Fermentation Questions - wlp300

[Nwalesmith]

All, I have a hefeweizen fermenting right now and have some questions. To set the stage, here is my situation:

- fermenting in a blichmann 27gal conical / 20 gallons of beer
- pitched at 64/65 and let the temp raise to 68
- I use an oxygen stone before I pitch so my fermentations usual happen very quickly and knock out after only a couple of days
- fermentation is complete
- my normal process is to cold crash the beer (the conicals are inside standing freezers) to drop the yeast out of suspension, then move to secondary to condition before kegging (or dry hopping, etc). I normally start the cold crash after 7 days and this process has served me well with the IPAs and Porters that I normally brew

So here is my question,,,I have been reading a lot about wlp300 and the fact that folks let their beer sit on the yeast for a week or more after fermentation is complete to let it 'clean up the beer'. What do I risk if I follow my normal process? Do I risk introducing bad flavors into the beer if I let it sit too long? I am looking for guidance from folks the have used this yeast in the past.

Thanks!!!

 

[michael.berta]

No. if your yeast was healthy to begin with an extra week is fine. If you are worried about it that much (and since you have a concial fermenter) you could drop the yeast from the conical once primary fermention is complete and condition there. No need for a secondary fermenter either. Primary > crash cool > keg works well for most people.

 

[TarheelBrew13]

I have used this yeast but your question doesn't seem all that specific to this particular yeast. At 20 gallons your still not brewing large batches, at least not in the sense of commercial brewing. So, the practices of home brewing and the properties of yeast on the home brewing scale are still applicable.

You would have to leave that beer on the yeast cake for a very long time before you began to have off flavors as a result. I would estimate over a month at least. I leave my hefe's in primary between 2-3 weeks with no I'll effects and I ferment warmer than you which should speed up those effects.

When your beer is done its done. After you hit terminal gravity, I wait about 2 days and then it's ready to bottle. Contrary to homebrewtalk dogma, the yeast don't do much after that. While aging will certainly change the beer, it's not the result of the yeast. However, everyones system is different and my advice is to draw a sample after terminal gravity and evaluate it. If you feel its not ready, give it a few days and try again.

 

[sivdrinks]

Just did a Hefe last night and a Wit about a month ago. I did a secondary on the Wit and I believe it was a mistake, taste is just ok but it looks terrible. I think it dropped too much yeast while it sat conditioning. I'm going to the keg after 10 days on the Hefe, not gonna crash for fear of losing all that yeast flavor. I'm still a bit knew so any input would be appreciated.