Honey Hefeweizen fermenting troubles. Help appreciated...

Okay so I have brewed with Mr. Beer before, but have recently bought an upgrade to a 5 gallon extract kit through Midwest Supplies. I also bought their ingredient kit which is for a Honey Hefeweizen. This is my first batch using my new 5 gallon kit.

After reading about different opinions on whether to rack to secondary or not, I decided I would not rack to a secondary unless I needed to add stuff for a second fermentation or what-have you.

I pitched White labs hefeweizen yeast #300 after vigorously stirring my yeast with a sanitized spoon while my wort was at 75 degrees F. I did not use a starter. The OG was about 1.068 (recipe predicted about 1.063)

It has been 15 days in the primary and my gravity reading Ireading was done yesterday) is at 1.030. That puts an abv of about 4.99 percent. Mind you the room temperature has been set at around 67-70 degrees F ( I can't get it much lower consistently, sso I figured consistent temperature would be better) Also note that when it was fermenting vigorously I was seeing temperatures of my batch itself at about 72-74 degrees.

It's not that this is not enough abv, but others who have done this recipe were getting results of 6.2-7.2 abv, and so I don't want to deviate too far from what others have reported as successful and tastey. This recipe called for a lot of honey, so I know that might be the cause for a slower fermentation, but I wasn't 100% sure.

My question is: Do I rack to a secondary at this point and let sit for another week or two to see if it gets lower? Can I keep it in the primary for another week or two (should I?) ? Is there anything I can do help my yeast out? I have read gently swirling the primary for a bit might help get them going, but I wanted some more advice. I will do another hydro reading in a few hours to see if it has gone down at all, but I wanted to wait to do anything drastic until after I had sought some advice.

Any tips are appreciated.

1) You GROSSLY underpitched. You would need a 3L starter of a fresh tube of WL at that gravity (assuming you don't shake or stir plate it). This is probably the main reason you are having "troubles".

2) Your alcohol is not your main concern here. If it is, in fact, stuck... well, it will also be VERY sweet. Hefeweizens should be dry and refreshing, not cloying and unbearable.

3) Do not rack it to the secondary. It's a hefe, why would you need a secondary? Are you trying to clear it? Dry hop it?

4) Keep it in the primary fermenter and WARM IT UP. Try raising it ~4-6* and see what happens.

5) Take gravity readings over the next week and report back.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the response!

1. Okay I will invest in a starter kit for next time. Does anyone have a good resource for how much of a starter is needed for what gravity and particular yeast strains etc ex? I don't want to under pitch again lol.

2. Yeah I am not concerned too much about abv.

3. I didn't know if there was a maximum time to keep the beer in a primary or not. I had heard some argue that stuff can go bad in primary after aWhile. So it's fine in primary for another week or two?

Anything else I can do to see the gravity down some?

Orrin1988 said:

Thanks for the response!

1. Okay I will invest in a starter kit for next time. Does anyone have a good resource for how much of a starter is needed for what gravity and particular yeast strains etc ex? I don't want to under pitch again lol.

2. Yeah I am not concerned too much about abv.

3. I didn't know if there was a maximum time to keep the beer in a primary or not. I had heard some argue that stuff can go bad in primary after aWhile. So it's fine in primary for another week or two?

Anything else I can do to see the gravity down some?

Click to expand...

1. Yeastcalc.com or Mr. Malty
2. K good.
3. Yeast autolysis doesn't really happen that much anymore with the quality yeasts we have now. I usually do 3-4 week primaries.

4. Warm it up, check gravity. Then try champagne yeast.