Looks Great, Smells Great, Tastes.......

So I made a dunkelweizen recently from an extract with specialty grain kit. The recipe called for 8lbs of Wheat LME, .5lbs of 66L Caramel Wheat, .25lbs of 488L Carafa III and an oz of tettnang.

I steeped the grains for 30min @ ~150-155F in 1.5gal water. Then removed the grains, added a gal of water and brought to a boil. Killed the heat and added 4lbs of extract, the hops, then boiled for an hour. At about 15min, I added the other 4lbs of extract.

Once complete, I chilled, added top-off water to ~5.5 gallons, aerated, then pitched my 1L starter (both wort & starter ~70F).

Saw nice fermentation within 24hrs. Krausen got up to the neck of my 6.5gal carboy. Fermentation temp started at about 70F and peaked at about 75F.

Left in primary for 3 weeks and bottled this past Sunday.

Today, I decided to open one to see how it was coming along. I was really impressed with the nice, creamy head that lasted forever. Nice color. It smelled great as well. Then it hit my mouth and it tasted like I was drinking carbonated water. It had virtually no taste at all. Zero mouthfeel (except for the carbonation fizz).

So, I'm stumped. I can see this happen if I was mashing, but how does this happen with extract?

unionrdr said:

Maybe your attenuation rate was too high? What % was the wheat malt in the LME?

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It was Alexanders, which I believe is 60%.

And I used Wyeast 3056 which is 73-77%.

Is it possible you got some sort of wild yeast in there that munched everything up?

You beer is still carbonating. Wait a couple more weeks, then refrigerate for at least two days, then try again.

LoveTrain said:

Is it possible you got some sort of wild yeast in there that munched everything up?

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It's funny you say that. My starter smelled strange to me. I've never done a wheat beer before so it wasn't the smell I'm used to. It smelled kinda sour. I thought something was wrong with it at first but then one of the guys at Wyeast told me that the wheat yeasts do have a sour smell to them so I let it go.

bergquistb said:

You beer is still carbonating. Wait a couple more weeks, then refrigerate for at least two days, then try again.

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More carbonation will add flavor? Isn't the majority of the flavor coming from the malt itself?

bergquistb said:

you beer is still carbonating. Wait a couple more weeks, then refrigerate for at least two days, then try again.

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+1

Don't worry about wild yeast or anything. It's way too soon to start throwing around ideas like that.

What was your OG and FG? If it has a thin mouthfeel, I would guess you have a low FG. Carbonation will help give it a thicker mouthfeel though. I would just give your beer the recommended 3 weeks in the bottle and see what it is like then.

bknifefight said:

Don't worry about wild yeast or anything. It's way too soon to start throwing around ideas like that.

What was your OG and FG? If it has a thin mouthfeel, I would guess you have a low FG. Carbonation will help give it a thicker mouthfeel though. I would just give your beer the recommended 3 weeks in the bottle and see what it is like then.

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According to the recipe the OG was supposed to be 1061 but it ended up being 1047. FG was ~1018.

You used extract? If that's true your OG was probably where it was supposed to and the wort was not evenly mixed when you took the reading. For a FG of 1.018 it should not be watery at all.

I agree re: waiting longer to bottle condition and then be sure you chill well before making a final impression.

But your fermentation temps were also a little high which can create esters and fusels. If the beer ends up tasting odd, that could be why.

ayoungrad said:

I agree re: waiting longer to bottle condition and then be sure you chill well before making a final impression.

But your fermentation temps were also a little high which can create esters and fusels. If the beer ends up tasting odd, that could be why.

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It's not that it tastes odd, the problem is that it is lacking taste. there is almost no taste at all. I'll report back in a few weeks.