My orange Witbier has is a big dark ominous bubble that I am concerned about. It’s hard to see in the picture, but around the buble it looks dry like how cinnamon sits on top of water. I would normally not be concerned but in addition to this the smell has completely gone away. A few days ago when I checked the gravity it had an incredibly strong delicious smell, but today it had absolutely no smell at all, including the coriander. I checked the gravity after 5 days in primary and it was 1.020, and today it was 1.018, shooting for 1.013.
Mold would be black… Do you sample the brew you pull out for testing? I won’t say it can’t grow mold… But with the pH going to be low… say about 4.5 or there about… It would be hard for any bug the compete with the cultured yeast… Yeast will scrub away some of the aromatics… I’m a fan of adding them as the fermenter slows way down… Perhaps about now… IF O2 is introduced when adding these late dry hop/aromatics, the yeast will use that O2… Sneezles61
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Looks fine to me (if that bubble was milky white you might have some Brett, not a mold either). During active fermentation the smells coming out of the fermenter are at their strongest. It is normal for these smells to subside to normal levels. While I do not think you have anything to worry about, if you were to introduce something odd to your beer it would be during these gravity checks. IMO I wouldn’t bother checking the gravity until 10-14 days have passed. I try to confine myself to one or two gravity checks (if I check at all) but admittedly I did more when I was starting out.
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I normally would be more patient but I am trying to hurry it so it will be ready for when my brother is in town a few weeks. I am planning on adding orange peel zest soaked in vodka when I move it to secondary. Would you suggest I add it to the primary now and let it sit for another week to get to the FG, and just skip secondary?
I sampled it the first time and it tasted great. I didn’t try it this second time.
Yes I can understand that feeling. You cannot rush the yeast. They are on their own timetable, but you know that. If you want to rush what you can do is skip the whole secondary thing all together. What yeast did you use? What temperature are you at? Some of my favorite wheat yeast flavors come from warm fermentation which also might speed things up.
Add the zest whenever you want as long as it’s been soaking for a couple of days. If you soak for a long time in vodka you make a tincture and the zest itself is useless but the vodka is the real deal and can be added at bottling if you will.
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I used a dry yeast, Safale something but I can’t remember which exact one off the top of my head. The temperature is around 68 degrees. I do not have a method for controlling the temperature, what do you do to keep it warm? And thank you so much for the help, I enjoy continuously learning along the way.
That’s cool. Safale is a Safebet. I think you should try it again someday. Wheat and wheat ale strains are meant to go together. I guess they aren’t for everybody but I love them and they are very tolerant to abuse.
One of my favs…
“This yeast strain produces a beautiful and delicate balance of banana esters and clove phenolics.”
http://www.wyeastlab.com/yeast-strain/weihenstephan-wheat
Low end of range is more clove high end is more banana (or so I am told you get a bit of both)
Why not put it in a warm area of your house… Even a heating pad for a couple hours… Unplug it… be sure to wrap it up with a good blanket to help hold in the heat… Sneezles61
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I think i’m going to move it upstairs where its a bit warmer
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68F is fine. If you have US-04 75F is the high end
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Take your time. Dont rush it. It looks fine. I would say sorry did my best. But the brew not ready yet. Rushing it it might get off flav when your beer not ready yet. And they might not like it. Let the taste a other brew you did.
