Dunkelweizen question

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Jaeger

Bridge four
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I have had my first brew (dunkelweizen) in primary fermentation since Jan 8 and I'm a bit concerned about it. First, here is the basic rundown of the brew:

Steeped grains in kit for 30 mins @ ~170° for 30 mins

Brought to boil, added 6lbs DME (breisse wheat I believe), stirred in well, added hops and boiled for 60 mins as per kit instructions.

Cooled to ~ 75° and pitched 1 packet of White Labs WLP300

Set in dark place for fermentation @ ~ 70°

After about 12-14 hours Krausen (sp?) Began to form, and here is the conundrum.

I've seen no activity in the airlock. It may be just a bad seal on the fermenter lid because I have about 2 inches of krausen that bubbles periodically and for the first few days saw a slurry of activity in the beer (is it technically beer at this point?)

How long until I can expect the krausen to fall? Should I give it any additional time after it has fallen before thinking of bottling? Any need to rack to secondary?

Thanks in advance

Andrew
 
usually 2-3 weeks in primary is plenty. there may be a few yeast rafts left floating around at this point, that's fine. there is no need for secondary with this style beer.
personally, I'd wait another week, pull a sample & measure the specific gravity & again 2-3 days later. if the gravity is stable it's ready to bottle.
 
if you have a krauesen but no airlock activity, i'd guess you have a small leak. pretty common with my old buckets for me to have bubbles for a few days then the bubbling stops but the beer is obviously still fermenting, and if i wiggle/tighten the airlock it will often start bubbling again. 70 is fairly warm and weizen yeasts are fairly vigorous so i'd expect it to be pretty quick.

i usually wait 2 weeks before bottling hefeweizen, since it's convenient. Up until very recently I racked to secondary after 1 week, and took a gravity reading then. Now i'm just leaving the beer in primary and taking a gravity reading after a week, and then again after 2 weeks. they're generally within a point of each other.
 
I have bottled as early as 12 days w/ my hefe/dunkelweizen recipes. 170F seems a little high for steeping. Could run the risk of extracting tannens if you get it any higher. In the past when steeping i have done 150ish for 20 minutes and another time threw in the bag while heating up (starting at 120 to like 155ish). Didn't really see a difference either way.
 
Yeah, the two things I'd try to improve upon for beer two are 1) steeping at around 155-160 as 170 or over could get tannins (nasty flavors) in your beer 2) try to start fermentation in the low 60's as fermentation will increase heat and you could get off flavors if you're really fermenting at 75 or so. However, I'm sure you learned a lot and had fun. It will be beer in a few more weeks. Let it sit another week (or 2). You CAN rack if you want to simply learn the process, but it's not necessary.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. I just got done breezing thru (definitely not for the last time) John Palmer's "how to brew". After reading it I did notice a few minor errors (are they still errors if it turns out OK?) in my first process. Now, armed with more knowledge, I hope my next brew will be even better.

Below are some pictures I took this morning before work (about 3:30 am)

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Fermentation is certainly coming along nicely! Good luck on the debut brew and all the brews to come!
 
So the kraeusen has fallen and I took a gravity sample (sanitized of course) and got 1.015. my starting gravity was 1.050.

It looks like a dunkel, it smells like a dunkel and it tastes like a flat dunkel.

Will that taste change after bottling? I'm just curious because it will effect my opinion of the final product and how I tailor my future batches.

Should I let it sit for another week or should I bottle Sunday if the gravity stays stable?

Thanks again,

Andrew

IMG_20170120_210443535.jpg
 
Hey Jaeger, in my experience (brewing dozens of hefeweizens), the taste will definitely change, so I would keep some notes now, but until it's been bottle conditioned for at least 3 weeks, I wouldn't make any serious decisions.

I find that early beers have a bit of a cloying sweetness and some estery flavors that tend to go away before it's a final product... but I still strongly recommend tasting at every step of the way, and you will soon learn how early flavors translate into final flavors.
 
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