Gravity Reading Mystery

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Hi all, brand-noob here.

I just started brewing in December (got a kit for xmas) and had 1 successful batch from that. I graduated to a Hefeweizen next and now i'm fermenting a Dunkelweizen. Heres the hitch:

For the Hefe I had high gravity readings before fermentation (1.070 (Recipe calls for 1.053-1.054)). 1Wk in Primary, 2 Wks in Secondary and the gravity was still around 1.030-1.035. Bottled with 1/4 Cup Wheat DME and let sit for 3 weeks. The beer is not exactly flat, but not carbonated very well and will not retain a head. Also noticing a slight ammonia smell. Beer is sweet and VERY banana --y. Hah, I Don't like it. Wondering if I can let this age and maybe it will get better??? If not, i'll donate it to science.

Now I have a Batch of Dunkel in the Secondary for 2 weeks and still at a 1.032. It wont seem to fall below that! Let it sit? Pee in it a little??? haha, i'm kidding, but really, whats the deal? what am I doing? The temp has been Consistently 68F for 3 Weeks!!!
 
Check your hydrometer in water at 60F. I would not be surprised if it reads 1.020 or so.
 
What kind of yeast are you using? If its dry, then it's recommended to rehydrate it. Are you aerating it enough when you pitch the yeast (i.e. shaking the sh*t out of it)? It's a very odd terminal gravity to reach. Most people get stuck on 1.020. I am a noob too so maybe some pro's will chime in.
 
As far as aeration goes, i slosh it in, swirl it around, but take no special effort. The yeast was from a liquid starter pack used in the previous beer (hefe), then cultured in the fridge for a week and pitched to this beer. Im thinking the yeast have just given up due to some missing nutrient or something.
 
The banana taste sounds like high temperature fermentation on the first batch and might have done-in the yeast.
I would get some new yeast and re-pitch this batch to try and save it.
 
Hi all, brand-noob here.

I just started brewing in December (got a kit for xmas) and had 1 successful batch from that. I graduated to a Hefeweizen next and now i'm fermenting a Dunkelweizen. Heres the hitch:

For the Hefe I had high gravity readings before fermentation (1.070 (Recipe calls for 1.053-1.054)). 1Wk in Primary, 2 Wks in Secondary and the gravity was still around 1.030-1.035. Bottled with 1/4 Cup Wheat DME and let sit for 3 weeks. The beer is not exactly flat, but not carbonated very well and will not retain a head. Also noticing a slight ammonia smell. Beer is sweet and VERY banana --y. Hah, I Don't like it. Wondering if I can let this age and maybe it will get better??? If not, i'll donate it to science.

Now I have a Batch of Dunkel in the Secondary for 2 weeks and still at a 1.032. It wont seem to fall below that! Let it sit? Pee in it a little??? haha, i'm kidding, but really, whats the deal? what am I doing? The temp has been Consistently 68F for 3 Weeks!!!

Here are a few suggestions for improving your attenuation:

  1. Pitch sufficient yeast. You need to ensure that you are pitching enough healthy yeast. There are some great references here on HBT on yeast pitch rates and on building and using starters. Yeast Starters - Home Brewing Wiki and Fourteen Essential Questions About Yeast Starters are good places to start.
  2. Aerate your wort well. You don't have to do anything fancy, but you really need to do something. Shake the fermenter one the wort's in it, or use a sanitized wire whisk to whip some air into your cooled wort. There are lots of gadgets out there for aerating wort, and some searching will easily find them.
  3. Give the beer more time in primary. From your post, it sounds like you are following the 1-2-3 guideline. I'm thinking you need to give your beer longer in primary. You don't really want to rack off until the ferment is nearly done. Racking too early leaves lots of yeast behind and can lead to stressed yeast and poor attenuation. Try leaving your beer in the primary for three weeks.
  4. Rouse the yeast. Some strains of yeast seem to need a good wake-up call every few days. I find hefe and wit yeasts especially respond well to occasionally swirling the fermenter to resuspend yeast that may have dropped out of suspension.
  5. Watch your ferment temperatures. Too cold means sluggish fermentations. Too hot means off-flavors.

So, there are a few tweaks you can try in your process. Hopefully, you'll eliminate the "1.020 curse" from your brewhouse.
 
Heres an update for any of you interested. To try and fix my poor attenuation, I pitched another packet of dry yeast and a total of 5 tsp yeast nutrient. After daily swirling and temperature monitoring I dropped 0.002 degrees (in 2 weeks). Frustrated, I put most of the batch in bottles and dumped the rest. Those bottles have been relegated to the back of my closet to bottle condition until a day that I'm really really bored and try one.

But... learning my lessons from this, I ordered a partial mash recipe from Austin Homebrew (American Wheat). I created a stir plate (from instructions on this forum THANK YOU!!!!) and cultured a fat healthy 1.3L of starter from a dry packet. I aerated by shaking my fermentor for exactly 5 minutes. The wheat attenuated from 1.048 to 1.017 in 3 days!!! Primed with coopers drops, and bottled, it was carbonated in 7 days. Only deviations from the recipe were adding 3/4 of the hop bill at the last 15 minutes (tip from Mr. Malty (Mr Malty "The Secret to Big Hop Aroma and Flavor" THANK YOU). I'm drinking one of these great beers even as I type this!!! Time for another one... CHEERS!
 
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought wheat-based beers were best consumed fresh (i.e., won't really get too much better with age). If that's correct, then I think you may already have what you're going to get... Maybe someone with more experience on that issue will chime in...
 
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