tart fresh hefes, weeks later fine?

Well, thats two hefe's in the row where they need at least one to two weeks (or more) cold conditioning once kegged or the tartness is incredibaly over powering. Most of you hefe lovers on here say you find that it is best "fresh" and conditioning is not necessary. Soo.... why are they so damn tart for the first week or two??

These were both in the carboys for over 4 weeks.

Only thing I can think of is the yeast. Could there have been a lot of yeast in suspension when you tasted it the first time, and a lot dropped out? You could have had some really poorly flocculating yeast.

No worse than most hefe's. And the first hefe I did tasted it much better a couple weeks later even when I swirled the keg and got yeast soup.

Dennys Fine Consumptibles said:

Most of you hefe lovers on here say you find that it is best "fresh" and conditioning is not necessary. Soo.... why are they so damn tart for the first week or two??

These were both in the carboys for over 4 weeks.

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Im just wondering what is considered "fresh"? Maybe fresh is two weeks conditioning?

Well, that's what I would think but many on here drink them 2 weeks after brewing them. I could be wrong.

Mine's about four weeks old or so, and I'm getting that same tartness. Now, I expect wheat beers to have some of that character, but I'm hoping that it will mellow a little bit.

the_bird said:

Mine's about four weeks old or so, and I'm getting that same tartness. Now, I expect wheat beers to have some of that character, but I'm hoping that it will mellow a little bit.

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How long have you had it in the keg or bottles?

About a week. It's flat, I dropped the pressure too far to compensate for having too short a beer line, so I just upped it a bit and will let it sit another couple days. Three weeks in primary, one week in keg.

I really think that it IS the "fresh" taste that we're perceiving as tart, unless we both have PHes that are way off for some reason. I don't have the means to check PH when I'm brewing; do you? If it's acidic, that might make it taste a little sharper, although I'm not sure why it would go away over time.

Wheat really benefits from an acid rest to kill the tartness. However, if you don't do one, it'll settle in a few weeks.

I thought an acid rest was used to decrease the pH...make it more acidic. I would think that would make it more tart.

I did an acid rest on mine... temp might have been a WEE bit high on that step, though (can't remember for certain).

I did acid rests on both hefe's. And I posted the first time that I thought it was to acidic. Though in hindsight I believe it was "tart" not acidic.

And yeah, why does that tartness drop off over time?

My water here is med hard and actually a bit on the alkaline side. So I dunno...

edit: I have some ph strips around here somewhere. I should test the PH of teh finished product.

You think the yeast could be giving some of that tartness? My hefe is REALLY cloudy, even moreso than you expect out of a hefe - but I've only pulled three pints so far. I'm expecting that it will get a little clearer over time as some of the yeast drops. If the yeast is what is contributing some of that flavor, as it falls out you would expect the tartness to decline.

Or, I'm insane.

No, I gave my last hefe an swirl (kegged) once it had mellowed out to get more yeast and the tartness did not increase. Oh and I tried filtering a few gallons to see if it made a differance when it was tart as hell. Made no diff at all.

I just bottled my hefe today and it tastes like a hefe. It's a bit weak but it was my first AG batch and I had a really bad efficiency. I'm sitting at about 3.5% ABV. What do you mean by tart or acidic tastes comparatively? I know I'll be pretty biased about my own this time around at least because I've just been happy that it tastes something like beer.

I did one week in primary and two in secondary. I'm hoping to make it at least two weeks before my will-power gives in and I have to crack one open.

Sampled again last night.

Big improvement. Still a little tart, but not as intense as originally. The beer's still cloudy, but not quite as overwhelmingly cloudy as before, where it looked like I was drinking a big White Labs vial; just right now. Bumped up the PSI, so it's more-properly carbed, which might be helping round out the flavor as well (it could stand a little bit more carbonation, I may bump it another couple PSI).

Definately better than when I first sampled, though; pretty much a spot-on, classic hefeweizen.

Now, next time is the smoked hefe! (REALLY tasty if you've never had one...)

Also certain priming sugars can take awhile before fermenting completely, corn sugar will leave a tart taste for a few weeks before mellowing out and finish fermentation/carbonation.

My hefe isn't as tart as earlier but still a little to tart. Will give it a few more days... (these are kegged hefe's)

That tartness might be due to carbonic acid if it was force carbed and hasn't had a chance to blend well. I'd say it's a definite possibility since hefe's are typically carbed higher, and the tartness may stay with it for the whole life of the beer after smoothing out from a harsh tartness to more of a background one.

Could be some residual fermentation byproducts that the yeast haven't consumed yet.

I thought some were supposed to be acidic, and that's why they added the fruit extracts/syrups.... or was that only when lactic acid was used?

Yeah, but these are tart even before carbing.

Now I originally thought it was the acid/gum rest. I usually do a gum rest (same range as acid rest) on all my beers for various reason and also thought that rye/wheat beers could really use it. But since the tartness eventually goes away AFTER it's been carbed... I can't see how it could be from the acid rest, unless tehre is some other weird chemical reaction going on in there.

Still pretty damn tart. The first one mellowed a lot, this one is taking longer.

My efficiency was quite a bit higher than the recipe (fixed my crusher so now hitting avg of 90%)

Since the recipe was designed for a 75% efficency I've decided to water this one down a bit. Hopefully if will also water down the tartness. A hefe really shouldn't be in the 6% abv range anyway.

Next hefe will have no acid rest. I only do that rest for the gum rest anyway. I have had no problems using 60-70 wheat/rye when using a gum rest without rice husks. I'll have to see if skipping all but the sach rest and mashout will lead to a stuck sparge or not.

Regardless, I'm brewing some other styles for a bit. Need some non-sour beers on the menu.

Very interesting topic. I've made 3 hefe's total. 1 was a straight up wheat/pils/dash of munich hefe WLP300 hallertauer. Second was a weizenbock.. 75%wheat/pils/dash of caraaroma WLP300 hallertauer. 3rd is still in secondary and is a hefe stout (kinda wierd, experimenting) 60%wheat/pils/roasted barley/chocolate/munich WLP300 hallertauer as well.

Now the first hefe, tasted great 5 days after bottling (9days in primary).. no tartness, tasted like a true hefe... fermented around 68-70F

Second hefe, the weizenbock, has an extreme sweet/tartness to it 5 days after bottling. Really freaked me out, thought it was gonna be gross and have to toss it. A few weeks later, after forgetting about it, it tastes amazing. The banana flavor is coming through way stronger than the first hefe, and I owe that to 72-75F fermenting temps. I was thinking that was the cause of the tartness too... but the tart is gone, and I'm really happy with it. I think the sweetness I tasted early was the banana mixing with the tart.

Third hefe, bottling today... been in the fermenter for 6 weeks. That's a long time for a hefe, I've just been vacationing and too lazy to bottle. Hopefully it will be ok since its a wierd stout/hefe combo.