First attempt at Apricot Wheat Ale

[Rossweiser]

So here's the deal. I've moved to secondary after a very successful primary. Racked on top of the fruit approximately 6 days ago. For the first 6 days I had steady activity in my blowoff (chose a blowoff because of violent fermentation from fruit). I took an SG on Friday (Day 4 of secondary) it read 1.022. The taste was extremely tart (used purée not extract) but the color and other flavors were great. Since taking that SG my fermentation slowed very drastically. I've got nearly zero krausen in the carboy. LHBS owner recommended swirling the carboy. I did and it's been two days since and still almost zero activity.

I'm concerned my fermentation is stalled. I plan on taking another SG read tomorrow evening at the one week mark and planned on fermenting the secondary for approximately 2 weeks before bottling.

Thoughts? Any opinions will be appreciated.


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[sptaylor70]

The appearance of the krausen is not a reliable indicator as to the status of your fermentation. Wait and see what your SG is.

 

[Rossweiser]

sptaylor70,

Thanks for the response. Have you ever brewed a fruit/wheat before and was your taste very tart? It was so tart that my wife didn't find it very pleasant. Any recommendations on how to deal with that?

 

[Ticebain]

Time is the best way to deal with tartness in my opinion. You can use an artificial sweetener like xylitol to sweeten it because yeast can't eat it, but like I said. Time

If it's anything like cider, it will be extremely dry and kind of taste like your base fruit right after fermentation is done. My pair cider is downright bad right after it carbs (bottled with corn sugar). The apple is a little better because your tongue is used to tart apples, but not pears, they should be sweet. Then I waited a year, much more fruit flavor, much more smoothness to the flavor

Not sayin you need to wait a year on a beer, but maybe a bit more than right out of primary. Next time you could mash a little higher too to ensure some more residual sugars to help out the sweetness


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[Rossweiser]

Ticebain,

I appreciate your input. I'm still quite new to brewing (more like brand new, 8 days new...) and don't understand what you mean by "mash a little higher".

Forgive my ignorance.


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[sptaylor70]

I have a friend (who will be opening a brewpub soon) who makes an apricot stout regularly. Like Ticebain says, time and an unfermentable sugar - in my friend's case, he uses lactose.

Mash a little higher = mash at a higher temperature, maybe 2-4 degF. This will give you more unfermentable dextrins, resulting in a richer mouthfeel and less perceived tartness.

 

[Rossweiser]

Ahhhh. Great. I'll put that in my beer log.


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[thebrewquest]

I did a peach hef using puree. FG was 1.019 as opposed to estimated 1.011. It was tart for the 1st 2 weeks after I kegged it and carbed it. It mellowed out nicely and won 2nd place at a brew comp recently. Give it time...

 

[Rossweiser]

Thank you brewquest. Patience is something I'm still working on.


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[Rossweiser]

Took an SG today and it was 1.017. Still rather tart.

 

[Rossweiser]

So this brew was back sweetened just slightly using lactose and bottled about a week and a half ago. It's been resting comfortably in my fridge after reaching good carb levels. It's a huge hit.


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