Wyeast 3068

Brewed up a hefe a week ago, had all kinds of trouble with mash temp/water volumes. anyway doughed in on the low side like 149F or so, turned the burner on and got to 154F. This whole screwing around took about 20min, thought we were good there so i put a sweatshirt over the kettle and there it sat. 75min later going to sparge and mash sitting at 157F. I'm pretty sure it didn't get too much hotter and the 20-30 min it sat at 149-154 helped. Our OG was spot on at 1.040 (was suppose to be a 3 gal, 1.051 batch but it turned into a 4 gal session hefe.) Grain bill was 60/40 german wheat and pils.

Let it ride pitched my 1L starter of wyeast 3068 and it went crazy 4hrs later for roughly 36hrs. Granted this thing fermented at around 72F which is fine, we like the bannana. However i took a sample yesterday down to 1.010 so good on attentuation, but there is absolutely no bannana, clove, belgian influence of any kind, tasted like the american wheat i made 2 months ago. I realize yes, its only 7 days old, tastes diffrent in the bucket than bottle, etc.

Being my 1st experience making a hefe with 3068 is this pretty normal? I've never tasted a beer this early or even check gravity this early, this one just has me with those old newbie jitters.

Give it some more time, it's very young at this point. My experience with that yeast says you should get some nice banana flavor fermenting at 72.

I hear ya, but with that damn high mash temp, i was thinking it killed my conversion but after still hitting 75% eff that can be ruled out, i think. Surely i'd be able to detect some form of yeast influence even this young tho.


I made this for my brother who loves hefes, i feel this pressure to make it perfect. If i was the only one consuming this, the bucket wouldn't have even been looked at for 3 weeks. I haven't worried this much in 25 batches, now all of the sudden it's like i'm brewing my first beer again...ha!

Mash temp is fine...you likely got most of your conversion in the 1st 20 mins anyway, and the 157 is a nice alpha rest, like a Belgian step mash. That shows in your solid attenuation.

I agree with Nordeast...you should get some very noticeable yeast character at 72. Give it time. Also, carbonation adds a key element to this style as well. Flat hefes don't taste right

If after they're carbed & conditioned you still don't have banana/clove, then you may want to check your processes.

yep definately a RDWHAHB moment, just needed to be talked through it. I'll keep it updated after she carbs up.

iowabrew said:

I hear ya, but with that damn high mash temp, i was thinking it killed my conversion but after still hitting 75% eff that can be ruled out, i think. Surely i'd be able to detect some form of yeast influence even this young tho.


I made this for my brother who loves hefes, i feel this pressure to make it perfect. If i was the only one consuming this, the bucket wouldn't have even been looked at for 3 weeks. I haven't worried this much in 25 batches, now all of the sudden it's like i'm brewing my first beer again...ha!

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I know what ya mean, it's always a bit of a stress to brew a beer with someone else in mind. TyT made a great point, carbonation is pretty key in a hefe, and will definitely bring some flavors through. Also, at this young, most of the hefe's I've done are just starting to release some of those fermentation flavors/aromas that 3068 can produce like sulphur and whatnot, so it may be really hard to get the true character of the beer at this point. The last Hefe I did, I used 3056 (blend of the 3068 and 1056), so a bit cleaner of a yeast. At a couple weeks, flat, it had very little banana/clove but it was there. After bottling and carbing, it has an amazing banana/clove balance on the nose and a wonderful fruity (banana/bubblegum) flavor that plays wonderfully off of the wheat and honey. Hefe's are great young, but there still seems to be a point in which they turn the corner and become amazing beer. Luckily, for this style it doesn't take too long to get there.