WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale Yeast

I've used this strain twice to make Belgian witbier, and both times I was satisfied with my beer. A couple of things, though:

1. The last witbier that I brewed with this strain scored a 30 in a BJCP competition, with most of the points being deducted from the aroma section. The judges noted an unpleasant sulfur smell, although I did not perceive it as being that strong myself. I'm not sure if this would have anything to do with the yeast (although one of the judges suggested that it might), I felt the need to mention it because I saw a couple of other reviewers mentioned sulfur as well.

2. After two weeks in primary, the beer that I mentioned above stalled out at about 10 points from the desired final gravity. I had been fermenting on the low end of the range, so I gave the beer a gentle stir and raised the temperature to the high end of the range. The beer finished out in about another week. This seems to be pretty consistent with what others have said.

Other than those things, I've been satisfied with this strain, and I will continue to use it for witbier.

Like a lot of the other posts say, this is a slower attenuating yeast. My 1.088 OG Maple Wheat clone took just shy of 3 weeks to attenuate completely with a healthy stir plate starter & pure O2 (followed by a 2nd shot of O2 12 hours into active fermentation). Once active fermentation was over, I had to swirl the carboy at least every 4 days to get the yeast going again. I ended up re-priming in secondary a few days before bottling, and it took the yeast a good 4 weeks before the beer was ready.

This strain lives up to its name, with authentic sour tartness up front, followed by tons of yummy clove esters rise as the sour tart subsides, and the malt/adjuncts follow. Residual tartness seems masks hop flavor & aroma.

If you are looking for an authentic Wit look no further!

Very active yeast that yielded a perfect Witbier, but be patient. Pitched the yeast at 72 Degrees. Fermentation was more ferocious than WLP300. Fermentation had ceased in 3 days, but had a huge krausen. I gave it a swirl and had even more action for 2 more days. Swirled it again, and had another 2 days of action. Had about 79 percent attenuation. What it yielded was a perfectly fermented witbier with a light amount of phenols and it was just tart for my taste. Some buddies of mine said it could use a big more pop "tart." Any suggestions on how to bring that out more?

The 3rd time round with this yeast. I changed some of my methods for this brew (Lowered Mashing Temps), but kept the grain bill the same while increasing the adjuncts (Coriander & Bitter Orange). I finally achieved the phenolic tartness that I have been searching for. I believe by achieving higher attenuation, through lower mashing temps, ultimately producing a drier Wit, the tartness will shine through. As noted last time in my review "Be Patient," I would like to add "Be Watchful." This is a very active yeast that requires a good swirl every few days to fully ferment the beer. I would like to think my processes are improving over the years, but maybe White Labs is improving their yeast quality; Either way, excellent yeast, excellent beer. (Editor's note: Scroll below for TJ Vitolo's first review of this yeast).

Fantastic yeast, produces a wonderful classic Wit style. When fermented at the low end of the range, produces a mild and sulfury character, at warmer temps produces a more phenolic and tart character. This yeast requires lots of head space so be sure to give it room. Also, like most Belgian stains it benefits from patience and an occasional swirl to rouse the yeast. I have not had problems with full attenuation but I allow at least two weeks for primary fermentation when using this strain.

Made a 10 gallon batch, and split it, used dry yeast on one 5 gallon, and WLP400 on the other 5 gallon. This strain takes a while to ferment; I fermented at 65f, for a week, swirled it, and brought it up to 75f for another week, and swirled it again, and dropped to 65f for another week to finish. My final gravity was 1.009, down from 1.060. Takes a while to get the flavors in there, and the tartness, but I entered this one in a contest instead of the dry yeast batch. I was having a debate on what batch I should send, as the dry batch came out very, very good, but this one came out better after about a month and a half in the bottle. Great nose, and the slight tartness really makes the orange pop in your Wit's, and grand cru's.

This one needed to be swirl every three, two, and at last, each day, down to 1004, then secondary to FG 1002. OG 1056, OT 82°F. Regarding the yeast I believe I can say there is an excellent fruity flavor. It starts less aggressive than WLP300 but still strong foam is present. Despite it needed work there was carbonation at degustation. End-to-end production 80 days (6 weeks in bottle). Ingredients: COOPERS 1.7kg brewmaster wheat malt can, 1.5kg Belgian candy sugar, dextrose priming sugar (8,84g/L), 1kg liquid wheat malt pale, WLP400 only. Overall fruity notes, malt flavor, length in mouth, maybe chocolate final notes, 7.47-7.74%. still good at 10 weeks. Attenuation 96%?!

My first time with this yeast. I pitched vial to wort without a starter, and easily achieved 80% attenuation (FG 1.010) in 3 weeks, without the swirling suggested by other reviewers. The beer also cleared to a perfect witbier haze in that time. The best words for the result: fruity, tangy, and spicy.

What a strain! I pitched one vial into a light Belgian Wit (SG=1.043), and it took off within 24hr! It had finished the job around 4 days, but I left it in the primary for 2.5 weeks prior to bottling. Regardless, I hit 80% attenuation without much effort at all....most impressed!

This is the first time I used this yeast and I must say this yeast produces perfect flavors for a traditional Witbier. I have used dried yeast before and wasn't impressed. In fact the off flavors it produced made me stay away from Witbiers for a while, but now that I used this strain I'm brewing Witbier style beer more and more. I will say that you can detect a huge flavor improvement using this yeast. I will also say that I couldn't detect any off flavors at all when I fermented at 67 deg F.

Used a more Americanized grain bill for this yeast and used fresh lemon peel during fermentation. It was only from half a lemon, but wow this yeast makes a drinkable tart beer. It took awhile and I had to rouse the yeast multiple times to attenuate. Fermentation was a little warm around 73, we had a heat spell while fermenting and I couldn't keep the cellar cool enough during primary or secondary, I suspect this is the reason for the tart! flavor more than the lemon peel. It made a nice beer.

If you use this yeast you are going to need to give it a good rouse each day, it seems to like floating on top (looking very healthy) and stalling until you rouse it. After rousing it tries to escape the fermenter and you get a gravity drop. So be prepared :)