Wheat Beer Question

Two weeks ago I brewed my first batch of wheat beer and it won't seem to settle out. I used my second BB Carboy as both primary and secondary fermenter (no racking). I normally use my 7 gallon plastic primary fermenter, then rack it to one of my carboys, but i read some posts where folks don't do that, so I figured I'd try it.

When I removed the blow-off tube to put on an airlock, I also took hydrometer reading. It seemed just about finished fermenting, since I got a 1.010 reading. It smelled and even tasted great. Unfortunately there is still some crap floating on the top that won't seem to settle and it's also still very cloudy. I started a second batch (Irish Stout) a couple days later using my normal racking method and it's already setting out. I tried moving the location of the wheat beer's carboy, trying cooler and warmer spots, but this didn't help.

Is this how wheat beer goes or did I screw something up? Any suggestions.

Wheat beers are supposed to be cloudy.

+1, unless its a KrystallWeizen which is a filtered wheat beer.

I know wheat beer is cloudy, but what about the krausen still floating on top?

If the gravity is stable, and where the recipe says it should be, you can rack from underneath. Hefeweizen yeast sometimes kick up a lot of krausen that doesn't always fall.

Right, what ed said...not every bit of kreusen will fall...rack from underneath it.

should he rack to secondary or rack to the bottling bucket?

I was told to let the wheats remain in primary and not use a secondary....Go straight to the bottling bucket when ready, I used this with my hefe with great results.

Leave it in primary for a couple more weeks, if you are not racking for secondary, then just go straight to bottling bucket.

skiya-n-mt said:

should he rack to secondary or rack to the bottling bucket?

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It's all personal preference. I go to the bottle after 3 weeks in the primary.

If your hydro reading is steady for 3 days, bottle away, rack from underneath. I never leave wheat beers more than 3 weeks because I like to drink them fast and young Usually I do 2 weeks in primary (if i get a steady FG) and two weeks in the bottle, and its good.