Help with witbier

[beercus]

I have had this witbier in primary for 4weeks @ a consistent 19oC

It taste great except for quiet a prominent sulphur smell... In hindsight I should of added yeast nutrient and also pitch a bigger starter.

As u can see it is also very milky, I know it is not suppose to be clear but this is a little much.

I have been told to be patient with WLP400 and am prepared to wait longer but not sure of my next steps. For the first two weeks, I regularly gave it a swirl.

1. Will the sulphur smell dissipate over time in the bottle or is there something I should do to it?
2. Should I go to a secondary with gelatin?

What would you do next?

Thanks
Beercus

 

[TheWiggman]

What's the SG and how has it been dropping over time?
Sounds like you've done things right. Racking may be a good option if it's stalled.

 

[beercus]

Started at 1.050 and now after a month it is at 1.010. It did take a while to get there....

I think it's done...

Beercus

 

[mfeighan]

Crash chill your fermenter for a day or 2. The bigger yeast will drop out. No need for gelatin.

Edit:
Sulphur will dissappear after time

If you keg you can bubble co2 through it to accelerate the process

 

[BilBrewing]

I enjoy brewing Witbiers and have used WLP400 once amongst a variety of yeasts. Something that mine were prone to was producing sulphur along the way. Even after taking very good care using higher pitch rates, yeast nutrient, open ferment to drive sulphur off etc i would still get sulphur notes.

I did a fair bit of reading and found a post on the Probrewer forums about an old trick of using something made of copper in the boil. I have a copper chiller that i now put in with 15 minutes left in the boil and kinda like magic, no more sulphur!

As far as my understanding goes, sulphur is found in two forms, one which is quite volatile and one which is very stable. You can do a simple test by taking a sample of beer and dropping a copper piece of pipe into it to see if it helps.

Another thing to be aware of is that even if you condition the sulphur out of the beer over time, from my experience if you bottle condition it's likely to come back.

As for the clarity, that's to be expected for a Wit and is definitely in line with the style. As Mikey said above, just crash chill it for a couple of days.

 

[Dan2]

Not familiar with that yeast but I've used the wyeast equivalent a few times.
In my experience it's always worked a little slower than other yeasts but 10-14 days at 19 should see it finish.
ALWAYS stank while fermenting, and tastes from hydrometer samples made me want to tip the whole batch out.
But the finished product was always great.

I've never "given it a regular swirl" - once the yeast is working it should be right to leave alone - given the right conditions (19C seems spot on though).
If you've just lightly wobbled the fermentor then it won't hurt much but if swirling means stirring?? - then there's a risk of infection.

Take it down to 0-2 Celcius for a few days then bottle/keg. If you don't like the results then hopefully you've learned something and can improve the next batch.

 

[beercus]

Cold crashed the Wit for 5 days and seems to be a lot clearer and the sulphur smell is gone..... Taste on target, in bottles now and will try in a few weeks.

So this is the sample after cold crash, still somewhat cloudy but that's what you want with a Witbier right? a touch brown, i hope this is not oxidation.

 

[Dan2]

Looks okay mate.
I think this one might surprise you. The change in flavour from fermenting to finished is ridiculous.
By the time your bottles are carbed, you will be hoping you'd already started a new batch (hopefully)