Wheat Beer ?

Williams 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
F

FishFace

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
77
Reaction score
0
Location
GranitBay
I just racked my 1st AG wheat beer. It is sour! I am extremely anal about sanitizing everything that touches my beer, and there are no obvious signs of infection. I have read that this might be normal, but not sure. What say you?

Thanks for the help in advance!:rockin:
 
Racked as in....to the bottling bucket? It's just young beer. Give it a few weeks in the bottle and then enjoy your probably fine beer.
 
Thank you that was the reply I was hoping for. I amfiguring at least 4-6 weeks bottle age. Racked as In to the 2nd. Two weeks there then to bottling. Thanks for the help. You have made my evening!
 
FishFace said:
Not something I'm happy about. Smells like sourdough bread. I used 3056 Belgium wheat
Click to expand...

I think 3056 is "Bavarian Wheat" and the phenols that yeast produces might be perceived as sour. I think its possible that its a yeast characteristic that you're tasting.
 
FishFace said:
Thank you that was the reply I was hoping for. I amfiguring at least 4-6 weeks bottle age. Racked as In to the 2nd. Two weeks there then to bottling. Thanks for the help. You have made my evening!
Click to expand...

Why'd you rack a wheat, its meant to be cloudy? Also, if you're only doing a 2week secondary, just leave it in the primary for the extra time in the future.
 
FishFace said:
I just racked my 1st AG wheat beer. It is sour! I am extremely anal about sanitizing everything that touches my beer, and there are no obvious signs of infection. I have read that this might be normal, but not sure. What say you?

Thanks for the help in advance!:rockin:
Click to expand...


a chracteristic of wheat beers is that some styles can have a tartaric taste, such a hefeweizen, which is similar to sour, leave it a few weeks in the bottle to soften.
 
My last beer was a Hefeweizen. It had a distinct sourness about it at bottling time, but after a couple of weeks in the bottle it's tasting great. If you're confident with your sanitizing, I wouldn't worry about it just yet.
 
dcp27 said:
Why'd you rack a wheat, its meant to be cloudy? Also, if you're only doing a 2week secondary, just leave it in the primary for the extra time in the future.
Click to expand...
I racked to get off the inactive yeast, wasn't meant to eliminate any cloudiness.

I am stuck on 1,2,3 for fermenting. 1 week in primary, 2 in 2nd ,and 3+ in bottle. Better suggestions for wheat next time?
 
FishFace said:
I racked to get off the inactive yeast, wasn't meant to eliminate any cloudiness.

I am stuck on 1,2,3 for fermenting. 1 week in primary, 2 in 2nd ,and 3+ in bottle. Better suggestions for wheat next time?
Click to expand...

the yeast weren't inactive, they were cleaning up after themselves. 1,2,3 is crap. 1 week in the primary is not long enough for most beers, and a 2 week secondary is a waste of time unless your harvesting yeast. save yourself some trouble and just leave it in the primary for the 3 weeks. you'll have just as clear and better conditioned beer without risking oxidation or contamination
 
FishFace said:
I racked to get off the inactive yeast, wasn't meant to eliminate any cloudiness.

I am stuck on 1,2,3 for fermenting. 1 week in primary, 2 in 2nd ,and 3+ in bottle. Better suggestions for wheat next time?
Click to expand...

For beers that are meant to be cloudy, just go 3 weeks in primary and 3 weeks in bottles. The extra 2 weeks on the yeast cake isn't going to cause the autolyisis flavors and may give any active yeast time to clean up some of the off flavors they produced during the reproduction stage of the fermentation.
 
I think that blindly following the 1,2,3 process is akin to putting a turkey in the oven, the recipe calls for say 350° for 4 hours, and you pull it out of the oven without knowing if it is overcooked or undercooked. leave the beer in primary until the gravity is constant for several days in a row and then let it sit for another week to let the yeast clean up any off-flavors that they produced during fermentation, it also gives them a chance to drop out of suspension and to create a nice compact cake that is easier to rack off of.

give this thread a read if you get a chance, you leave the beer on the yeast cake for a week, this guy went a bit longer...
 
azscoob said:
I think that blindly following the 1,2,3 process is akin to putting a turkey in the oven, the recipe calls for say 350° for 4 hours, and you pull it out of the oven without knowing if it is overcooked or undercooked. leave the beer in primary until the gravity is constant for several days in a row and then let it sit for another week to let the yeast clean up any off-flavors that they produced during fermentation, it also gives them a chance to drop out of suspension and to create a nice compact cake that is easier to rack off of.

give this thread a read if you get a chance, you leave the beer on the yeast cake for a week, this guy went a bit longer...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link. I will have to experiment with this. I am a new brewer and will always be learning like a new brewer, so thanks for the info! I will have to design some experiments on split batches. Thanks for all the advice
 

Similar threads

N
End results with low mash efficiency
Replies
13
Views
820
doug293cz
doug293cz
chrispokey
Time for another round of "Is this beer infected?"
Replies
15
Views
484
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
M
Infection after 2weeks in bottles?
2
Replies
67
Views
2K
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
Clint Yeastwood
Asymptomatic Covid and Beer Taste
Replies
21
Views
760
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
Bad Beer Suddenly Tastes Good
Replies
7
Views
1K
Christoff
C
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top