BigdogMark
Well-Known Member
I have brewed the AHS Miami Weiss Ale all-grain a couple of times and both times have had significant problems with yeast clumps and other nastiness that doesn't settle out in the fermenting bucket. When I go to transfer, either from the bottling spigot in the buckets or from an auto-siphon, I get a lot of grey sludge looking stuff coming through the hose. When I used the siphon, it happened while pulling from the mid depth of the bucket, nowhere near the usual cake at the bottom or the stuff that sometimes floats on the top. That tells me stuff is floating around in the brew. The beer had been in the fermenter 14 days and achieved the final gravity 10.012 in 8 days. It started at 10.50 and I used the Whitelabs American Hefeweizen Ale #320 yeast. While transferring, I also noted a lot of bubbles in the line and the filter which has a clear housing. I purged the filter of air when starting the transfer, and after a couple of gallons a pocket of gas has built up in the filter that I suspect is CO2. When we take gravity readings of the beer in the fermenter I see a lot of bubbles in the thief as well.
With the first batch I wound up losing ten or so glasses while trying to clear the beer. That was painful. On my second batch I filtered the beer during the transfer using a 30 micron pleated filter. That was working great for the the first couple of gallons until the filter clogged up from the gunk. I had to stop, clean the filter, sanitize, then continue. Even after the filtering I did find a bit of gunk in the keg that came out in each glass and noticeably affected the flavor of the beer as I got closer to the bottom of the glass. I resolved that problem temporarily by cutting off about one inch from the dip tube in my keg. Now the beer pours cloudy as expected from a hefe, but without any residual stuff in the bottom of the glass or funky flavors. I am planning to decant the beer off to another keg to get the beer off the gunk.
I did use Irish moss as always in the boils. I haven't used gelatin in the fermenter as this is a hefe and cloudiness is expected. I have brewed other hefe's with the WL #300 yeast with no problems at all. I also have great luck with the WL #001 in blonde and pale ales.
Any ideas on what could be going wrong?
With the first batch I wound up losing ten or so glasses while trying to clear the beer. That was painful. On my second batch I filtered the beer during the transfer using a 30 micron pleated filter. That was working great for the the first couple of gallons until the filter clogged up from the gunk. I had to stop, clean the filter, sanitize, then continue. Even after the filtering I did find a bit of gunk in the keg that came out in each glass and noticeably affected the flavor of the beer as I got closer to the bottom of the glass. I resolved that problem temporarily by cutting off about one inch from the dip tube in my keg. Now the beer pours cloudy as expected from a hefe, but without any residual stuff in the bottom of the glass or funky flavors. I am planning to decant the beer off to another keg to get the beer off the gunk.
I did use Irish moss as always in the boils. I haven't used gelatin in the fermenter as this is a hefe and cloudiness is expected. I have brewed other hefe's with the WL #300 yeast with no problems at all. I also have great luck with the WL #001 in blonde and pale ales.
Any ideas on what could be going wrong?