All Grain Hef Conditioning Questions

[jasonbolen]

I recently did my first solo all grain batch, a German Hef, and am curious about a few things.

1. I missed my mash temp by a few degrees on the low side, so I assume I'm in for a lighter beer, correct?

2. My adjusted OG was 1.034, any issues with this?

3. I'm going to keg this beer, and am curious if I need to rack to a secondary at all since this is a hef and is supposed to be cloudy?

4. I noted the sulfur smell which I assume is common with the WL300 strain of yeast, but will that smell also leave a sulfur taste?

Thanks for the advice! I really enjoy reading and learning from this forum!

7lbs German Wheat
4lbs German Pils
0.5lbs Rice Hulls at mash out
Shot for mash of 153, ended up at 150.
90 min mash
60 min boil

 

[RustyMusket]

I brewed something almost identical to that recipe except i used wlp 400 and no rice hulls. tettanang and perle hops. Did a three step mash 122 146 158 fermented for about 10 day and bottle conditioning going on 2 weeks now started tasting at 1 week great beer i say.

 

[digg1es]

Don't bother with the secondary.
And your yeast will clean up nicely.

 

[headfullahops]

Leave it in the primary for two weeks, keg, and carb. That's what I do with mine. The sulfur odor/taste will be cleaned up by the yeast in time. It's amazing the change that takes place (in all beers, really) from one week after pitching to two weeks. Patience is definitely rewarded in this craft.

Missing your rest temp by a degree or two isn't going to affect your OG much, if at all. I've found that when I've come in under my expected efficiency/target OG, the problem was in the lauter. My wheat beers in particular need a fairly slow lauter rate to get optimal extraction of sugars.

 

[jasonbolen]

Thanks Head! There's a good possibility that I lautered off a little too quickly.