So... I finally came up with a question I couldn't really find a general consensus on in any other forum, first post here so bear with me. Brewed American Honey Wheat recipe 10 days ago, and I'm torn on whether it's close to ready to bottle (I'll post recipe and schedule below). If this were anything but a wheat, I'd embrace the RDWHAHB philosophy and let it sit in primary longer, but there seems to be debate on whether that's a good idea for wheat beers.
5 gal extract OG 1.058 with Wyeast 1010 smack pack, took over 36 hours to take off, but by 48 hours had to replace the airlock with blow off as it was going crazy even with fermometer reading 64 F. Strong sulphur odors first few days but that subsided and I'm not detecting any hint when opening the fermenter for hydro readings. I've had SG reading at 1.010 for three days in a row, so a lot of advice on wheat beers indicate this would be about ready to bottle. However, I still have relatively high airlock activity and a thick krausen.
For wheats, some folks on here and other forums say go off the hydro readings and bottle as soon as it's steady as this style is meant to be packaged and consumed young (just keep the siphon between the trub and the krausen layers). Others say: let it ride for awhile, cold crash, scrape the krausen off the top with a sanitized spoon? Lot of different directions for this one that "take a gravity reading", "leave it in primary", or RDWHAHB don't really address.
I'm very interested in hearing what some folks with more wheat experience would do in this instance, and what impact that route might have on finished product.
Recipe:
1 lb cara-pils & 1/2 lb honey malt (steeped 30 minutes at 155-160 range)
1 oz Saaz pellets (3.8% - 60 min)
3 lbs wheat DME (45 min)
3 lbs wheat DME (15 min)
1 oz Saaz pellets (3.8% - 15 min)
1 lb raw clover honey at flameout
6.75 Gal pre-boil volume
Thank you for taking the time read my first post and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
5 gal extract OG 1.058 with Wyeast 1010 smack pack, took over 36 hours to take off, but by 48 hours had to replace the airlock with blow off as it was going crazy even with fermometer reading 64 F. Strong sulphur odors first few days but that subsided and I'm not detecting any hint when opening the fermenter for hydro readings. I've had SG reading at 1.010 for three days in a row, so a lot of advice on wheat beers indicate this would be about ready to bottle. However, I still have relatively high airlock activity and a thick krausen.
For wheats, some folks on here and other forums say go off the hydro readings and bottle as soon as it's steady as this style is meant to be packaged and consumed young (just keep the siphon between the trub and the krausen layers). Others say: let it ride for awhile, cold crash, scrape the krausen off the top with a sanitized spoon? Lot of different directions for this one that "take a gravity reading", "leave it in primary", or RDWHAHB don't really address.
I'm very interested in hearing what some folks with more wheat experience would do in this instance, and what impact that route might have on finished product.
Recipe:
1 lb cara-pils & 1/2 lb honey malt (steeped 30 minutes at 155-160 range)
1 oz Saaz pellets (3.8% - 60 min)
3 lbs wheat DME (45 min)
3 lbs wheat DME (15 min)
1 oz Saaz pellets (3.8% - 15 min)
1 lb raw clover honey at flameout
6.75 Gal pre-boil volume
Thank you for taking the time read my first post and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
