Bavarian Hef, stalled?

wps-hbt
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
S

ShawnNelson

Active Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
Location
Beaverton
Last week brewed a bavarian style hef using 8lbs of extract (4 of wheat and 4 of pilsner) with WLP300 liquid yeast. I brewed last Friday, pitching the yeast on last Friday night. By Saturday morning it was going and roared through the weekend. I let it ferment hot, like 75 deg and above (I wants me the banana)

Tonight, almost a full week later, I racked to secondary and took hydro and was surprised. First, still a solid layer of krausen and very little trub on the bottom, and the hydro was 1.022. Did I rack too soon? I thought that almost 7 days in primary, at warm temps, would be way more than enough. Have I doomed myself to a sweeter hef? It tastes good, surprisingly not as banana'y as I was anticipating, and a little sweet for a hef. Thoughts?

Oh, and temp right now is 72.

Thanks,
-Shawn
 
8 lbs is a lot for a hefe, so might take a little longer. less than a week at that amount of lme? i love hefes, and i leave them alone in the primary for 11-14 days, then keg. leave it alone for a few more days. since you secondaried, the yeast will build up a little again and take care of the sweetness.
 
thanks!

dang, a lot of my beers ferment out in like 4 days, so I thought this would be plenty.

Should I boil up like a cup (or less) or corn sugar to kick start fermentation? granted, it's now in a 5gal carboy with nearly no head space.
 
A lot of extract brews get stuck at the infamous ~1.020 SG level.It has to do with the fermentability of the extract used. I ferment all my hefe's for 10 days and then straight into the keg. No need for secondaries. I brew them so often that I don't even bother checking the FG anymore. Just 10 days in the primary and then it's on the gas and into the glass! They always come out great and they never last very long around here!
 
johnsma22 said:
A lot of extract brews get stuck at the infamous ~1.020 SG level.It has to do with the fermentability of the extract used. I ferment all my hefe's for 10 days and then straight into the keg. No need for secondaries. I brew them so often that I don't even bother checking the FG anymore. Just 10 days in the primary and then it's on the gas and into the glass! They always come out great and they never last very long around here!
Click to expand...

What is your primary? Mine is that slightly opaque 8gal plastic primary, and I was told that it's best to get it out of that and into a carboy.

On your hef's, are you extract or AG? If extract, how do you get past 1.02. It's interesting you mention that, because yeah, many of my extract brews tend to finish around 1.02, regardless of yeast.
 
So I think I'm alright, woke up this morning to my secondary looking like this!

IMG_2642.jpg
 
ShawnNelson said:
What is your primary? Mine is that slightly opaque 8gal plastic primary, and I was told that it's best to get it out of that and into a carboy.

On your hef's, are you extract or AG? If extract, how do you get past 1.02. It's interesting you mention that, because yeah, many of my extract brews tend to finish around 1.02, regardless of yeast.
Click to expand...

I use nothing but Better-Bottles for my fermentation. There is no need to secondary most beers, especially a hefe. Secondary fermentation is a bit of a misnomer, as there really is not any fermentation going on. It is typically done to big beers that need some time to bulk age and allow the yeast to clean up after themselves.

If you need to bulk age a big beer, moving it off of the primary yeast cake is desirable. Yeast death (autolysis) can cause off flavors, but we are talking about months for that to happen, not weeks.

Hefe's are one of the few beers that don't get better with age. They start to loose that classic hefe character as they get older. We don't have to worry about that around here, as they don't last long once they're on tap, LOL!

The majority of my beers these days are extract with specialty grains. I still do AG batches, but they are too time consuming for me with all the stuff we having going on right now. I can brew an extract hefe in about 4 hours and they always come out great!!! The extract that my LHBS sells is of great quality and I rarely get stuck at the 1.020 level. I use liquid yeast and always make starters. I oxygenate my wort with pure O2 through a sintered stone and control my fermentation temps.
 
johnsma22 said:
I use nothing but Better-Bottles for my fermentation. There is no need to secondary most beers, especially a hefe. Secondary fermentation is a bit of a misnomer, as there really is not any fermentation going on. It is typically done to big beers that need some time to bulk age and allow the yeast to clean up after themselves.

If you need to bulk age a big beer, moving it off of the primary yeast cake is desirable. Yeast death (autolysis) can cause off flavors, but we are talking about months for that to happen, not weeks.

Hefe's are one of the few beers that don't get better with age. They start to loose that classic hefe character as they get older. We don't have to worry about that around here, as they don't last long once they're on tap, LOL!

The majority of my beers these days are extract with specialty grains. I still do AG batches, but they are too time consuming for me with all the stuff we having going on right now. I can brew an extract hefe in about 4 hours and they always come out great!!! The extract that my LHBS sells is of great quality and I rarely get stuck at the 1.020 level. I use liquid yeast and always make starters. I oxygenate my wort with pure O2 through a sintered stone and control my fermentation temps.
Click to expand...

I am still bottle conditioning all my beer (havent figured out a space that my wife will agree to a kegerator). Does that impact this idea of no secondary?
 
ShawnNelson said:
I am still bottle conditioning all my beer (havent figured out a space that my wife will agree to a kegerator). Does that impact this idea of no secondary?
Click to expand...

Man, if I were still bottling I would have given up brewing a long time ago, lol! Bottling has no impact on the concept of not doing a secondary, unless you really do have a stuck ferment and then bottling too soon could create bottle bombs. Transferring to secondary is not necessary for most beers. Most people just leave the beer in the primary for an extended period to allow the yeast to clean up after themselves.

Like I stated previously, I let my hefe's ferment for 10 days and then it's into the keg. When I do a beer that does benefit from some aging, I just leave them in the primary for a few weeks longer and then keg it.
 
thankfully my wife helps bottle and we have a system down. Once I sit to bottle I think we go through the entire batch in like 20min.

I'm thinking of doing a sister batch today but was going to tweak down to 7lbs of extract: 4lbs wheat (60%wheat, 40% barley) and 3lbs pilsner (100% barley). Thoughts? Or should I get 6lbs extract (4 of wheat and 2 of pilsner)?
 
ShawnNelson said:
thankfully my wife helps bottle and we have a system down. Once I sit to bottle I think we go through the entire batch in like 20min.

I'm thinking of doing a sister batch today but was going to tweak down to 7lbs of extract: 4lbs wheat (60%wheat, 40% barley) and 3lbs pilsner (100% barley). Thoughts? Or should I get 6lbs extract (4 of wheat and 2 of pilsner)?
Click to expand...

I've attached a photo of the extract Hefe recipe that I use. This is a Paulaner knock-off that the owner of my LHBS came up with. It's too awesome for words! It uses 6.5 lbs of wheat malt LME (60% wheat, 40% barley). It's so simple even a caveman can do it, LOL! If you try it, you will not regret it!

The only changes I make to the recipe is that I use Whitelabs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast, and make a starter. Also, as previsoulsy mentioned, I don't do a secondary. He's changed his recipe to not include a secondary either, but this is the old recipe. The boil volumes he uses in this recipe aren't all that important either. I tend to favor late extract addition also, so I can try and get the color as light as possible.

untitled.jpg
 
Thanks! 6.5lbs of wheat LME, I'll do that!

I already have 1oz of whole hop hallertaus, but they are at 6.6% alpha. So I'm thinking maybe put those in at 30min instead of 60.
 
ShawnNelson said:
Thanks! 6.5lbs of wheat LME, I'll do that!

I already have 1oz of whole hop hallertaus, but they are at 6.6% alpha. So I'm thinking maybe put those in at 30min instead of 60.
Click to expand...

I've never brewed with whole leaf hops, only pellets, so I'm unqualified to answer that for you. I'd be interested in hearing from others on doing the pellet to whole hops conversion.
 
Got me 6.5lbs of wheat LME, 4oz Munich for steeping and WLP300 yeast (plus my 1oz of Hallertaus). Brewing now! Wort is on the propane as we speak.
 
Nice! Looking forward to hearing how you like this. I've fermented this in the low to mid 60's ambient temp and got more clove notes, and then up around 70˚F and got a lot of banana. I like banana! :ban:
 

Similar threads

Zippy123
Scottish Wee Heavy stuck fermentation or high FG?
Replies
17
Views
986
Zippy123
Zippy123
P
Off Hop Flavor?
Replies
1
Views
433
lumpher
lumpher
Z
New to Cider making - sulfur smell I know
Replies
6
Views
1K
EugenPrusi
E
bubbas45
Really thick krausen (?) on top after weeks of primary
Replies
6
Views
1K
BeerNsteadofH2O
BeerNsteadofH2O
D
Controlling a glycol chiller
Replies
19
Views
2K
Dland
Dland

Latest posts

Back
Top