Weissbier Bee Cave Brewery Bavarian Hefeweizen

Yea its bubbling pretty good right now, i just took it out lets see how it goes.
https://cosm.com/feeds/83208

FuzzeWuzze said:

Yea its bubbling pretty good right now, i just took it out lets see how it goes.
https://cosm.com/feeds/83208

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That's a pretty sweet temp monitoring program you've got there

Thanks, its only like 40 bucks worth of stuff too lol...30 bucks of Arduino+Ethernet shield off Dealextreme, and 2 DS18B20's for $4/ea.

its worked really good so far at helping me monitor my temps.

Let us know how the temp ends up during peak ferm once you get it out of bath.

ON ANOTHER NOTE.....anyone....I brewed this last Saturday and I know the recipe posted says 2-weeks in primary then keg it...well I bottle....but in any event....I normally let my brews go 3 week min in primary then bottle (as long as SG indicates finish).

Any downside on this brew to let it go another week (i.e. 3 weeks in primary)???? (Other than having to wait another week to drink it... )

Looks like it came up to 68 with the house set to 66, and is now starting to drop off a bit...i wasnt expecting the water bath to make that much of a difference, but i guess its good to know it does...seems if i set that water to a temp and then my house to near that temp or a bit lower the beer will be stuck there too even during fermentation...

mgortel said:

Any downside on this brew to let it go another week (i.e. 3 weeks in primary)???? (Other than having to wait another week to drink it... )

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No downside other than what you mentioned. ;-)

Wow, this one is stinky. Since this is my "rushed" beer for a party this Sunday and its been 10 days and got down to 1.010 i decided to keg it.
Wow sulfur! Never had really smelled anything like it, the beer itself tastes fine if not a bit young obviously...but the smell..im hoping it dissipates over the next few days before Sunday...or i can see people being turned off when they pour a pint from the keg and it smells like rotten eggs lol.

The recipe calls for 10 days fermentaion. Mine had a vigerous fermentaion, but slowed down. It is now at day 16 and still producing 1 bubble every 6 minutes (It smelled like sulpher at first, but smells great now). I know that the best way to tell if a fermentaion is done is to check the gravity, but common sense is telling me that it is not done. Perhaps is some of the sugar supposed to be retained for flavor by arresting the fermentaion by crash cooling early?
Should I let it go, or should I stop it?

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Looks like someone else had a sulpher smell as well at first....but it subsided after waiting.....in the fermenter. Not sure what will happen in your keg.....

Can you purge it with CO2 after it sets in the keg a couple days? Not sure since I dont keg.....

mgortel said:

Looks like someone else had a sulpher smell as well at first....but it subsided after waiting.....in the fermenter. Not sure what will happen in your keg.....

Can you purge it with CO2 after it sets in the keg a couple days? Not sure since I dont keg.....

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I've had massive sulfur come from my fermenter at the beginning as well. For me, it usually goes away in about a week or so.

Yea the beer looks and tastes good, and there was no sulfur smell coming out of the fermenter as it had finished gasing out.

But when i popped the top that layer of CO2 definately had a stink.

My plan was exactly as you mentioned, to just keep purging it. Every day or so ill just purge the CO2 and let it re-pressurize..since its full at 5 gallons thats barely any gas.
Hopefully that gets some of the sulfur smell out.

So to follow up on this....I brewed this a few weeks ago and plan on botling this Friday (20 days in fermentor).......so what if mine has sulfer smell guys? If I bottle will it settle out in bottle....will it still smell when I pop bottles....anyone that has made this and bottled it....any issues like this??

I posted a couple months ago regarding a rotten egg problem. I kegged after 10 days with the smell. I then purged and let it sit. I tried purging multiple times a day. It did get better with the smell getting less pungent but after 2 months it never went away. I couldn't drink it without noticing it so I ended up dumping it. Still not sure what happened, infection maybe?

Maybe the key is to keep it in the fermernter until the smell goes away? According to hydrometer it seemed done but...

Was very upsetting but going to brew it again this weekend.

That sucks, not what i wanted to hear lol..im hoping mine diminishes but not sounding like it

The beer is actually damn good, im just hoping the smell doesnt turn people off lol....

Im wondering if its because i underpitched?
On a previous batch i did of this for someone it didnt have the smell, but i did a 1L starter with a stir plate for like 36 hours.

For this batch because it was so rushed i just double pitched two packets of the Wyeast....

*edit* Aha...for my batch that didnt stink i used WLP300...this batch i used Wyeast as in the OP....

Interesting, yeah, sorry. Others did say they had better luck with the smell going away though...for my stinky batch I was rushed and didn't use a starter either. I used Wyeast 3068 for that one but just one pack for 5 gal.

I have a starter going with WL300 for a brew this weekend right now so will see...

I just finished my batch of this beer 3 weeks to the day in bottles very tasty but I'm going to try this with some other types of yeast I think this would be better with more of a citrus yeast

fatboy34 said:

I posted a couple months ago regarding a rotten egg problem. I kegged after 10 days with the smell. I then purged and let it sit. I tried purging multiple times a day. It did get better with the smell getting less pungent but after 2 months it never went away. I couldn't drink it without noticing it so I ended up dumping it. Still not sure what happened, infection maybe?

Maybe the key is to keep it in the fermernter until the smell goes away? According to hydrometer it seemed done but...

Was very upsetting but going to brew it again this weekend.

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This sounds exactly like my experience. Not sure what to do...my yeast, WLP 300, wasn't ultra fresh, but wasn't expired either (5 days before expiration date). I did a 2 step starter with a stir plate and all seemed well. I am afraid to brew it again, maybe try a different yeast or try to get a more fresh vial??

I was thinking possible infection too, but never had one that I'm aware of and my beer is typically great (to me and my friends at least). It's frustrating because it's such an easy recipe...not really sure what could have gone wrong other than bad yeast or an infection.

I just got done bottling this!

In the fermenter for 20 days, here is how my numbers went:
OG = 1.052
FG = 1.011

Was a little worried that I was going to have some sulphur smell when I popped the fermenter lid...based on a couple recent threads....but, to my joy when I popped the lid all I smelled was that familiar Hefeweizen Banana and Clove esters..smells fantastic!

I tasted (drank) the gravity sample I took.....flavors were not as prevalent as I expected.....not bad...but more mild....especially considering the smell. Does this beer flavor strengthen with carbonation and a little age in bottle??

Either way I think this is going to be oh so good in a few weeks once done bottle conditioning

mgortel said:

I just got done bottling this!

In the fermenter for 20 days, here is how my numbers went:
OG = 1.052
FG = 1.011

Was a little worried that I was going to have some sulphur smell when I popped the fermenter lid...based on a couple recent threads....but, to my joy when I popped the lid all I smelled was that familiar Hefeweizen Banana and Clove esters..smells fantastic!

I tasted (drank) the gravity sample I took.....flavors were not as prevalent as I expected.....not bad...but more mild....especially considering the smell. Does this beer flavor strengthen with carbonation and a little age in bottle??

Either way I think this is going to be oh so good in a few weeks once done bottle conditioning

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What temp you fermented at? I brewed this recipe first time, pitched on thursday at 60F and kept it at 62-63 F (thermowell). It was 1.016 already today! Cannot wait, taste sample was great, little sulphury on the nose but too early to tell

temp got away from me a little...I actually pitched this one at 63F .....it peaked at 70F for half a day....but I got it back to 68F for the rest of the time.

Seems like the sulpher smell has hung around on a few guys batches after 2 weeks....I let mine go almost 3 weeks and it had no sulpher smaell at that time.

how big of a starter should I do on this ?

I did a 1ltr. starter.

I did a 1ltr. starter.

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Ditto to that for me too.

On the topic of rotten egg odor. I brewed my second attempt at this 10 days ago. Days 3-7 it had the same rotten egg as before.

But this morning I am excited to report no bad odors at all, its gone! Last time it never went away in the keg.

Differences: I used WL300 instead of wyeast 3068, I did BIAB instead of normal all grain. I used a blow off tube instead of not and last time the airlock got clogged up. I used a starter instead of not.

Can't wait to brew this one ! couple of questions.

1. Why do you do a 90min mash instead of the standard 60min? (curious )
2. Is there enough pilsner in this to justify a 90 min boil ?
3. Should I mix all the grain including the rice hulls together? I am gonna use 1lb of hulls just to be safe (don't want a stuck mash)

Also,

My ferm chamber in my basement is riding at about 63-64 throughout the day. Then in the night it goes down to about 60f My question is will I be ok to let the barv hefe ride at this temp? I know the temp will go up during fermentation so about 5 degrees of that would put me at the 68f that is recommended. I don't want to go above the 68f.... Will it be ok when the bulk of the ferm is done and it goes back down to the 60-64 for the rest of the primary time?

thanks in advance will be brewing this Friday in 3 days.

If anyone could help me on this I would appreciate it. I am brewing in 1 day.
ultimate concern is my fermenting area is about 63 in the day and about 60 at night.... will this be ok?

thanks

oasisbliss said:

If anyone could help me on this I would appreciate it. I am brewing in 1 day.
ultimate concern is my fermenting area is about 63 in the day and about 60 at night.... will this be ok?

thanks

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I think it will be clovier, and take longer. Just try and pitch at the right temp and do what you can to keep it mid 60s at first 48 to 72 hrs. Also I would do a big starter or overpitch or else you could strain the yeasties and end up sulphery. I had similar issues and those are the changes I decided on if I were to brew this again.
Hope that helps.

thanks I appreciate it. Anyone know about how many specific degrees the fermentation will go up when using this recipe?
That would help as to where to put my fermenter bucket....

thanks again

M

I pitched my yeast in 62F wort.

Had my fermenter in a 62F chamber.

24 hours later my Fermentation temp actually peaked at 69F-70F (little higher than I wanted).

I did a 1 litre starter.....

Perfect - thanks mgortel that is the info I needed.
so it looks like about 8 degrees......

Yep...but keep an eye on it because I had to start increasing my fermentation chamber temp at about the 48 hr mark (after pitch) to keep the temp from dropping to much after fermentation started to slow down of course....

Ok will do.. I have the johnson a419 so I will have to switch out the ceramic heater and the freezer....Should have got the Ranco for this...oh well.
wish me luck - looking so forward to this one -- Franiskaner is my fav beer and this sounds like it is very close !

i did this one it has been in the primary for 16 days the first few days i had crazy sulfur smell my temps were a little low 60-63 so i bumped them up and the smell went away after about a day..
took a reading after 10 days and a sample and yuck... smelled and tasted like sour sulfur farts.. reading was 1.014 didn't smell or taste like beer.
I used a 1L started and use two jars of harvested 3068 from a previous batch that was good.
could my yeast have been contaminated? or my beer or is this just one of those funky fermentation's that just isn't done yet.?

also i have bumped the temp up over the last week to the low 70's to try and help the yeast along ... its has dropped down to 1.012 and has mellowed a little but man it still doesn't taste right.
i will give it a week or two more then i will bottle it and see what happens.

I had mine in primary for 3 weeks exactly....and was worried about having the sulpher issue because of some other posts....but it was fine after the 3 weeks.

I did a 1-litre starter.....and my max ferm temp hit 70F for a couple hours at peak of fermentation (little higher than I wanted obviously)......beer fermented at 67F to 68F

Ok so I finally brewed this. Couple of questions:
1. Is it normal for the krausen to go up into the airlock and bubble out a bit?
anyway to avoid this in a 6.5 gallon bucket?

2. My temps have been basically at 68 maybe once or twice in a 24 hour period it hit 70 a couple of times - should this be ok ?

3. I am getting a sulfur smell - I know others have reported this - is it normal ? anyway to avoid it ?

4. I was hoping for a nice banana note but am smelling any of that will this come in the end?

5. My starter I did in my kitchen which is about 70f - the starter got pretty bubbly and active, I am assuming the temp rose on the starter to maybe 74-75ish I had it sit overnight - is this ok ? I know I get fusel alcohol esters if I ferment this high on the actual hefe......will a high 70's temp starter cause off flavors?

thanks in advance

Just brewed this today. Hit numbers pretty much right on. 1.056 OG. Just about to pitch my yeast. Using a 1.5L starter. The starter went CRAZY! Woke up to find it spewing all over the place. Aerating right now and I hope I dont get the sulphur issues. Made a Belgian Wit using a different yeast and its almost undrinkable after a month in primary with such a bad sulphur smell. Fingers are crossed for this one!

I bottle my beer.....and normally for other brew types I leave the sediment behind in the bottle when I pour to glass.....but in this case, since you want the yeast flavors, etc...in the beer....is it best to pour the entire bottle contents into glass (i.e. sediment and all)????

For those of you who have successfully brewed this , is the sulfur rotten egg smell to be expected or is it not the norm? I am getting the sulfur smell and want to perfect this awesome recipe as German hefe is my fav!

I've brewed this twice. Sulfur smell during fermentation both times. It goes away. I've never had sulfur in the final product. I usually keg after 3-4 weeks in primary

I kegged after about 3 1/2 weeks in primary. It had a serious smell. But just tasted it again tonight, and it seemed to be mostly gone. Maybe a hint of it still there, but not bad at all. Its drinkiable, just not as much of the "Belgian" flavor I was expecting. Not the beers fault, Im sure it was my fault during the brew. Has a very strong wheat flavor to it. Going to keep trying to drink it and see how it conditions.

mgortel said:

I bottle my beer.....and normally for other brew types I leave the sediment behind in the bottle when I pour to glass.....but in this case, since you want the yeast flavors, etc...in the beer....is it best to pour the entire bottle contents into glass (i.e. sediment and all)????

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Some people roll the bottle sideways before pouring. I usually pour about 2/3 and swirl the rest and pour it out. Short answer, yes.