WLP400 Belgian Wit Yeast Question

[Yjie91]

Hey everyone, need your comments on this please.

So I brewed a Belgian Wit with a Coopers Hefe/Wheat LME, 1kg of Munton's Wheat DME, Saaz hops, Coriander seeds and Curacua peel, which was pitched with 1 vial of WLP400 Belgian Wit directly into 19L of wort at 18deg.C on Saturday, 08 SEPT 2018. There was no activity due to the yeast being partially frozen 30 minutes prior to pitching.

As such, there was no foaming and/or kraeusen 18 hours later. Therefore, I bought another vial of WLP400, and re-pitched directly into the fermenter at 21 deg.C on Sunday, 09 SEPT 2018.

6 hours after the re-pitch, the fermentation produced a thin, white foamy kraeusen, and after another 6 hours, the wort produced a 1 - 1.5 cm thick, doughy kraeusen, which is still persisting as of this Tuesday (11 SEPT 2018) morning. In contrast to the above phenomenon, the forced ferment test sample pulled from the wort containing the first WLP400 had begun to flocculate, resulting in a clearer wort.

The fermentation of the beer is maintained at a temperature of 20 - 22deg.C, averaging at 21deg.C, and no starters were made for the first and second WLP400 pitches. Both yeasts were manufactured in August.

From my understanding, the yeast is supposed to create a huge kraeusen that sometimes causes blow-offs, but in my experience, it's just a quick transition from nothing to thin, white foam, to a 1 - 1.5 cm thick, doughy kraeusen.

I sincerely hope to hear your thoughts and comments on this phenomenon so I may understand this yeast better for future brewing purposes as I quite like wit beers.


Thank you!

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

It's always a good idea to make a nice starter prior to pitching liquid yeast. Especially when you're not sure how well the yeast has been stored. The starter will give you an indication of what kind of shape the yeast is in before you pitch it. I try to avoid blow offs whenever possible to eliminate the extra cleanup work they can cause. Using a 65-68F fermentation temperature is what I target when fermenting the Witbiers I brew.

 

[dmtaylor]

You're worrying over nothing. It's yeast. It does what it wants, when it wants. It doesn't always do what we expect. Relax. Don't worry.

 

[carluchi]

Everything you described is completely normal.

Every yeast is different and doesn't adhere to time scales. Let it do it's thing and take a reading when the krausen drops which could be anywhere from one to three weeks.