Hefeweizen going bad after 7 months

[gregoreckbrews]

I brewed a hefeweizen back in July. This beer was never spectacular, but it was a decent, easy drinking hefe. Last night, I opened one that had been sitting in the fridge for a few weeks, and I could immediately tell something was off from the smell. It was slightly sour smelling and almost had a chalkiness to it. The taste was not as bad as the smell. It definitely didn't taste sour and wasn't awful, but it wasn't any good. Actually, it seemed to taste too sweet and no longer had the typical banana flavors associated with the style. I opened a few more bottles to investigate, and they were also all bad. Looks like I should not have left any bottles from this batch sitting around....

Should I be surprised? I know that a hefeweizen is like one of the poster children for beers that should be consumed young, but is 7 months a little quick to start going severely downhill?

 

[homebrewdad]

Going downhill is different than going sour/chalky/gross. I wouldn't be surprised if you mentioned the hop aroma/flavor being gone, or if it just tasted bland... but the symptoms you mention sound like a very slow growin infection/contamination, to me.

 

[Rev2010]

but the symptoms you mention sound like a very slow growin infection/contamination, to me.

A lot of brewers say this, and frankly it drives me a bit nuts, but hefe's are well known to do this. Mine do this too. They just can't go a long time, or at least the homebrewed variety can't. I've never once had an infection and I have many other beers that can sit for many months in the fridge and taste just the same but with hefe's that all goes out the window after a few months, even sitting in the fridge.

I can't explain why but my best guess is the yeast. Typically the yeast in consumer hefe bottles are lager yeasts, not the original hefeweizen yeasts. They separate, possibly even filter (I'm not sure to be honest) the original yeast from the beer and then use lager yeast for bottle conditioning - at least that's how several major German hefe makers do it. I'm thinking they do this to keep the flavor clean and free of change over longer periods.

I could be wrong obviously, and I'm sure some other brewing guru's will chime in to tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about and that their hefe's last forever without changing in taste, but I've made oh so many hefe's and they all do this after a few months. And I never fail to properly sanitize everything.


Rev.

 

[gregoreckbrews]

Thank you for the replies. It is helpful to see that someone else has also experienced this specifically with hefeweizens. I never heard about filtering and bottling hefeweizens with lager yeast. That is really fascinating.

I also kept a mason jar of this hefeweizen yeast that I washed from the primary fermenter. It has been in the fridge for the last 7 months, and I opened it for the first time yesterday. Not quite the same odor as the beer, but it also smelled pretty bad.

 

[solbes]

I don't think anything is wrong with an infection but rather some beers just head downhill after a certain amount of time. I've had this issue with wheats and kolsch's where I found a few 6 month old bottles and was not too impressed.