How I made the Effed up wheat beer

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nuthin_original

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I used 6# of 60/40 wheat/ malt liquid extract, 1# of briess dark dme, 1 oz German Hersbrucker pellet hops, wyeast german wheat 3333 & a safale wb 06 (cuz the smack pack took a long time to swell), for a five gallon batch. I used irish moss and racked to a secondary after 3 days, with the temp staying right about 65. The beer smelled great when i racked it, but now that the fermentation is almost complete, it is getting that same crap flavor that i dont want. I've had good wheat beer with the banana & clove notes, but i'm not so sure about this one. Thanks for your input!
 
Few things I noticed:
1) Most people don't use any clarifying agents (Irish moss, etc) or secondary on wheat beers, because you want that "fogginess" and everything that comes with it
2) Those banana and clove esters are more prevelant when fermented warmer (high 60s-low 70s)
3) as far as the flavor goes, not really sure since crap is a little ambiguous and could be lots of things - bad/old LME, burnt extract during boil, bad sanitation or any number of things really
 
Your talking about the smell coming out of the airlock? It will smell somewhat off and is no indication on how the beer will taste and turn out.
Bottle when fermentation is complete and wait 3 weeks and then see if your beer tastes like banana/cloves or crap.
 
My hefeweizen had a fairly strong sulpher smell for over a week while in the fermenter.
It went away after fermentation was complete. Like lx302 said I wouldn't worry about the beer until it's been bottled and carbed. Even then, some beers just take some time to balance out or simply lose some of the off flavours.
 
Leave it alone for at least 2 weeks, then bottle. Leave it in the bottle for 3 weeks, chill for at least 48 hours before drinking. If it still tastes like crap then, you did something wrong.

Judging taste from a beer that is not completely fermented, or even green is hard. Especially if you are new to brewing. Once you brew for a while, you will get a feel for normal "off tastes" and how the flavor develops. As a rule though, I dont touch most of my beer for at least 14 days. There is really no sense in messing with it until fermentation is COMPLETELY finished.
 
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