many a beer, enough to know that despite Pap's urging to "Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew", details *do* matter, especially when it comes to temperature. Which is why I'm here asking.

sorghumking said:

The recipe says "Begin fermentation at 68F, slowly raising the temperature to 72F by the last third of fermentation."

Does he mean "fermentation" as measured by specific gravity? My OG is 1.051, my target is 1.010, so the temp should be at 72 by the time the gravity is 1.023 or so...is that right?

Or does he mean "fermentation" in the broader sense of the (typically) three-week period in which the wort is in the fermenter? Thus I'd want to be to 72F by the start of week three.

I assume the former (gravity) is the intended meaning. Please tell me if I'm wrong (or confirm that I'm right)! Many thanks.

Click to expand...

What he means by this is you want your wort chilled to 68F when you pitch your yeast and start your fermentation and keep it at 68 through the initial start of fermentation. He then wants you to increase the temperature before fermentation finishes to help encourage the yeast to reabsorb esters and other byproducts that are produced during the reproduction phase (the beginning of fermentation).

Your assumption is correct. Basically what he means is that after about 2/3 or so of the fermentables are consumed go ahead and ramp the temperature up. Seeing as most moderate gravity brews can be finished fermenting in the first week or so, I usually start ramping the temperatures after a few days. If I were smart/not lazy I would do it by gravity.

You can also skip this step. To compensate you can pitch more yeast to minimize how much yeast reproduction (and ester production) occurs.

WLP400 takes off like a beast, but may stall. If it does, try giving it a swirl to wake it up.
It will probably have a high sulfur smell, but don't throw it out thinking it's bad. Leaving it on the cake at 70-72F will help clean up the sulfur.