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I wanted to see if anyone else had this experience - I'm on my second batch of a Wit bier with this yeast and have noticed that in both scenarios - after two weeks the Krausen has not fallen. The first batch I transferred to the secondary while the krausen was still present (which I will not be doing with the second batch). The FG checked out on target with the initial batch.

I'm running up on week two for the second batch and fermentation is still moving. The fermentation of the first batch was @65 degrees and the second batch is at the lower end of 60 degrees.

Has anyone else experienced "slow" fermentation using a witbier yeast such as Wyeast 3944? What has you experience been? I've googled a bit and noticed mixed results about this.

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How a beer looks really doesn't tell you how well fermentation is progressing. A yeast can still be floating around the top and be close to done. Only gravity measurements along the way tell you how its coming. A poorly flocculating yeast would look like this. And A wit yeast stays in suspension better than others anyway. To mean everything sounds normal with this yeast.

Wit is supposed to be cloudy. Leave it in primary for the better part of 10 days, then start checking the graivity. When its done bottle it. There is no need for a secondary with a Wit.

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  • I think I may do this for the second batch - I always struggle with if I should do a secondary or not, etc. I'll get into a groove eventually :).
    – Dan
    Commented Feb 8, 2011 at 1:40
  • Ok - second batch done and I left it in the primary for 3 weeks and it took almost all of that time to complete the initial fermentation cycle. Beer has been bottled for three weeks and tastes great. Not yeasty smelling or tasting.
    – Dan
    Commented Mar 21, 2011 at 15:47
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I have not used this yeast, so I don't have first-hand experience. But Wyeast 3944 is (according to the yeast chart put together by Kristen England) the same yeast as White WLP400. And many of the reviews of WLP400 suggest that it can be a slow worker.

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I have used 3944 in a couple of beers, and in my experience it usually takes at least two weeks to reach the desired FG. So yeah, it's pretty slow.

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