Hefe temp?

[mrchicken]

Have a hefe in the tank. Started fermenting at ambient temp of 64 beer temp got up to 68 for a week then dropped to 64 over a couple days. Cold snap has the basement chilly. Beer temp has dropped to 55. (day 14 of primary)

Warm up scheduled this week and basement temps will probably climb back into the mid 60's. So do I worry that the hefe is going to "lager" for a week or more until I have time to bottle?

Do I need to put a heating pad to it for a couple days to "finish and clean up" just prior to bottling?

 

[motosapiens]

i brew alot of hefeweizen using the weihenstephan yeast (3068). My beers have always fermented out completely in a week or less, and when I run out of bottles, they have never suffered from sitting in the carboy longer. I would just bottle it and not worry.

 

[jerbrew]

My experience with hefe yeast is that they are voracious little buggers and they work quickly. I'd bet your beer is done and heating it up isn't going to do anything.

It's a misconception that yeast have a "clean up" phase. They do remove undesirable byproduct such as diacetyl towards the end of fermentation as it's a lower energy food source and increasing temps in lagers speeds this up. Once they run out of food they go dormant.

My suggestion, take a gravity reading you may have hit your fg by now. And if you wish warm it up or just let it sit and take another in 2-3 days.

Good luck.

 

[mrchicken]

Awesome! Thanks for the info.
I was worried that yo-yoing the temps would give off flavors.
Ill just let it ride until I have time to bottle and not worry about it.
Cant wait to get this one in the bottle and ready to taste.