Scared....a black Hefe?

DizzyPants · Jun 19, 2009

I brewed my first batch, a light wheat and it is almost bottle conditioned and really good.

I did my second batch, a hefe, and left it in the primary for ten days and in a secondary carboy for now two weeks. I am scared b/c it looks more black than golden hefe color.

One thing I thought was strange was the recipe from the LHS said to put the grain bags in the brew water and then bring to "almost a boil." Then remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes before removing.

I thought if you got grains over 170ish bad stuff happens.

Any thoughts on a really dark looking hefe in the carboy?

Thanks,
Shawn

Benjibbad · Jun 19, 2009

what grains were you using and what kind of extract? 170F doesn't hurt your steeping grains. If you are mashing your grains then 170F will stop the enzymatic conversion of starch to sugar. But for the steeping grains it won't hurt it unless you scorched them.

enderwig · Jun 19, 2009

Its always lighter in color in the glass, it's much darker looking in a pot or bucket, or carboy. Unless you had roasted barley in there, I would RDWHAHB

HOOTER · Jun 19, 2009

You could extract some tannins if you steep over 170, but many extract kits instruct you to steep grains in this fashion. I even did this a couple times as a noob with no real issues. From now on try to steep around 155. As far as the color is concerned, beer looks alot darker in a carboy. It will likely be darker than a commercial hefe considering it's an extract recipe, but not nearly as dark as it appears now. Try doing a late extract addition and, if possible, a full boil in the future.

FlyingHorse · Jun 19, 2009

First, no reason to secondary a hefeweizen.

Second, what do your hydrometer samples look like? That will be closer to the "true" color of your beer when it hit the glass...

Spludge · Jun 19, 2009

FlyingHorse said:
First, no reason to secondary a hefeweizen.

Yes, this will clear a lot of the haziness and you will lose some of that hefe quality. Most hefes only need 10-14 days primary and then bottle.

As said before the beer will be much lighter when it is out of the carboy, just look at the color in the tube when you siphon out or take a hydro sample.