Dry hopping

[brittney81895]

Made an all grin weizen and I am not happy with the final product. I think temps were a bit too low causing the abv to be way too low, 3.5%. Instead of dumping it I thought I would experiment. I was think of adding something to the secondary like dry hopping for aroma. Is there a hops that would work with this style beer? Could I add a flavor extract that might turn out to be a decent drinkable beer? Thanks!

 

[kombat]

If a low attenuation were truly due to low fermentation temperatures, you could simply warm the beer up and the yeast will finish. I suspect your poor attenuation is due to other factors (inaccurate measurements, poor efficiency, incomplete conversion, mashing too high, recipe composition, low-attenuating yeast strain). Care to share your recipe and process?

 

[brittney81895]

Recipe all grain biab
5.6 lbs continental Pilsener malt
5.6 lbs wheat malt
Hallertau hops .8 oz 60 mins
Safale yeast s-04

Heated 4 gallons of water to 165 degrees
Added grains for 90 mins 155 degrees
Added hops for 60 mins
Cooled to 70 degrees
Siphoned to carboy topped off to 5 gallons (should have checked gravity at this point)
OG was low at 1.036 (should have been 1.050
Boiled about 3/4 of a pound of light dme
Lhbs is quite a distance so I used what I had, should have added a couple of lbs of sugar too
Added yeast
Fermented at 67 degrees for 1 week - explosive fermentation lasted about 3 days
Gravity reading was 1.008 it is now in secondary, has a great color and the flavor is not bad, drinkable but about 3.5-3.9% abv (Almost tastes watered down) target was 5%

Any suggestions?

 

[frazier]

A few thoughts:

1. The DME you added raised the OG to about 1.043; your ABV is closer to 4.5% as a result.

2. With the beer in secondary, it is way too early to panic regarding mild flavor. After it is bottled and carbonated, it will taste a lot more "lively".

3. Next time - Instead of topping up to 5 gallons using plain water, heat up a second pot with the requisite amount of water, and dunk the grain bag in that. Give it a good stir and soak. I think you are missing out on a lot of sugars in the grains.

4. RDWHAHB. Leave this recipe as is, enjoy it ( it will get better); and make your plans for the next batch.

Cheers!

 

[Kharnynb]

agreeing with @frazier with the sparge dunk, also, what kind of crush are you getting? you could even ask your lhbs to double mill it if needed.

 

[brittney81895]

A few thoughts:

1. The DME you added raised the OG to about 1.043; your ABV is closer to 4.5% as a result.

2. With the beer in secondary, it is way too early to panic regarding mild flavor. After it is bottled and carbonated, it will taste a lot more "lively".

3. Next time - Instead of topping up to 5 gallons using plain water, heat up a second pot with the requisite amount of water, and dunk the grain bag in that. Give it a good stir and soak. I think you are missing out on a lot of sugars in the grains.

4. RDWHAHB. Leave this recipe as is, enjoy it ( it will get better); and make your plans for the next batch.

Cheers!

Thanks! I was going to try adding fruit and seeing what comes of it, but maybe I will just leave it a bit longer in secondary and see what comes of it!