Wit Beer Yeast/ Spiced Beer Ferm?

[scrumpy]

tryed this recepie outa the new beer and brewer mag the other day, its the 1st beer i've fermented in my fridge
with my new temp control hooked up...Im fermenting at 20-21 deg with wyeast 3944. it was the 125 smack pack with
no starter made. I missed my target og 1.057 ended up with 1.053, any way the wort does'nt seem to be fermenting
particually hard for the 3 days it has been going. Its prob o.k, just not sure since i've not used this yeast before
or added any spice to a brew. does spicing a beer affect its fermentability??
any clues?

am i just paranoid??








BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: holiday white-tail wit! #23
Brewer: Daniel
Asst Brewer:
Style: Witbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 26.33 L
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 8.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 15.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.77 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 52.91 %
1.94 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 37.03 %
0.28 kg Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC) Grain 5.29 %
15.58 gm Cascade [7.80 %] (60 min) Hops 12.5 IBU
15.58 gm Cascade [7.80 %] (5 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.91 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.22 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.25 kg Honey (2.0 EBC) Sugar 4.77 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Witbier (Wyeast Labs #3944) Yeast-Wheat


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 4.99 kg
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Saccharification Add 13.02 L of water at 74.4 C 66 C
10 min Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C over 10 min 75.6 C


Notes:
------


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Spoonta]

adding spices should not afect the fermenting of the beer

 

[brendo]

always best to do a starter to make sure you get off to a good strong start.

I haven't used this yeast myself (will be soon) so not sure how active it looks, but the best thing to do would be to take a hydrometer sample and see where things are at. After three days of fermentation, you should see a reasonable drop in gravity.

Cheers,

Brendo

 

[Nick JD]

I've heard the grapevine say that sometimes pleasing flavours come from a slow start using a wheat yeast. Might be a good thing...

 

[beersatan]

I've just started drinking a keg of wit I made with 3944.
I made a two litre starter @ 1040 - added to 22 litres @ 1041 and fermented at 20 degrees in a temp controlled fridge.
It took 9 days to hit SG. I crash chilled in the fermenter for 24 hours and then straight in the keg.
The krausen wasn't as high and it didn't seem as crazy as 3068 or 3638 but it did the trick and tastes great.

I'm no eggspurt but I don't think the spices affect fermentation.
I'd be paranoid about not using a starter on a nearly 6% beer because it could create some funky flavours.
I've had it happen with 1768 and 1272 but not with wheaties. I'm not taking chances anymore and make starters all the time now.

 

[white.grant]

Hi Scrumpy,

3944 is the belgian "Wit" yeast which is a bit different to the german wheat yeasts or even the belgian wheat yeasts. "Wit" is meaning "white", not wheat in this context. Thinky Hoegaarden as opposed to Weihenstephan.

My experience of 3944 is that its a fairly well behaved yeast, no climbing out of the fermenter and it forms a nice light rocky looking krausen and has a delicious phenolic character. I'd be letting it run its own race and enjoy the final product.

cheers

grant