First all grain batch, white ale wort is grey!
- Thread starter Triocd
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Looks exactly like a wit in a bulk container.
avidhomebrewer
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I think it looks just fine. You'll be ok. rdwhahb.
Triocd
Active Member
Just an update. Gravity is 1.014 or so. The beer looks like banana flavored milk of magnesia. It's thick and not transparent and the color is a yellowish tan. Will a secondary or bottle conditioning improve the look? It's clouded by something and I can't tell what. I'm hoping that whatever is clouding it settles out, but it looks the same as it did 5 days ago.
davesrose
Well-Known Member
How long has it been fermenting? Sometimes it takes awhile for beer to clear out. Taste the sample you pull: that's a better gauge of how the beer is turning out then what color it is at the moment.
if it tastes ok, it will be ok. wheat-based beers, even white wheat, don't start clear, as the yeast has poor flocculation. rdwhahb, and smile knowing the good beer is coming soon
Bottenbrew
Well-Known Member
You see all those dot looking things floating around in the beer? Do a cold crash before you bottle/keg it and they will all drop out.
Let the yeast finish what they are doing before you cold crash though. It looks to me like it might still be churning a bit from the ferment.
It will likely be cloudy. I had a similar issue, I didn't vorlauf properly so the grainbed never set enough to filter. I made a thread about it to help anyone else that has a similar issue...yours sounds the same as mine and this is how I cleared it up:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/vorlauf-how-167038/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/vorlauf-how-167038/
wyzazz
Well-Known Member
Ummm, it's a Witbier. It's supposed to be cloudy... ...leave it be in the primary for 3-4 weeks then keg/bottle.
Yeah, but cloudy and "grey/gross" are very different. I've seen what he is talking about. When he described steeping his gym socks in it I immediately remembered my own grey/gross looking beer...I called it Dishrag Pale.
To the OP, your beer will taste fine. It will just look disgusting while drinking it.
To the OP, your beer will taste fine. It will just look disgusting while drinking it.
wyzazz
Well-Known Member
With the below recipe (from the site that the OP cited) you'll have a lot of haze in that brew. It looks fine to me. Just my $.02.
Belgian White (3 gallons)
* 3 lbs. unmalted or torrified wheat
* 1 lb. flaked oats.
* 4 lbs. pilsner malt
* 1/4 oz. Kent Goldings hops (5% aa) - boil 75 mins.
* 1/4 oz. Kent Goldings hops (5% aa) - last 10 mins. of boil.
* 1 oz. fresh orange peel last 10 mins of boil.
* 1 oz. crushed coriander seeds last 5 mins. of boil.
* Add another 1/2 oz. crushed coriander into primary fermenter after 4 or 5 days (soak seeds in a tiny bit of vodka for 10 min. before adding to fermenter).
* 1 tsp. gypsum in mash water.
* Belgian White liquid yeast.
Belgian White (3 gallons)
* 3 lbs. unmalted or torrified wheat
* 1 lb. flaked oats.
* 4 lbs. pilsner malt
* 1/4 oz. Kent Goldings hops (5% aa) - boil 75 mins.
* 1/4 oz. Kent Goldings hops (5% aa) - last 10 mins. of boil.
* 1 oz. fresh orange peel last 10 mins of boil.
* 1 oz. crushed coriander seeds last 5 mins. of boil.
* Add another 1/2 oz. crushed coriander into primary fermenter after 4 or 5 days (soak seeds in a tiny bit of vodka for 10 min. before adding to fermenter).
* 1 tsp. gypsum in mash water.
* Belgian White liquid yeast.
Triocd
Active Member
Theman, thanks for confirming that you've seen this before. I should say my first photo (the one in the fermenting bucket) didn't accurately show the greyness of the wort. It was taken with a new digital camera and if I don't have the settings right then the colors come out all wrong.
Anyways, I did taste the beer last night and it tastes fine so I'm not real concerned. I'm thinking the amount of oat flakes (1# out of 8) may be the cause. I have a feeling the oat flakes disintegrated and turned to mush which is left behind in the beer. It's similar to when I cook my oatmeal breakfast too long it ends up milky looking. Mash temp was a little high for 30 min.
In addition to the recipe wyzazz posted, the homebrew store guy said to add 3/4# rice hulls. I don't remember the reasoning, but I added them.
I'll have to look up how to cold crash to see if I can get some of the haze out if it doesn't happen naturally.
wyzazz
Well-Known Member
Rice Hulls are to keep the mash for sticking.
Kriznac
Well-Known Member
That wort looks fine. Let it ferment and clear a little bit and I think you will be presently surprised. Besides, as long as it tastes good who cares what it looks like. We all love to have beautiful looking beers but I find it easier to drink an ugly beer that tastes good rather than a beer thats full of off flavors.
I bottled my Belgian wit last night after 1 weeks in primary and almost 2 in secondary. I actually had to kick up some of the sediment because it had cleared so well it didn't look like a nice cloudy wit anymore. I honestly don't see anything wrong with any of your pics. They all look spot on to me.
Gee, if I didn't know better I'd say that's a perfectly normal wit fermenting...Oh it IS a perfecty normal wit fermentation. 
AggieChemDoc
Well-Known Member
Looks tasty! I've brewed a bunch of wits. Everything looks normal to me.
RWDAHB
RWDAHB
I do BIAB and that mean no vorlauf at all yet produce clear beer. A Wit will be cloudy, and once fermentation has stopped and it settles a bit, that Wit won't look as cloudy as it does now.
Give this man a Seegar! +1000
