Wheat Beer Extract fermentation question

[RhinoDon81]

Hi-

so, I am currently fermenting a 5 gal. batch of american wheat, from extract. I try my best to follow the instructions that they give with the kits, however with the little bit of experience that I have and the amount of time that I spend on here, I have come up with simple solutions to some of the red flags that they suggest doing.

for example, the kit provided Monton's ale yeast, and because I have had little to no success fermenting with that below 1.020, I decided to go with a SAF Wheat beer yeast ( I think that was the brand name) anyway, normally with beer the fermentation will only last 3-4 days, maybe a week, tops, however this brew has been fermenting for 17 days, and when I checked it last night the bubbler was going off about ever 35 seconds. I know that with wheat beer, you want to drink it young, so I want to get this into bottles to condition, however I don't want bottle bombs.

it is fermenting in my basement brew chamber which holds constant right around 59-61 degrees.

the og was 1.050, and the kit said that the fg should be around 1.014, however it seems like it will be lower due to the amount of fermentation taking place

has anyone experienced anything like this? and did the final product turn out ok?

thanks for the help!

 

[starrfish]

Basement temps are slowing you down some, your working on the low side of Safale WB-06. not a problem just let it ride, at those temps you'll have a cleaner wheat with low clove, and little to no banana, similar to an cleaner american wheat. Good dry Wheat beer yeast. I tend to use it in my fruit wheats, with strawberries, raspberries, or peaches.

When those fruits are in season I'm usually fermenting on the hot side or higher.

A buddy in pa did a american wheat on the low side and liked results. He did notice longer ferm time too.

I need to check my notes but I think I got my last fruit wheat down to 1.010 with hot ferm, and 5lbs of fresh strawberries (sugars in fresh strawberries could have dried this beer out) as strawberry was minimal.

 

[RhinoDon81]

Thanks! I appreciate the help, I figured that everything was going fine, just wanted a little reassurance!

 

[Toy4Rick]

I just bottled a Hef using WLP300, it fermented for 19 days and finished at 1.010, started at 1.048. Low temp, slow ferment and longer means cleaner beer IMO. I am super happy with the results I am getting with this approach.

Have fun and enjoy
Toy4Rick

 

[Toy4Rick]

Oh yea, drinking young means you can start drinking once it's carb'd up. Other beers might need to condition for many more weeks or even months. My Hef tastes the best at 4-5 weeks in the bottle but still tastes great months later as well.

Toy4Rick