Belgian Wit Questions

[BPD]

Brewed an Annapolis Home Brew Belgian Wit on Wednesday. Everything went well and it is in the primary fermenting away. A few simple questions.

1. should this be racked to a secondary after most of the fermentation or leave it in the primary for 3 weeks? if left in the primary will this give it more sediment/cloudiness when bottled? Conversely will racking to a secondary (without stirring up the trub) give me a less cloudy more of a light haze beer?

2. what would be the optimal fermentation temp for Wit beer yeast? right now I have it going at approx 75 degrees F or should it be closer to 80?

3 when bottled again would 7- to 75 be OK? or warmer?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[Kilgore_Trout]

The primary/secondary thing doesn't effect clarity much, don't worry about it.

2. those are way too high, it depends on the yeast you used but 75 is way high no matter what.

3. I try to keep my bottles at fermentation temp, but it's not the end of the world if they're a bit warm... the first few weeks are the most important.

 

[Jamo99]

Racking to secondaries helps clear beer. A Belgian Wit though should be hazy, so I would go 3 week primary, then bottle.

I used Wyeast #3944 which has 75F as the high end for the strain. I don't know what you used, but shoot for the middle of the range your first go round, probbaly 68ish.

After you bottle you'll want to leave the bottles around fermentation temperature or a little bit warmer.

 

[Saccharomyces]

The Wit yeast is best fermented at 72*F. 75*F is OK too. I would not go warmer than 75*F. At 68*F it produces some sulfur and the phenols are muted.

This yeast takes a long time to finish. After a week I like to swirl the fermenter gently every couple of days to rouse the yeast. I leave it for 2 1/2 to 3 weeks in the primary and then keg. I would recommend against ever secondarying a Wit since you need the yeast to be in contact with the beer throughout fermentation, otherwise it will likely end up finishing at too high of a gravity.

 

[BPD]

I used the wyeast which I thought was 70 or so but the instruction sheet had a comment that wheat bears needed to be higher closer to 80 hence my question. Thank you for the correct info. this am since the basement cooled, as the woodburrner was not needed yesterday, the stick on fermometer is reading 72 so I should be ok and I'' try to keep it near there.

normally and probably next week with the weather here cooling off my basement, not sitting on the floor but on a table and away from the woodburner, is approx 65 so as the fermentation slows will this be too cool or should I keep it closer to the heat to keep near 70.

I was originally planning on keeping it in the primary for 3 weeks then directly bottling but just wanted to double check to make sure I was doing things right and for the right reasons.

thanks again for the info and the continuing education, each brew for me right now is completely different so that I can keep pushing my learning curve further and enjoy doing it at the same time

 

[Saccharomyces]

I would keep it warm. If it gets too cool the yeast may drop out and not finish the fermentation leaving a sweet Wit (yuck). Belgian yeasts are picky that way. They are like the females of the brewing yeasts.

 

[BPD]

Ok will try to keep it near 70F will move it closer to the heater as the temp cools in the basement. thanks

 

[dpolug]

I also am brewing a Belgian Wit, only I have kept the primary at 60 degrees. The optimum temperature for the yeast used was between 60 and 75 so I figured, keeping it at the bottom end of the temp of 60, the internal temperature would be a little higher around 65 correct?
I was also planning to rack to a secondary on Monday after one full week in the primary. I intended to keep it in the secondary for two weeks, and then bottle condition for three.

Is this not a good plan of action?

 

[Mutilated1]

2. what would be the optimal fermentation temp for Wit beer yeast? right now I have it going at approx 75 degrees F or should it be closer to 80?

Thats way too hot - mid to low 60s is what you want.

 

[dpolug]

How much can I expect the internal temperature to rise from room temp?