Bitter Hefeweizen

I've got a standard Bavarian Hefeweizen going in the fermenter and I've had it in the primary for 13 days. I pulled a gravity sample of the wort a week ago and it was quite bitter with hardly any sweetness and a rather nasty finish too it. I tried it again yesterday, day 12 and it basically was the same. I was wondering if I should go ahead and bottle and hope it conditions out or let it sit in the fermenter a while longer. I was just a little confused as hefeweizen are usually a pretty quick brew. This is my first brew, so maybe I just dont know what I am looking for, I made no noticable mistakes, but the flavor at this point is really not very enjoyable. Thanks.

If it's done fermenting and your gravity reading is satisfactory, I'd just add the sugar and bottle.

You'd be amazed what two or three weeks of aging can do.

Also, 13 days in the primary? It's a bit long. Is it still visibly fermenting?

Does a hefe take less time to ferment in the primary? Or is 7 days still about right? and the same in the secondary?

First, I have a couple questions. What was your recipe? What temp did you ferment at? What is the gravity and is it done fermenting?

You really can't judge your brew based on a gravity sample taken from primary. Make sure your gravity is consistent over a few days, then bottle and leave it alone for three weeks. If you followed proper sanitation procedures an infection is highly unlikely. Bottle it (if fermentation is complete, of course) and report back in a few weeks.

Wait. Then wait some more. Don't worry - it will most likely turn out fine. It's normal for beer to taste excessively bitter and funky when it is too young. Remember the yeast just got done breeding like crazy and then fermenting several gallons of sugar: right now there are all kinds of crazy byproducts from that activity floating around. The wonderful thing is, given time, the yeast will clean up their own byproducts. You don't have to do anything other than wait for them to do their job.

I'd leave it in the primary for another week so the yeast can do some more cleaning up, then bottle and give it another three weeks before drinking.

underwaterdan said:

Does a hefe take less time to ferment in the primary? Or is 7 days still about right? and the same in the secondary?

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I would leave a hefe in primary for 2-3 weeks before bottling, no secondary necessary. 7 days is just not enough time for primary fermentation for any brew, IMO.

HOOTER said:

I would leave a hefe in primary for 2-3 weeks before bottling, no secondary necessary. 7 days is just not enough time for primary fermentation for any brew, IMO.

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Is there a reason you would not secondary this particular beer or is all beers in general for you. My school of though is I like to clear the beer out a bit in the secondary...

underwaterdan said:

Is there a reason you would not secondary this particular beer or is all beers in general for you. My school of though is I like to clear the beer out a bit in the secondary...

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I still use secondary for most brews, but a hefe doesn't really need to clear. Secondary is really unnecessary for any wheat brew, IMO.

6.6 lbs Wheat Malt Extract
Wheat Malt 6 oz
Crystal 40 Malt 6 oz
Bittering Hops (unspecified, thanks lhbs)
Yeast- Safbrew WB-06

Fermented at 70 degrees

Gravity for the last 5 days, 1.012

I think a great deal of the problem may be a lack of familiarity with freshly fermented wort, thanks for the help guys.

jmp138 said:

I think a great deal of the problem may be a lack of familiarity with freshly fermented wort, thanks for the help guys.

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Probably. Bottle it, drink it after three weeks and all will be well.

jmp138 said:

I've got a standard Bavarian Hefeweizen going in the fermenter and I've had it in the primary for 13 days. I pulled a gravity sample of the wort a week ago and it was quite bitter with hardly any sweetness and a rather nasty finish too it.

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I bottle weizen at 2 weeks (primary only) , and it is normal for my weizen hydro samples to taste out-of-whack-nasty/bitter at that time. After 3 weeks conditioning in the bottle they are good to go. Just had one last night with dinner, mmmm......