whitelabs belgian wheat ale (400) slow fermentation or....

[jeepi]

Hey guys, tried fermenting a 5 gallon batch of wheat beer with this yeast. OG was. 1.055. Did a starter with a fresh vial which was probably overkill. got explosive fermentation at first. After 10 days, no more action, not a bubble in signt and fermentor is pretty dirty due to the initial explosion so I decide go rack to secondary. Reading was 1.040. Seems odd since there is no more action. Fermenting chamber controling temperature to 20 degrees.

Now I read online that it can be a really slow fermentor, but it started like a beast... beer seems great, no signs of infection or anything. should I re pitch with another vial?

Any ideas or advise with this perticular strain?

Cheers!

JP

 

[AQUILAS]

Gonna bump this thread.

I made a 1.5L starter of WLP400 and pitched it Monday night. You were right in saying fermentation was explosive. Tuesday morning, 5 hours after pitching, I had slow activity. 8 hours later when I got home from work, activity had ramped up. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, activity really got going...the most active fermentation I've had yet. The airlock started foaming and I was thinking I should put on an airlock, but I didn't. I went to work that wednesday morning thinking "hmmm...maybe I should have used a blow off tube..." When I got home, it went back to being just active. As of this morning, it's gone back to slow going.

My OG at pitch was 1.043 and it's been fermenting at 68F. After a week, I may ramp it up to 72F to finish up before I check the gravity.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Reading was 1.040. Seems odd since there is no more action. Fermenting chamber controling temperature to 20 degrees.

Measuring FG with a hydrometer or refractometer?

I've read reviews that this strain is a slow finisher, but that has not been my experience. Every time I've used it, it has been at FG within a week and ready to keg 2-3 days later. These results are based on making a starter and aerating the wort with pure O2 for 60 seconds.

 

[LLBeanJ]

My OG at pitch was 1.043 and it's been fermenting at 68F. After a week, I may ramp it up to 72F to finish up before I check the gravity.

A little ramp in temp near the end is usually a good idea with all Belgian strains.

 

[AQUILAS]

A little ramp in temp near the end is usually a good idea with all Belgian strains.

Does ramping after a week after pitch sound proper? I'm thinking maybe around Tuesday, I'll get it to 70F for a few days and then 72F for the rest of the time.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Take a look inside the fermenter. Once the krausen begins to clear, ramp away!

 

[jeepi]

Gravity was taken with an hydrometer. I have since repitched and have had steady fermenting since then (previous 5 days ish) at 68 degrees. I will follow your advise and ramp up to 72 for a couple days once the krausen has settled. I am not sure if it was the actual repitching or the shaking of the fermenter (read online that it was good to shake it every couple days). But any how, seems to be going. I did pitch a 1l starter and had aerated the wort for a while using normal air. I Repitched with the extra vial I had of the same yeast. Explosive fermentation makes me think those parameters where probably good to go... not too sure what happened there, maybe I was just paranoid.

 

[casualbrewer]

Last time I used 400 it didn't seem to attenuate to where it should have. Ended up about 5 points too high and stayed there for about a week.. I have another batch going now so we will see what happens. I didn't make a starter for either one...

 

[AQUILAS]

Fermentation in my primary has slowed to a halt, or rather I should say that airlock activity. I haven't taken a gravity reading yet, as I don't want to open the bucket just yet. This past monday was a week and it was still showing airlock activity, although much slower compared to the first few days. I ramped up to 70F from 68F. Tomorrow, I'll ramp to 72F and leave it until next Monday. Then I'll take a reading there.

 

[jeepi]

just took another reading and i'm now down to 1.020 (fg supposed to be 1.005) so basically went steadily from 1.055 to 1.020 in just shy of three weeks... it seems steady but maaaaan this is slow lol. Beer is absolutely awesome though so I hope it keeps coming down. Probably take at least another 10 days. I'll start ramping up this week end any ways.

 

[AQUILAS]

Just an update on mine. I took a reading this past Monday, 2 weeks after pitch. My OG was 1043 and now I'm at 1012. I'd like for it to get lower to 1009, but I don't think it'll get there.