gonna age, when to shake?

so i am gonna take my sweet time on this wheat i am fermenting. it is 2 weeks now and still bubbling. gonna take a gravity thursday.

so for sh*ts and giggles lets say at week 4 it stops bubbling. should i shake it to wake the yeast up? how many of you practice this and does it work? should i solely go off of gravity readings on when to decide if i should or need to arouse the yeast? or am i looking at both cues, bubbles and gravity drops?

basically when should i shake and when should i just say keg it cause nothing else will happen to benefit the brew?

your all awesome by the way on this board. thanks for everything. this place is 10X better then any book i feel.

i always arouse my yeasties!

As soon as theres no more visible fermentation signs happening I'll softly rock the fermenter a little to try to help the little yeasties finish their job. I bet they don't need any help anyways but it can't hurt to rouse them up a little. Just don't rock it super hard to where your splashing real bad and knocking all the junk thats stuck to the fermenter walls back in the beer. If you've nailed your FG and it hasn't changed for a few days straight then you probaly don't need to rouse the yeast anyways. Rocking the fermenter can also help your dry hop pellets to sink to the bottom also.

I never rouse my yeast, and I would never make a decision to do anything to my beer without taking a gravity reading.

If you've hit your FG and it hasn't moved in a few days, no point in shaking it. Just another way to oxidize it and suspend a bunch of crap in your beer.

kanzimonson said:

I never rouse my yeast, and I would never make a decision to do anything to my beer without taking a gravity reading.

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Same as me- I never shake my fermenter. I guess if I was using a highly flocculant yeast that didn't finish, I might have to.

But I like to let the beer finish and let the yeast cake and trub compact, and rack the beer off of it. When I go to rack it to the keg, I move the fermenter the night before if possible as to let everything resettle.

I don't understand why some people do swirl the fermenters? I thought the point was to let the beer finish, the finished yeast to flocculate, and the trub to settle. For a wheat beer, there still should be plenty of yeast in suspension without messing with it.

Yoop said:

I don't understand why some people do swirl the fermenters?

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Never underestimate a homebrewer's ability to know what his beer SHOULD be doing. (winks in Revvy's direction)

What JBrook and Yoop said....why do you think you need to oxygenate your beer and cloud up your beer at this point? Is your fermentation stuck? If it's not, just leave it alone.

Once fermentation has started you really don't want to get too much oxygen in your beer, you definitely don't want to shake the heck out of it.

And you really don't even want to contemplate this just because your airlock isn't bubbling. Or has slowed down....You don't know that your fermentation is slow, or fast for that matter, all you know is that your airlock isn't bubbling in a way you THINK it should.

The fact that bubbling has slowed down doesn't mean your fermentation has stalled, it just means that there isn't enough excess co2 for the airlock or the blowoff to need to vent. All either of those are are vents, valves to release excess co2, but it is not a direct gauge of what's happening in your fermenter. Sometimes airlocks never bubble, but they ferment just fine.

It's perfectly normal for fermentation to slow down as the most sugar is consumed initially, but that doesn't mean fermentation is done nor that fermentation is stalled.

There is still more than likely a ton of work that the yeast are still doing behind the scenes, it's just not dynamic.

Take a hydrometer reading before you contemplate doing anything.

An as for aging beer, you sure as HELL don't want to risk oxygenating your beer. You can get away with a mistake like that on a short term beer, you may be able to drink it before it oxydizes...but if you're aging a beer, that's a sure way to get 5 gallons of liquid cardboard.

Why are you aging a wheat? Are you adding other adjuncts to it? Does it have some sort of harsh taste? What is your time frame for aging? Not saying it can't be done or that it's wrong, just not a beer you would normally see aged.

Shake? NEVER.

Gently rock it like a baby...almost never, but sometimes if its not hitting final gravity I might.

Don't shake it!

riverfrontbrewer said:

Why are you aging a wheat? Are you adding other adjuncts to it? Does it have some sort of harsh taste? What is your time frame for aging? Not saying it can't be done or that it's wrong, just not a beer you would normally see aged.

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My exact thought...why are you aging a wheat? Ferment it 2-3 weeks and check gravity. Then keg and drink fresh!

riverfrontbrewer said:

Why are you aging a wheat? Are you adding other adjuncts to it? Does it have some sort of harsh taste? What is your time frame for aging? Not saying it can't be done or that it's wrong, just not a beer you would normally see aged.

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i am not a drinker really. i have a beer or 2 on sunday watching the Bills and thats it for me for the week. this brewing thing is quite interesting to me. so i am thinking of letting the wheat sit for awhile. maybe 5 weeks, maybe 7 i am just winging this really. then i am gonna rack onto some blueberries. frozen ones that have been thawed out. i have yet to decide the amount and the duration. i am leaning towards 1-2 pounds for 7-10 days but that could change. reason for waiting so long on this wheat is i want to se what time will do. i keep a recipe book now and basically am figuring out what is gonna be my "golden egg" for wheat beer. i am very new to brewing and am very patient so i feel no reason to rush the primary phase.

TheMan said:

My exact thought...why are you aging a wheat? Ferment it 2-3 weeks and check gravity. Then keg and drink fresh!

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is there a down side to letting a wheat sit longer?

jimmythefoot said:

is there a down side to letting a wheat sit longer?

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Wheats are traditionally cloudy with yeast in suspension. The yeast flavor is part of the enjoyment of that style of beer. Letting a wheat sit for too long is an invitation for the yeast to settle out. Like how we want CLEAR beers by leaving beer in primary for a month or using secondary. Not what you normally want for a wheat.

I would argue that american wheat is a style that shouldn't be aged too long. Beer is liquid bread, and consuming both products fresh is important. IMO, I think the only types of beers that should be aged are higher in alcohol.

In spite of all that, there's nothing wrong with taking your time to work through a keg. I just think it will be drinkable much sooner. The difference in 3 and 7 weeks of aging won't be that big, and may even be detrimental. Contrary to popular belief, not all beer gets better as it ages.

I can respect that you're not going through beer too quickly, but you can plan around your schedule as needed.