Kegging Weizens...

I'm curious...After your Weizen has conditioned in the keg do you turn them upside down or shake them a bit to get the yeast back into suspension?

I've never kegged one...always bottle conditioned. I don't think I would do anything, though, and ultimately I'd wind up with a non-filtered kristalweizen-esque beverage.

Baron von BeeGee said:

I've never kegged one...always bottle conditioned. I don't think I would do anything, though, and ultimately I'd wind up with a non-filtered kristalweizen-esque beverage.

Click to expand...

Kristall...what a sacrilege!

I've always bottled too. We'll see what happens and go from there.

I could always bottle 20 racks (cases) of 0.5 liter bottles of Weizen...

It does a good job of staying in suspension. I've kegged two. I wouldn't worry about shaking it.

I keg after 10 days in a primary. Tasty stuff.

Hefeweizen yeast is low flocculating yeast so it mostly stays in suspension, and any that does settle will get sucked up by the dip tube when you pull a glass and end up in your glass. Eventually it all will settle out, but I have no idea how long that would take.

I only kegged one so far and it was consumed pretty quick (2 weeks or so) and I kind of expected to clear up but it never did. I was thinking about bottling the one in the ferm currently since it probably won't hit the tap for 4+ weeks but heck with it; I'll keg it. We'll see how a hefe that sits in the keg for a month looks once it gets on tap.

I know about flocculation, I've been brewing hefe's since '94.

My question is is there a practice of disturbing the yeast prior to dispensing that anyone has tried.

My hefe in the keg is running clear right now and it's not half empty.

I'll shake things up tonight and degas etc. to give it a try.

Later.

Since the dip tube is sitting almost on the bottom, don't know how much yeast there'd be left to disturb to cloud it up again though. How long has it been in the keg anyway? Curious to see how long that took to start clearing.

Be the first to build the yeast equivalent of a Randall.

olllllo said:

Be the first to build the yeast equivalent of a Randall.

Click to expand...

LOL!

One thing about the yeast and other flocculants in a keg is that they don't all go into the diptube and out with the first few pints...there will be some around the side of the bottom of the keg and a little bit up the walls. You could probably give the keg a little love tap with your foot near the bottom before dispensing and get some good stuff.

Shaking makes it so that the first glass or two after you let it settle slightly are way too yeasty to drink. Maybe the slight bump or slight swirl would be sufficient. I am into my 3rd keg of hefe, and basically enjoy the way it dispenses, a bit more like a bottle poured Mit hefe during the first few days, and more like a kristalklar near the end. Bill, let me know how your experiment turns out.

LouT said:

Shaking makes it so that the first glass or two after you let it settle slightly are way too yeasty to drink. Maybe the slight bump or slight swirl would be sufficient. I am into my 3rd keg of hefe, and basically enjoy the way it dispenses, a bit more like a bottle poured Mit hefe during the first few days, and more like a kristalklar near the end. Bill, let me know how your experiment turns out.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm experiencing the same thing. I prefer to have it stay cloudy all the time.

I got sick yesterday so I didn't shake it up a bit last night.

Got sick because of too much yeast? I think I've done that before myself! I do wish it would stay at about day 3 cloudiness all the time. I need to force myself to smarten up and brew a new batch of hefe right when I tap a batch, because the rate I'm going I keep running out before I have another batch to tap!

A light tap is all you need. Swriling it turns it into yeast soup for the first few pints. Even without doing that I still had more yeast in suspension than a hacker pschorr hefe.

I bumped my keg to see how full it still was earlier and now it's pouring like I put milk in the beer there's so much yeast in it.

Randall the yeast infected animal.......I like it!!!!

Yeah, I am very cautious when I move my kegs to rotate a new one in, and just the gentle movement clouds up the beer for days. So I would say just a light swirl should do the trick.

So are we to infer that in Germany there are dedicated Haacker Pshorr keg kickers and swirlers that travel from gasthaus to gasthaus?

I'm picturing a short guy with a big rubber mallet of a boot.

I have a feeling that with this batch the yeast will stay in suspension longer as I am priming it with gyle.

That'll start the fermentation (with new yeast in suspension) all over again while conditioning.

Maybe something like a stir plate would do the trick.... Click it on for a few minutes every couple of days...

I know I'm just being silly here.... but it'd probably work

Toot said:

Maybe something like a stir plate would do the trick.... Click it on for a few minutes every couple of days...

I know I'm just being silly here.... but it'd probably work

Click to expand...

I don't think my maget is strong enough to get through all that rubber... (but good try).

homebrewer_99 said:

I don't think my maget is strong enough to get through all that rubber... (but good try).

Click to expand...

Famous last words of a new daddy.

haha.

as for what bars do, i heard that some will get their kegs upside down, so that when they go to tap it, they turn it right side up, mixing in anything that had settled out. i assume that most bars are able to go through a half barrel fast enough to where having the wheat beer clear isn't a big issue.

Did you guys filter you weizen when you kegged it? just asking cause mine has a lot of sediment in the bottom.

nope.

do you mean once you've finished the keg, and go to clean it? i see a decent amount of sediment in my kegs. i don't really worry about it though.

i am just about to keg my weizen and there is a lot of sediment in the bottom.
Sorry for the dumb questions this is my first weizen.

I would rack and leave as much of the sediment behind as I could, working under the assumption that the beer above the sediment is still cloudy with yeast (as a hefe should be) and that it tastes right. Some of the sediment will be yeast, but there's also going to be some break material and maybe some hop debris mixed in that you don't want to be drinking.

EDIT: I would not filter though, I would just rack carefully, as per usual.

What's the question?

Perfect thanks for the quick response. It is still plenty cloudy and looks great.
I can almost taste it already!!!!

homebrewer_99 said:

I have a feeling that with this batch the yeast will stay in suspension longer as I am priming it with gyle.

That'll start the fermentation (with new yeast in suspension) all over again while conditioning.

Click to expand...

Bill, I just kegged my last batch at around 7 days (in primary) and it secondaried in the keg (I did hit it with 20 psi of CO2), and it came out GREAT - you may not need to prime with gyle...

LouT said:

Bill, I just kegged my last batch at around 7 days (in primary) and it secondaried in the keg (I did hit it with 20 psi of CO2), and it came out GREAT - you may not need to prime with gyle...

Click to expand...

Thanks Lou, but this is an experiment.

I figured the gyle would begin the natural conditioning and impart more yeast back into suspension.

I should have just bottled this one instead of kegging. Maybe next time.