VERY thick Wit

I'm working on a partial mash Belgian Wit. Everyone tells me not to rack to a secondary to keep some of the haze, but i just took a quick sample and this stuff is THICK.

Its been in the primary for a week. I just took a sample to check SG. In the theif it is separated a bit, and the top half is cloudy, but the bottom half is completely opaque. This stuff is thicker than any beer I've ever had.

It hasn't reached final yet, I'm only at 1.020, but is there cause for concern? Is it going to clear up naturally? Should I consider moving over to secondary in another week for clarity?

Thanks

Wit+Cloudy=Good

I wouldnt bother with a secondary. Just keep an eye on the gravity

But this isn't just cloudy. It is as dense as whole milk

glanville said:

But this isn't just cloudy. It is as dense as whole milk

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It's also not done fermenting, check it again in a week or two.

It's still fermenting witch will keep it mixed up give it more time to settle out. . . at least a week or more if you can keep the temps good. the last wit i did took about three weeks to settle down the thick stuff (yeast and trub )than i moved to my bottling bucket it will still be cloudy with small stuff but that is OK for a wit. let it sit a bit and bottle then wait at least 2 weeks or longer . . If you can

Ok - a week and a half later. Its been in the primary for 18 days... I did another SG test. I'm only at 1.016... and it is still THICK

Its not just hazy or cloudy it is thick.... Is it supposed to be so thick in the fermenter? I've been giving it a gentle swirl every couple of days to try and keep those yeast moving around

any suggestions?

why are you swirling it? Just leave it alone to do its thing.

What do you mean by thick? Are you tasting it or going off appearance? Take another gravity reading in three day. If it say. 016.you're probably done.

Can you post a picture? I imagine swirling it around is worse than any thickness that is going on right now.

What yeast did you use? A picture might be nice too. It sounds odd to me. Cloudy is not necessarily think IMO. A wit is usually fairly thin in mouthfeel, relatively speaking.

Take a taste?

glanville said:

I've been giving it a gentle swirl every couple of days to try and keep those yeast moving around

any suggestions?

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Stop swirling it. You are potentially introducing oxygen to your beer, which will stale it... and you won't be able to fix that.

The yeast will do what they need to do. There are very few instances where you ought to swirl the beer, and these only come up when you have other problems.

Also, if you are having issues with the beer being thick, leave it alone so that the sediment can settle! Swirling it is likely prolonging your problems.

Yeast know how to make beer. Let them.

Did you know that gravity is a measure of density in relation to water. So at 1.016, your wit is only slightly more dense than water. What you are describing as "thick" may be the mouthfeel (consistency?) of the wheat grain or something to that effect, but it isn't the actual density.

stop swirling it and when you take a sample with your wine thief , you shouldn't plunge it all the way to the bottom of the primary. If you are , then you are taking samples from the bottom and bringing in more yeast/trub than necessary into your wine thief.


When you rack to keg or bottle, you wont be using all the trub at the bottom. I suspect this is what's happening.

homebrewdad said:

Stop swirling it. You are potentially introducing oxygen to your beer, which will stale it... and you won't be able to fix that.

The yeast will do what they need to do. There are very few instances where you ought to swirl the beer, and these only come up when you have other problems.

Also, if you are having issues with the beer being thick, leave it alone so that the sediment can settle! Swirling it is likely prolonging your problems.

Yeast know how to make beer. Let them.

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Revvy is that you!?!?!?!

iv_hokie12 said:

Revvy is that you!?!?!?!

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LOL... just a Revvy disciple, I suppose.

Well I measured it again on Sunday, still at 1.016... So I went ahead and bottled it... I think I must have been jamming the thief down into the trub at the bottom. That would also explain the yeasty flavor of the samples I took... Once in the bottling bucket it was still on the thick side but much more normal looking. Thanks for the advice all, I'll let you know how it turns out.