Kit Hefe brew, seeking advice

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tbrown4

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Brewed my second batch yesterday morning before hitting the pool. Used a hefeweizen kit from NB. Here's how it went down:

Original Gravity: 1.052
Terminal Gravity: 1.013
Color: 11.09
Alcohol: 5.16%
Bitterness: 16.2

Ingredients:
3*lb Wheat Liquid 60 m boil
1.0*oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 56.0*m
3.0*lb Wheat Liquid added during boil, boiled 15.0*m
1.0*lb CBW® Bavarian Wheat Powder (Dry Malt Extract) added during boil, boiled 15.0*m
1.0*tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 15.0*m
1.0*ea WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen™

Everything went according to plan on brew day, except I was 4 minutes late on the hop addition, as you can see. The gravity reading after the wort cooled was spot on.

I came home from work today, the lid looked like it was about to pop off. The airlock had krausen residue clogging it. All seals seemed to be intact. I carefully sanitized and replaced the airlock with another one. Fermentation seems to be continuing nicely. It's been sitting in primary for just about 36 hours now. I'm guessing final liquid volume was a bit too much, or did it just go krausen crazy? I'm sure this has happened to some of you before, right?

I'll take another gravity reading tomorrow or Thursday.

When I hit my goal gravity, how long should I let this sit on yeast? I don't plan to rack to secondary. I plan to bottle this when it's ready.

Thanks in advance for any tips!
 
From the Wyeast web site:

This is true top cropping yeast and requires fermenter headspace of 33%.

So there you go. I'll also add that you can really change the flavor profile of a hefe by fermenting at different temperatures. What temperature are you at? A lot of us get good results in the low 60s, and if you go up into the 70s you'll get tons of banana. Higher fermentation temps can also make yeast go crazy, remember during active fermentation the beer can be 5-10 degrees above ambient.

I'd give it 2-3 weeks total in the fermenter, really 2 should be enough.
 
zachattack said:
From the Wyeast web site:

This is true top cropping yeast and requires fermenter headspace of 33%.

So there you go. I'll also add that you can really change the flavor profile of a hefe by fermenting at different temperatures. What temperature are you at? A lot of us get good results in the low 60s, and if you go up into the 70s you'll get tons of banana. Higher fermentation temps can also make yeast go crazy, remember during active fermentation the beer can be 5-10 degrees above ambient.

I'd give it 2-3 weeks total in the fermenter, really 2 should be enough.

Thanks! Ok, that all makes sense.

Its sitting at basement temperature high 60s.

Ill let it sit two weeks, to be safe.
 
i see alot of banana flavor in your future if your in the high 60's. i try to keep mine down in the low 60's if not 60. i made the same mistakes before.
 
paleale said:
i see alot of banana flavor in your future if your in the high 60's. i try to keep mine down in the low 60's if not 60. i made the same mistakes before.

Ok, im actually ok with that. I tend to enjoy that flavor. I dont have any areas in my house that stay cooler than that.
 
I brewed that kit not too long ago. It didn’t have any Irish Moss – how did you end up with that? A hefeweizen normally isn’t supposed to be clear – should be cloudy from the yeast.

I fermented mine for 14 days at 66F (beer temperature – not ambient). I don’t know if that was ideal or not, but it tasted really good. Be sure the gravity is stable before bottling it.

Mine didn’t get excessive kraeusen, but I used Danstar Munich yeast.
 
ncbrewer said:
I brewed that kit not too long ago. It didn’t have any Irish Moss – how did you end up with that? A hefeweizen normally isn’t supposed to be clear – should be cloudy from the yeast.

I fermented mine for 14 days at 66F (beer temperature – not ambient). I don’t know if that was ideal or not, but it tasted really good. Be sure the gravity is stable before bottling it.

Mine didn’t get excessive kraeusen, but I used Danstar Munich yeast.

For the Irish moss i just took a recommentation from a brewer friend.
 
Update, took a gravity reading today. It's sitting at 1.024, down from 1.028 on 5/30...about 8 days ago. Krausen is still there, seems to have gone down a little in the last week.

Starting gravity was 1.052, and target final gravity is 1.013. It appears that it's got a little ways to go.

Does this seem to be progressing correctly?
 
Seems about right....now forget about it for a few more days. I bottled a NB Hefe last night. In the fermenter 18 days. Foam gone and tasted good. I have similar experience with blow-off during fermentation with hefes, so I am going to buy a 6.5 gal bucket but still use a blow-off tube and catch. I really like the NB Wheat. You can play with the recipe. I waited too late in the season and now I can't get any Soriachi hops. I want to use it in the boil at flame-out to get the lemon without the bitter. To me my summer beer is not about style...it's about, "@#$%, it's hot outside!."
 
go_inbroke said:
Seems about right....now forget about it for a few more days. I bottled a NB Hefe last night. In the fermenter 18 days. Foam gone and tasted good. I have similar experience with blow-off during fermentation with hefes, so I am going to buy a 6.5 gal bucket but still use a blow-off tube and catch. I really like the NB Wheat. You can play with the recipe. I waited too late in the season and now I can't get any Soriachi hops. I want to use it in the boil at flame-out to get the lemon without the bitter. To me my summer beer is not about style...it's about, "@#$%, it's hot outside!."

Thanks. Ill check it again early next week.
 
Wanted to share some updates. I bottled this last Saturday (6 days ago). Looked and smelled correct. Tasted about right, no off flavors. Got 53 twelve ounce bottles out of it. Put them in cases, and covered them with large kitchen trash bags...just in case of bottle bombs. Going to chill and open one bottle after this weekend just to see how conditioning is going. I'm not expecting them to really be ready until they hit the 2-3 week mark.
 
Wanted to share some updates. I bottled this last Saturday (6 days ago). Looked and smelled correct. Tasted about right, no off flavors. Got 53 twelve ounce bottles out of it. Put them in cases, and covered them with large kitchen trash bags...just in case of bottle bombs. Going to chill and open one bottle after this weekend just to see how conditioning is going. I'm not expecting them to really be ready until they hit the 2-3 week mark.

very nice!!, I bottled this exact recipe 2 weeks ago to the day and they are easily done. this batch carbs up fast
 
Cracked open a bottle this evening to check on carbonation progress. Seems to be about right. Pretty pleased with the finished beer. Crisp, clean. Citrus and clove notes. Quite refreshing. Just grabbed another:)
 
Cracked open a bottle this evening to check on carbonation progress. Seems to be about right. Pretty pleased with the finished beer. Crisp, clean. Citrus and clove notes. Quite refreshing. Just grabbed another:)

How does it taste now? Not too much bananer? I'm currently fermenting this as well at the same temps you were and am concerned about the flavor.
 
In a good way though right? Not overwhelming.

definitely in a good way. It's not overwhelming. I like that flavor in this style beer.

my wife actually suggested me doing a chocolate beer with this yeast to see if I could somehow pull out that banana flavor.
 
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