Manderin Orange Belgian

[lolobrewman]

I'm into my 12th day of fermentation with a Manderin Orange Belgian, Briess DME wheat, East Kent Golding hops, Saaz hops, coriander and pureed manderin oranges. It quit perking yesterday and the readings are: starting 1.050 and now 1.012. My question is, the wort is really cloudy and should I wait a few more days for it to clear or will it ever clear? I'm going to keg this and the cloudiness doesn't bother me, in fact looks kind of cool. Any suggestions?

 

[HOPCousin]

I would give it three weeks minimum to settle a bit more and give the yeast more time to clean up. It should clear up a bit more.

 

[lolobrewman]

This is in a plastic bucket, first time I've used plastic. Any worries about that?

 

[HOPCousin]

As long as it's been sanitized you should be fine. Make sure when you clean it you don't use anything like a scratch pad. Just risnse it well after you finish with it and use either a soft sponge and sanitizer or just your hands and sanitizer. Your much more likely to get an infection once you start scratching the side of the bucket.
Hope it comes out well.

 

[bottlebomber]

I don't know what yeast you used, but some of them, WLP500 in particular, really need to be cold conditioned before they'll drop. You could cold crash it, or if your kegging it will do that anyway. Sounds delicious! Im at the moment enjoying a belgian orange ale that started off at 1.105 and is now 1.014

 

[DannPM]

You used Wheat Malt for 100% of the extract? It may always be a tad bit cloudy even after a few weeks of settling, that's the nature of wheat. It could also be some pectin haze caused from the addition of fruit.

 

[bottlebomber]

I somehow missed that it was a wheat base... yes it will always be cloudy. And you almost never boil fruit... though you didn't say that you did that. Fruit is usually left for after fermentation is complete

 

[lolobrewman]

Thank you all for your responses. This is one great forum, will have to become a paying member. That said, my yeast is Wyeast 3944 and I know it won't clear completely but this is a little murkier than other wheats I've done. That's probably due to the fruit which I didn't boil. I added the puree after the wort cooled and then pitched the yeast. I think I'll rack it to the keg and put it in the fridge for a few days. I'm sure it'll be fine. Will post results.

Thanks again, Mike