My second batch, not sure whats wrong!!!

Ok, I brewed a batch of "hefenwizen" on Oct. 4. Everything was going to plan and then ferminting stoped on Oct. 6. I let is sit for another 2 days then racked it. When I tasted it, it has a pumpkin spice flavor and very cloudy. I searched the net and found a thread that sugested airation to rekick start the yeast, tried it. I reracked it this morning, still very cloudy with the pumpkin spice flavor and a little bitterness at the end and only about 3% alc. Any thoughts??

I expect Hefe to be a little cloudy but did not expect the pumpkin spice flavor.

The spice flavor may have developed due to high fermentation temperature, yeast selection, ingredient selection or any number of other factor, which we will need to know more about your process to find out. What temps did you ferment at, was it a constant temp, or did it change? What was the recipe, and what yeast did you use? What were your sanitation and cleaning methods?

All of that being said, it may be all moot at this point because, wherever you found that aeration suggestion, you either read it wrong or you should never trust that source for beer information again. You never, EVER, allow ANY air to touch your beer after fermentation. It oxidizes the beer, creating a wet carboard flavor, perhaps flavors reminiscent of a sherry wine, and leads to very poor shelf life. What was your method of aeration?

All I can say to let the spice flavor drop out is age it, which you may not be able to due because of the oxidation.

Maybe you are picking up clove, which is a flavor traditionally associated with weizen yeasts that are fermented on the cool side.

The aeration suggestion was to aerate the wort BEFORE fermentation, not to rouse the yeast.

Not too sure why your yeast crapped out. Its likely they didn't. I'd let it sit for at least another week before messing with it.

ZRebel1 said:

Ok, I brewed a batch of "hefenwizen" on Oct. 4. Everything was going to plan and then ferminting stoped on Oct. 6. I let is sit for another 2 days then racked it. When I tasted it, it has a pumpkin spice flavor and very cloudy. I searched the net and found a thread that sugested airation to rekick start the yeast, tried it. I reracked it this morning, still very cloudy with the pumpkin spice flavor and a little bitterness at the end and only about 3% alc. Any thoughts??

I expect Hefe to be a little cloudy but did not expect the pumpkin spice flavor.

Click to expand...

5-6 days in primary is not long enough. Next time let it sit in primary until you have consistent hyrdometer readings for 3 days.

As this was posted on the 13th, my math might be off but, this means you only left it in the secondary for 5 days. It needs a MINIMUM of 2 weeks in secondary.

The low ABV is more than likely due to racking out of primary too soon thereby removing the beer from the yeast cake and reducing the amount of fermentation that could/should have occured.

I agree with the above posts, I never rack before 10 days in primary (plus a hydrometer check) and I've yet to have one not finish in that time. My airlock usually stops bubbling after about 3-4 days but that does not mean it's finished fermenting...

How did you calculate the 3% alcohol? If you used the "potential alcohol" scale on your hydrometer it's not going to be correct for fermented wort - you must have the OG reading and the FG reading to calculate ABV.

Either way, it's already been done so I'd leave it in the carboy for another 2 weeks to make up for the short primary, then bottle. It will almost certainly taste different than it does right now (usually better).