Just Tasted My First Hefeweizen!

My Bavarian hefe has been fermenting one week, and tonight I opened up the bucket to take a gravity. The was still a lot of yeasty kräusen, which smelled amazing, and the gravity was about 1.014-which is great. I then tasted it... woo hoo! I can't wait, it tasted very very good! I think I am gonna give it another week in the fermentor and then bottle. What do you guys think? how long should I let it set before I bottle?

When your FG is 25% of your OG it's virtually done.

Allowing it to sit a few more days will not hurt it in any way.

Some of us will bottle/keg at 10 days. I've done this, but I still prefer to use a secondary (totally optional) so more of the yeast can drop out. This results in less yeast making it to the bottles, but still plenty to keep the brew cloudy.

Which makes me wonder.... I just let all my brews sit until the activity drops (usually a week, sometimes a bit longer).

Then I go to secondary just to let things settle a bit longer then I bottle.

I just don't follow any strict guidelines on this part of my process and things still turn out great.

Sounds like you have one tasty brew there - congrats!

I'm working on stouts for a bit (my personal favorite) but I'm still going extract - maybe next year I'll go all grain............

Jonathan

Hefes are one of the few beers that can/should be consumed young. Floating yeast and esters are part of the style. If the gravity is stable, bottle it & give it a try in two weeks.

david_42 said:

Hefes are one of the few beers that can/should be consumed young. Floating yeast and esters are part of the style. If the gravity is stable, bottle it & give it a try in two weeks.

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there was still a buttload of fresh kräusen. I am going to wait for all that head to drop down into the beer until I can see the surface, then I will bottle. woot!:rockin:

Bad Influence said:

Which makes me wonder.... I just let all my brews sit until the activity drops (usually a week, sometimes a bit longer).

Then I go to secondary just to let things settle a bit longer then I bottle.

I just don't follow any strict guidelines on this part of my process and things still turn out great.

Jonathan

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I do the same thing. I'll let it sit in primary for a few days after all activity has stopped. Then I rack it to secondary for usually 3-4 weeks (I'm working on the art of patience). I'll finally take my FG reading at bottling time just to calculate abv.

I'm just always leary of opening things up to take a gravity sample for fear of contamination or oxidization. I've learned the hard way on an expensive batch about the reality of oxidization from opening the fermentor too often.

Congrats on your hefe. Mmmmm, beer.

Congrats on the brew.

hefes dont need a lot of age, especially in the bottles...i've found a little time in the fermenter will help them out, however. i usually go 2-3 weeks primary, then 4-6 weeks bottles for my weiss-biers and they are perfect

Hefes are godly if made right. They don't last long, though. Two months out and they start tasting off probably due to yeast autolysis since there's so much yeast still in suspension. I had a freaking awesome hefe on tap but it was just "eh" after two months.

It's not autolysis, or you would think something other than "eh." You would think something more like "who thought it was a good idea to kiln this malt over burning tires and ass?"

Hefes lose their luster quickly because all those great esters and phenols start going away, they starts rounding out, and they become more like American wheats (which make me think "eh").


TL

Good deal! Drink it up.

Buford said:

I had a freaking awesome hefe on tap but it was just "eh" after two months.

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Hmmm, what is it like to have beer around after tapping it 2 months earlier?