Does this look normal for a hefe?

First hefeweizen...it's been fermenting for 6 days now. Very vigorous ferment which has finally slowed to one bubble every 3 minutes. Popped the lid to take a gravity reading and was a bit surprised because I haven't seen this before. I would assume it's normal, but I've never seen this big of a krausen (or one as...shall we say milky?) after a week fermenting.

maltMonkey said:

First hefeweizen...it's been fermenting for 6 days now. Very vigorous ferment which has finally slowed to one bubble every 3 minutes. Popped the lid to take a gravity reading and was a bit surprised because I haven't seen this before. I would assume it's normal, but I've never seen this big of a krausen (or one as...shall we say milky?) after a week fermenting.

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Yes sir, Just got done fermenting my imperial Hefe and it was worse it blew the air lock out of the top of the bucket and made a huge mess. No Worries!

Cool, thanks.

Sure does look normal.

Looks just like two batches I have down stairs.

You may want to rock that bucket back and forth a few times (with the lid on) to knock that yeast-rich pudding back down into the beer.

Fermentation in these krausen heavy batches can sometimes slow down because so much yeast "beaches" itself on the fermenter walls.

BierMuncher said:

Looks just like two batches I have down stairs.

You may want to rock that bucket back and forth a few times (with the lid on) to knock that yeast-rich pudding back down into the beer.

Fermentation in these krausen heavy batches can sometimes slow down because so much yeast "beaches" itself on the fermenter walls.

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Doing it right now....thanks for the tip!

Oh, and also is it OK to go ahead and take a gravity reading at this point, or should I wait for the krausen to fall?

if you shake it back down, give it a few days to finish fermenting, then take a reading.

heffe yeast always reminds me of when sigorny jumped into the alien breeding thingy...

RICLARK said:

Yes sir, Just got done fermenting my imperial Hefe and it was worse it blew the air lock out of the top of the bucket and made a huge mess. No Worries!

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Imperial Hefe. Interesting :cross:

Mutine Bullfrog said:

Imperial Hefe. Interesting :cross:

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I had a thread and a few guys on here helped me with it, I drank the Hydro sample, man is it tastey I love the banana accents.

RICLARK said:

I had a thread and a few guys on here helped me with it, I drank the Hydro sample, man is it tastey I love the banana accents.

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Is the recipe posted?

Speaking of hydro samples....I just took a sample of this and it was pretty awesome.

After posting I came back to the beer 30 minutes later, and this is what it looked like:




Hefe's really must produce as much CO2 as I've read about, because:

the primary bucket's lid was always very convex because of the pressure, then there was the vigorous fermentation, now the krausen is all gone a few minutes after opening the lid.
I went ahead and took a reading: 1.013, almost exactly where it's supposed to be. I'll leave it in the primary for a couple more days, then it's bottling time!

Mutine Bullfrog said:

Is the recipe posted?

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Nope not yet, I dont post until I have tried it and know what its like, But I will give it to you if you want it. Just Pm me.

An imperial hefe is a pretty novel idea......I would like to know how that turns out too.

You've got me scheming about an imperial light lager....

my LHBS made an imperial pilsner that was amazing. clean and crisp, hid the alcohol well. i requested the recipe a few times, but he never has it at the store.

I just brewed a hefe and i didnt know to shake it, I think for this reason the hefe was clearer than I planed. Good to know for next time.

how to shake it???