I brewed up a hefeweizen a couple weeks ago and fermented at 62F. I made a 1L yeast starter but the yeast was old from my LHBS, like 9 months old. Because of this, it took over a day for fermentation to take off. This is the first time it's ever taken that long for me to see active fermentation using a starter. 10 days later fermentation seemed to subside, so I racked to my bottling bucket and prepared to bottle. I drained a sample to test gravity and have a taste. The gravity was at 1.020 (guess I racked to early), then I tasted it. This is what really got me going, the mouthfeel was slick like vegetable oil, disgusting really. The taste and aroma were right on but it was undrinkable because of the mouthfeel. I poured the sample down the drain and it was so viscous, it even poured like oil. This was not a slick on the top of the beer as i've seen sometimes, it was the entire volume of liquid. It's been sitting in the bottling bucket for a few days and the gravity is down to 1.010 now but it still has the oily mouthfeel.
The only thing that I can think this came from is my pot. I use a turkey fryer to brew and like many people, decided to fry a turkey for thanksgiving. Knowing that I use the same pot for brewing, I scrubbed and scoured that pot with dishsoap (surfactant) after the oil from the turkey was removed and left it over night with bleach water sitting in it. The next day (brew day) there were no signs of oil floating on the surface of the water so I figured I was good to go.
I the brew day went fine, transfered to fermenter and pulled a sample to test gravity and taste. The wort tasted perfectly fine and the sample was at room temp so it should have been just as viscous then as it is now.
In conclusion, I don't know what the f*ck happened to my hefeweizen. Anybody have any ideas?
The only thing that I can think this came from is my pot. I use a turkey fryer to brew and like many people, decided to fry a turkey for thanksgiving. Knowing that I use the same pot for brewing, I scrubbed and scoured that pot with dishsoap (surfactant) after the oil from the turkey was removed and left it over night with bleach water sitting in it. The next day (brew day) there were no signs of oil floating on the surface of the water so I figured I was good to go.
I the brew day went fine, transfered to fermenter and pulled a sample to test gravity and taste. The wort tasted perfectly fine and the sample was at room temp so it should have been just as viscous then as it is now.
In conclusion, I don't know what the f*ck happened to my hefeweizen. Anybody have any ideas?