My last brew (the Belgian Wit Blend) did not turn out well. It's partially my fault. I rushed it. I gave the batch 10 days of fermenting before I racked it onto the previous batch. Because of my hectic work schedule I didn't have much time to test the brew to see if fermentation was complete and for some reason I didn't even think to taste the 2nd part before I blended the two.
WELLLLLLL, something went wrong during fermentation. I had a wild yeast in there somewhere and the batch was ruined. The flavoring just kind of died. You'd get an ok flavor up front but then it dried up and was just bad. And since I mixed it with the first batch before tasting it, I now have 10 gallons of wasted brew.
I'm more frustrated with myself than anything else. I spent quite a bit of time researching Wits and trying to determine what went wrong. I thought it was a temperature control issue but the guys at my HBC who tasted it said it was simply a wild yeast infection.
In doing my research I learned a few new things about the style and, determined to have a good Wit on tap, I decided to brew another batch this past weekend. I found a new recipe and made some simple adjustment to make it my own. (Zesting fresh oranges instead of Dried Orange Peel; And adding Chamomile to the end of the boil) Sadly the weather was horrendous. It was cold, Very Wind, and snowed on occasion but Mike and I fought through all that and brew my Wit, a Belgian Tripel, and a Blackberry Mead.
I was extremely critical about my sanitation techniques and made up a yeast starter 3 days before to ensure a healthy pitch 9which I was unable to do last time because of a broken stir plate). Another adjustment to my technique that I made was to my fermentation temperature. Although the White Labs temp chart says that 69-70F is the best temp for WLP400 I found a few sources that say they had better luck a few degrees lower. So along with dropping my fermenter in a bucket of water I also wrapped the top in a we t-shirt and put a small fan on it to circulate cool are. I was very happy to see that the three different times that I checked the temp it was 65.2F. (Without the fan and t-shirt I'm usually around 69.8F)
I have EXTREMELY high hopes for this batch. And I can pretty much guarantee that if it doesn't come out well I'm going to switch to a different style for a while.
Wish Me Luck! Cheers!