Oops - I have to post a n00b in trouble question - what temp to pitch/ferment my beer

Sorry -

I'm just not sure if this is a definite number or if it varies by recipe, and I have 30min left in the boil of my first ever batch right now, and my LHBS left out the temp instructions. I am currently going by their instructions as well as a full printout of Palmer's.

My LHBS gave me free wheat beer ingredients with my kit along with instructions for a hefe. The hops printed on the page are Hallertaur, but they're scratched out. The hops they substituted are Tettnenger (incorrect spelling, I can't read what they wrote), with 1.5oz for 60min and .5oz for the last minute.

All I need to know are the temps for pitching my yeast (Safbrew WB-06) and what temp I should let it ferment at. Their list of "starter kit ingredients" say that this beer is more like a German hefe in that it has no banana- or clove-like flavors (which may or may not be a disappointment to me, we'll see), but I know that pitching/fermenting at a higher temp in a normal hefe will add more banana flavors, whereas a lower temp will be more clove-like.

So............ all that said...

At what temp should I pitch, and at what temp should I want the yeast to be getting it on?

http://193.238.150.33/SHARED/Doc_51019.pdf

This should answer your questions.

Fermenting around 70 degrees or so will be fine with this beer and yeast. Maximum of 75 from the provided sheet. Hope this helps.

Love ya, man, thanks. 10min left in the boil, and I'm ready!

I have not used that yeast but their site says fermentation temp is 59° - 75°. You want to get your wort to at least 70° - 75° before pitching. Hopefully, a hefe brewer will pop on here to tell you more. Good luck!

Guess I should type faster. lol

Are you sure about that German beer = no banana/cloves? I'm pretty sure it's quite the opposite.

Well, like I said, they had a list of recipes that I could pick one of to use as my first batch. The one I picked was called "Wheat Beer" and said that it did not have clove or banana flavors. It specifically said that. The ingredients' instructions that they printed and gave me said "HEFEWEIZEN" on the top.

The ingredients I got and used were:
6lb Wheat DME (Crosby & Baker, Muntons Wheat)
2oz Hallertaur (Tennengen (sp?) was substituted... 1.5oz for 60min, 0.5oz for 1min)
11.5g WB-06 Safbrew (I'll be pitching in a bit, my brew is currently at 160 degrees and falling)

3 gallons boiling wort in cold water bath in sink

40min from boiling to 150dF
40min from 150dF to 100dF

-then-

2gal 38dF water addition

instant from 100dF to 70dF

-then-

Pitched yeast, and it sits at 71.5dF currently.

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Hopefully all turns out well! Next time I'll have a smaller boil and larger cool water so that I can have a quicker chill, because I am not satisfied with the 90min of cooling to pitching temps.

Looking forward to seeing 1) bubbling in the airlock/yeast activity, and later on 2) if I kept everything as sanitary as possible or if it tastes like swampwater.

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Thanks for all the help and the wonderful forum, guys - today was fun, and I've done a lot of reading (95% from this forum) to get to this point.

Hey, a Mustang fan and a CA homebrewer to boot!

You did pretty well on time from start to pitch at 2.5hr. My first batch took me most of an evening. My last one took just 135min from firing the stove to finish cleaning up, and that's including the 75min it took for the water to get hot(on a Viking stove!).

Let us know when it starts bubbling.

It started!

I just woke up, and it's only been 10 hours since I set it aside in the spare bathroom. Got some bubbling action and a little krausen.

NitrouStang96 said:

Well, like I said, they had a list of recipes that I could pick one of to use as my first batch. The one I picked was called "Wheat Beer" and said that it did not have clove or banana flavors. It specifically said that. The ingredients' instructions that they printed and gave me said "HEFEWEIZEN" on the top.

The ingredients I got and used were:
6lb Wheat DME (Crosby & Baker, Muntons Wheat)
2oz Hallertaur (Tennengen (sp?) was substituted... 1.5oz for 60min, 0.5oz for 1min)
11.5g WB-06 Safbrew (I'll be pitching in a bit, my brew is currently at 160 degrees and falling)

Click to expand...

Ah I see. I head to learn the hard way (or actually it wasn't that hard ) that Wheat beer != German Hefe. American Wheats like Sierra Nevada's and Pyramid's hefe are distinctly different from a German Hefe from say Gordon Biersch. All's well though because in the end you will still have beer no matter what!

Cheers~