Hi .. I brewed my first Hefeweizen using a combination of Bavarian Wheat DME and LME. I use WLP300 yeast for this batch. I also used a brand new Grainfather conical fermenter & pressure transfer kit.
I had created a yeast starter and pitched about 1.5 quarts into a 5 Gallon batch. I had also TRIPLE cleaned my fermenter and sanitized it before I poured the wort into it. After 3 weeks of fermentation - my SG was stead for 3 readings - so I decided to keg it using my pressure transfer kit. Before I did my transfer - I decided to dump some yeast to allow the dual valve to get clear beer.
1) When I used the dump valve - very little yeast came out. After doing the pressure transfer - when I opened the fermenter - I saw a highly compacted layer of trub at the bottom of the conical which I had trouble getting out even after pressure hosing it. What concerns me more is that the trub was "grainy" - not the smooth slurry I have seen in the past. It seemed to have a lot of solid large particle matter in it. Is this normal for wheat beers using WLP300?
2) At the top of my fermenter - there was a thick (approx 2 inch) ring of black krausen - as if the krausen had been burnt onto the fermenter wall. It also took a bit of scrubbing to get it off. I did not see any signs of infection (soft fuzzy matter) and the beer seems to taste like a hefeweizen.... lots of banana. This seems to be happening in some steel fermenters - but the pictures I saw had a very thin line compared to mine. Should I be concerned about this batch? How will I be able to tell that the beer is infected? I will Carb it and take a sample to see how it tastes in a week.
Thanks all.
I had created a yeast starter and pitched about 1.5 quarts into a 5 Gallon batch. I had also TRIPLE cleaned my fermenter and sanitized it before I poured the wort into it. After 3 weeks of fermentation - my SG was stead for 3 readings - so I decided to keg it using my pressure transfer kit. Before I did my transfer - I decided to dump some yeast to allow the dual valve to get clear beer.
1) When I used the dump valve - very little yeast came out. After doing the pressure transfer - when I opened the fermenter - I saw a highly compacted layer of trub at the bottom of the conical which I had trouble getting out even after pressure hosing it. What concerns me more is that the trub was "grainy" - not the smooth slurry I have seen in the past. It seemed to have a lot of solid large particle matter in it. Is this normal for wheat beers using WLP300?
2) At the top of my fermenter - there was a thick (approx 2 inch) ring of black krausen - as if the krausen had been burnt onto the fermenter wall. It also took a bit of scrubbing to get it off. I did not see any signs of infection (soft fuzzy matter) and the beer seems to taste like a hefeweizen.... lots of banana. This seems to be happening in some steel fermenters - but the pictures I saw had a very thin line compared to mine. Should I be concerned about this batch? How will I be able to tell that the beer is infected? I will Carb it and take a sample to see how it tastes in a week.
Thanks all.
