1st Brew Ever - Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

[smthgfshy]

I hear there may be a TROLL under the bridge...????

 

[kyle6286]

This thread is hilarious.

Next time, when priming, you want to boil about 2 cups of water and then toss in your sugar (about 4-5oz). If you buy the kits, it should come pre-measured in a 5oz bag. Toss the sugar in when the water is boiling and keep boiling for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. When it's done, remove from stove and place a lid (sanitized) on top of the pot. If you don't have a hole in the cover to allow steam to come through, leave the lid off-centered so it can cool faster. I fill my sink with cool water and place the pot in to help cool even faster. When it gets to room temperature, dump this directly into your bottling bucket and then siphon from primary or secondary fermenter directly on top of this to ensure the sugar gets distributed evenly. When you're done racking the beer, you're good to bottle.

 

[Zixxer10R]

This thread is hilarious.

Next time, when priming, you want to boil about 2 cups of water and then toss in your sugar (about 4-5oz). If you buy the kits, it should come pre-measured in a 5oz bag. Toss the sugar in when the water is boiling and keep boiling for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. When it's done, remove from stove and place a lid (sanitized) on top of the pot. If you don't have a hole in the cover to allow steam to come through, leave the lid off-centered so it can cool faster. I fill my sink with cool water and place the pot in to help cool even faster. When it gets to room temperature, dump this directly into your bottling bucket and then siphon from primary or secondary fermenter directly on top of this to ensure the sugar gets distributed evenly. When you're done racking the beer, you're good to bottle.

First of all, Tom C, you're fine. No harm no foul. If you were in my garage brewing with me i might have hit you in the face but that would have been an overreaction on my part.

Second of all, no one really answered my secondary question here about the priming solution. Can anyone attest to making this mistake once and then after the 3-4 weeks reccomended of being bottled it all came out right? Or is there some magical transformation that takes place when the priming solution has been heated and then cooled to room temp again? From my understanding, the boiling portion is more for sterilization than anything else. Of course, i'm still very very new to this hobby.

 

[Malintent]

+1. If i ruin this batch i will have learned a great deal of things to apply to my third batch. I couldn't wait to start my second batch so the third is where my first lesson learned will be applied.

Now on to my current concern (and yes, i've searched this thread for the answer, and no, i didn't find exactly what i was looking for. while there is a wealth of information out there, it is simply not feasible to read through years of posts just to find the one answer.).

I bottled last night per the recipe directions. It says to allow 3-4 weeks for carbonation but here's the problem. Somehow i overlooked the part where i boil the 1.5 cups of DME in water for the priming solution. Long story short, i just added the DME directly into the fermenter. I then racked the beer to the secondary so i could start a #9 clone after cleaning/sanitization.

Question: have i completely ruined the chances of carbonating my beer or will it really take 3-4 weeks to carbonate? What's a good yardstick measurement of visible signs of carbonation? I also shook the bottles after i capped them because of my paranoia. The heads have receded a bit but the bubbles are not totally gone. Also, before i bottled, the carboy DID need a blowoff tube because it was "carbonating". At least so i thought. I cannot see bubbles rising from the bottom of the bottles currently. Ease my fears?

I have a running joke with my wife... I pretend to not know what I am doing in the kitchen (so as not to have to help make dinner, etc).. example; I called into the other room the other night while I was making macaroni and cheese.. I said, "Hey, how come the butter isn't melting so good... the water is already boiling" - like as if I thought I was supposed to put the butter in with the boiling pasta, and not after it was drained. Ok, it's an inside joke...

.. but that is what people are getting at here.... some of the mistakes you are making are sort of like that....

you REALLY should read John Palmer's book, which is free online for your reading pleasure. See HowToBrew.com. There is no excuse for not doing so.

 

[Malintent]

To answer your question about if you ruined your beer by putting the DME directly into the fermenter, then bottling from that... I have no idea. I don't think anyone ever done that.

It also doesn't say in your recipe how to light the stove.... my point only being that the recipe isn't how to brew beer... it is how to use your knowledge of brewing to make that particular recipe.

 

[Zixxer10R]

Alright, more research has yielded that i haven't ruined my beer. It has only forced more research before i pull the plug on the brew.

Just watched a youtube time lapse that another brewer posted. Dude bottle conditioned for 31 days before it was time. I'm just being too impatient.

 

[KingKegII]

You are correct that the reason you boil your priming solution is to sanitize it. All this means is that you added unsanitized water and DME to your mostly fermented beer. Depending on your water supply and how you stored & handled your DME, coupled with the fact that your beer now has alcohol in it, means that your beer likely won't get an infection. Do not pour out the beer, just bottle it and let it condition. Hefe's are ready to drink relatively young so you can probably start tasting your bottles after 2 weeks. If it doesn't taste good, let it sit for another week, try another bottle and so on until your beer tastes good.

Cheers.