Advice Re; Stuck Fermentation ?

[redmactruck]

I have on the go, a Belgian Wit beer (1.7 kg Black Rock Whispering Wheat kit + 1.5 kg Morgans Pale ME + 10 g each of navel orange peel and crushed coriander) and 11 days into fermentation the SG is 1.022.. I used the Wyeast Belgian Wit 3944 pitched at 21 degrees C. The batch size was 23 litres - good strong fermentation started within 6-10 hrs --> great foaming krauesen -- the lid had to be removed at least 3 times within the 1st 36 hrs to clean up mess -- I dropped the temp to 18 degree C after 24 hrs and it has been there steady for the rest of fermentation.
The OG was somewhere above 1.046 ( cheap hydrometer from woolies). Have bought new one since.
The beer is getting clearer and I check it every 48 hrs and today it tastes good too.

Help in this regard would be good !!!

Bit worried when I go to bottle this one :icon_drool2:

 

[Milky11111]

Has the SG been the same over the last 2/3 days?

 

[manticle]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...showarticle=130

 

[Milky11111]

"People often trot out the old 'if the gravity is stable over three days then it's finished' but this statement, in and of itself means nothing."

 

[mwd]

Seeing as it is a Belgian you can try warming it up a bit and give the fermenter a swirl to get the yeast into suspension.

The yeast should be good at 22C or maybe more. Wyeast 3944

 

[Guysmiley54]

3944 is also notoriously slow. It is likely to stall and needs some attention and patience to attenuate fully.

Slowly raise the temp, swirl gently to rouse the yeast back into activity. I have found this yeast gnerally takes 3 weeks in primary to do it's thing, I was concerned when I used it as I thought something was wrong but after googling and asking for advice I found that many others had the same experience with this yeast.

Be patient, it makes a very tasty wit :icon_drunk:

 

[manticle]

"People often trot out the old 'if the gravity is stable over three days then it's finished' but this statement, in and of itself means nothing."

No need to be sad. You just learned something

Yeast can slow or stall. Bottling on stable gravity before the brew is properly attenuated can result in the yeast being re-activated and exploding bottles or other fun shenanigans.

If a brew finishes higher than expected (reasonably higher, not 1 or 2 points) then it's best to work out why and what to do to encourage it to finish fermentation.

 

[redmactruck]

Thanks everyone, for the replys.

Well since the other day which was the 11th day of primary fermentation-- I decided to let it go another 48 hrs to see if it was going to come down.
As of yesterday it hadn't, so I increased to temp to 21 degree c & gave the fermenter a gentle swirl and today the SG reading has dropped to 1.016 the brew is cloudy with small floculate matter. I presume I am on the right track - this wyeast belgian wit 3944 can go up to 24 degrees c, so I have cranked up the fridge a bit more (23c) to get this sucker finished. For an ale type yeast - is this slow?? - I will look at yeast starters next time before pitching.

 

[mwd]

Sounds like it is back on track it will also start to clear again given some time.

Yeast is a strange beast sometimes it goes fast and other times slow. Slow and steady seems to be the most desirable.