Wit taking forever to ferment

Pretty high gravity Wit made with 4 lbs of flaked wheat and 4 lbs of pale.
Around .51 OG.
Used White Labs Wit yeast...cant remember the strain.

Before pitching i swirled the wort in the carboy until it was nice and foamy - swirled for prob a few minutes.
Pitched a bit warm...it was a hot day that day but i got the wort to around 79F

Fermentation started the day after and has been going on for 12 days.
Last i checked (last night) my airlock was bubbling every 3 or 4 seconds and i had a thick layer of krausen on top of the wort.

Should i just stop obsessing and be patient?

Hi, I brew wits a lot and I use that yeast.

Basically the wit yeast is a PITA, it will ferment half way then stall. It won't do anything unless you go in with a sanitised paddle and give it a good rouse. Even then it will probably only drop a few points, so you'll need to do this once or twice a day until you reach terminal gravity.

Even then, it's not uncommon for this yeast to kick off a vigorous secondary ferment in the keg, with a new head of yeast and everything.

Be very careful if you plan to bottle, if you do bottle before you are at terminal gravity then you will have hand grenades.

So yeah, get in there and stir it up. You'll see fermentation actively pick up shortly after.

Thanks Mysterio -

Can i get the same effect by simply swirling the closed carboy?

Yes, but you'll want to really swirl it though, you want to see the yeast head break up a bit and fall down into the beer. Don't be afraid to do it once in the morning and again in the evening. Let us know if it works!

cool! Thanks Mysterio. I'll give it a shot.

What temp is the fermentation happening at? 60's, 70's?

I used the wyeast belgian wit and it went from1.054 to 1.010 in less than a week, under-pitched it even. Tastes good to.

BrewUnited - typical Ale Temps....about 65-70.
Teletrout - perhaps i'll try this yeast next time...

Even with a starter, my Wyeast 3944 took 2 weeks to get through my wit. Incidentally, the same batch with a year old slurry pitch of WLP400 finished up in a week. The krausen is always persistent on these even when it's done. After pulling a sample with my sanitized turkey baster, I kind break the krausen layer up with it.