Hi,

I brewed an all grain Belgium Wheat Ale for the first time two weeks ago. The brewing went as normal and then I put it into my primary fermenter for a week, then racked to my secondary fermenter for the second week (which brings me to today).

It has had an odd fermentation process. Specifically the first week had a higher than normal fermentation activity (I had to switch to a blow off tube due to the amount of C02 being pushed out). It seemed to slow a bit (but still very active) after the first week and I racked to my secondary fermenter as I normally do. The second week has also had a very active fermentation which continues even today (with my airlock in place, there is a bubble every 8-9 seconds).

I have never had a batch of brew remain in active fermentation for this long. Is this something unique to wheat ales or could I have possibly introduced something "bad" into the fermentation process? I am getting a bit nervous.

The ale looks great (very clear except for the 1/4 inch of light bubbles on the surface of the ale in the carboy) and I was hoping to key it today, but I suspect I should wait until the bubbles stop.....

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Randy

sorry, noticed a typo -- I was hoping to keg the ale today, not "key" it.....must be anxiety..... ;>)

I sometimes get renewed fermentation vigor after racking. As long as there isn't anything funky/moldy looking or any unusually foul odors coming out of the airlock, I'd say you're prolly alright.

Thanks for the response. It continues to bubble away tonight. No funny smells or moldy appearance. So I am just going to go with it.

It is a very colorful ale!

I will let you know how it turns out. no matter what, I am going to keg it this weekend.

Randy

OK, it has now been three weeks fermenting and it is still bubbling (one bubble every 8 seconds). I am now convinced that I somehow introduced something bad into the ale.

I did siphon a little off today and smelled and tasted it. It does not smell bad, nor does it taste bad (a bit of an odd flavor for an ale, but....).

Question -- I am considering proceeding with kegging but is it safe to drink? I would hate to poison anyone!

Randy

Safe to drink = Yes.

Before you keg the beer though, take a gravity reading to see where it's at. I still don't think there's anything bacterial going on. At this point, I think you would either see some signs of infection (a pellicle or moldy growth) or more probable, the beer would have a sour or moldy taste to it. I still believe that your beer is good, the yeast are just having a rough go with the fermentation. Maybe they were under pitched, or under aerated, or maybe there just weren't enough viable yeast in the tube/sachet/smack pack when you pitched.

So, before you keg, what was the OG and what is the current gravity?

Thanks for the encouragement GuitarLord.

The ending gravity was much higher than I thought it would be. It was 1.030.

Unfortunately I did not take the original gravity (I normally do, but forgot this time).

I decided to keg it this afternoon anyway -- three weeks of active fermentation was enough for me.

The ale tastes OK -- a bit flowery (probably due to the orange peel and other stuff that went into the ale) but I look forward to seeing what it tastes like when it is cold and carbonated. This is the first time I have tried a Belgium Wit, so I do not have anything to compare it too.

I am going to brew the exact same recipe again tomorrow and will see how it compares.

Thanks again for the help.

Randy

I hope you enjoy your beer!

My feelings based on your experiences and gravity is that your beer was not finished fermenting. 1.030 is exceptionally sweet, especially for a Belgian Wit. Although it took a much longer time for fermentation than it possibly should have, I would encourage you to wait until all bubbling stops in your airlock before kegging next time.

So, since you don't want to have any more super long fermentations, let's try to troubleshoot this one. Here's a few questions:
-Extract or All Grain?
-Yeast used?
-Starter made? Not made?
-Aeration? None? Shook Carboy? Aquarium Pump? Pure Oxygen?
-Any blow off?

The more info, the better!

OK here is the detail:

All grain batch (including 6 lbs of 2-row; 6 lbs of white wheat and some oatmeal).

I batch sparge (which is why I use a fair amount of grain)

I used Wyeast 3944 Belgiun Wit. It is a smack pack which did activate (although not as much as some Wyeast packs I have used before).

Once the wort cooled to about 78 degrees, I put it into a 6.5 gallon carboy and rocked it back and forth vigorously for 3 minutes every 15 minutes for an hour. It had lots of O2 mixed in when I was done. I have done this for every brew and it has worked well.

Fermentation temperature did fluctuate from about 65 degrees to 70 degrees (I live in a hot climate -- I do cover the carboy with a wet tee shirt and have a fan blowing on it). But it is hard to maintain a constant temperature.

Very active fermentation the first week. So much so I blew through my air lock twice and then switched to a blow off tube (loose end submerged under water to minimize O2 from being sucked up the tube as temperature changes).

Week two, still reasonably active fermentation, I racked to my secondary carboy and was able to switch to using my air lock.

Week three, fermentation looked like it continued with a bubble every 8 seconds coming out of my air lock.

The odd thing for me was in week three the foam on the surface of the beer looked more like bubbles than foam (first two weeks it looked like the normal "crusty" foam). This is why I wonder if I somehow introduced something foreign into the beer (either during my blow off episodes or when I racked to my secondary fermenter).

Any help in diagnosing the problem is very much appreciated. I do not want to have more extended fermentation periods!

Thanks.

Randy

What type of yeast did you pitch and how much? If you under pitched the yeast I doubt you would see so much co2 formation so early on. The three keys to efficient yeast fermentation are sanitization, type of yeast and it's recommended temperature range.

If you had a particularly vigorous blow off ,which it sounds like you might have, you might have blown out a lot of yeast. I've done this with Burton ale yeast twice, and both times I had a similar fermentation. Very fast, super aggressive start, and then a lackadaisical, prolonged finish. I looked on the White Labs website and found this response from White Labs to some bloke who also had a lengthy fermentation after a vigorous blowoff with Burton Ale Yeast:

"Did beer/yeast come out of the blow off tube? Burton Ale yeast is so top cropping that a good portion of the yeast could have been lost that way. Even so, the best way to speed it up now would be to transfer it into another container. That helps mix it around and break out CO2 that could be repressing the yeast. But make sure you transfer over the yeast cake as well, it is easy to leave behind and this transfer is to spurn the yeast forward, not to separate it out. If you can’t transfer, at least shake the carboy for 2 minutes to rouse the yeast and break out gas."

Maybe it applies to your yeast also...maybe not. If it was a hefty blowoff though, it's certainly a possibility.

Thanks for the advice and counsel. I think it is a real possibility that I blew off too much yeast and then prolonged the fermentation. I only wish I had heeded Guitarlord's advice and waited.

I did keg the beer and at only two days into its carbonation, the beer is a bit sweet. I will wait a few days and try again once it is fully carbonated and then decide what to do.

I brewed a similar recipe on Monday and its fermentation is progressing like normal -- so I will have a back up to keg shortly!

I really appreciate the feedback of this forum.

Randy