Secondary for Hefeweizen?

[dkwolf]

I've read several posts here (and elsewhere) that all state you don't need to do a secondary for a hefeweizen, but I'm kind of wondering if that might be advantageous in my current situation.

Background: "New" homebrewer, first batch was a year and a half ago and hadn't had time to start a second one since. Made several mistakes with the first batch, but it still turned out okay. For instance, didn't know much about trub and racked to my primary fermenter before the wort had cooled... bringing all the suspended crap with it. Which of course, settled out in the fermenter. Beer still turned out drinkable, but had definitely had some clarity issues that would have been better had I let the wort cool and settle first. (This is one area ingredient kits could improve a LOT, they make no mention of minimizing this)

Like I said, beer still turned out drinkable, and I would say fairly decent for my first attempt at homebrewing.

Fast forward to today. Did the boil for my second batch yesterday (Bavarian Hefe) Cooled the wort by immersing the kettle in a rubbermaid tote full of cool water. Since I was doing a partial boil, and knew I had 2.5 gallons of fresh, coolish water (~70°) in the fermenter already, I let the wort cool to around 110°, knowing that mixing the two volumes would yield me a finished volume at about the right temperature to pitch the yeast. Let the boil kettle sit for a few minutes, and then started siphoning. Noticed that there was still more sediment moving through the hose than I would have liked - but was pleased with the volume that got left behind in the kettle.

So, long story short, the beer is happily bubbling away in my basement right now in the primary bucket - I was actually impressed with how fast fermentation took off. I'm still slightly concerned that there's too much crap sitting at the bottom of the fermenter now, so I'm wondering if racking into a secondary in the next day or two (day 3-4 of fermentation) would be a good idea to avoid any 'off' flavors from the sediments.

Thoughts?

 

[gandalfiii]

Personally, I wouldn't bother. Just siphon carefully into the bottling bucket when it's time. Since it's a hefe, I certainly wouldn't worry too much about clarity.

 

[unionrdr]

wheat beers usually go pretty quick,so a secondary really isn't needed. Just leave it in primary till it settles out a bit misty. Wheat beers are typically that way.

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

I would not secondary a hefeweizen. After all, if you settle out too much yeast it will not be a hefeweizen, just a weizen.

 

[lumpher]

as mike says, it's just wrong to secondary a hefe. i make mine, ferment for 10-11 days, keg, carb, and drink. 1 of the main character traits of a hefe is the yeast taste

 

[dkwolf]

I suppose I should clarify, I'm not real concerned about the yeast - I realize that's a desired part of the hefe flavor profile, it's the other...stuff that came along. Chunks o' hops, etc. Wasn't sure if that would be a Bad Thing or not to worry about it. From the responses so far, sounds like don't worry about it, start checking FG next weekend, and go from there.

I have to say, I'm impressed with the activity on this site - I had kind of lurked around for a while every now and then, but these are my first posts here. I didn't expect a response - or as many responses as quickly as it has been. I think I'm going to learn a lot here (just poking around today I found answers to a couple other questions I had been wondering about)

 

[LLBeanJ]

Some folks strain or whirlpool their wort going into primary, some folks dump it all. I've done both (strain vs. dump) and either way yields good, clear beer. Seems to be purely personal preference. Usually, I just dump it all in unless I'm planning on reusing the yeast cake for another batch (not washing, just pitching straight slurry), in which case I'll strain, but even then straining only catches the hops and lets all the break material through. Bottom line is don't worry about it. It'll all settle (most in the fermenter, the rest in the bottle/keg) by the time you have chilled beer ready to drink.

 

[brycelarson]

I like to transfer some of the good from the boil - there's stuff in there that they yeast like to eat. Let it sit in the primary and it'll settle out - just take care when you're racking to your bottling bucket / keg to leave it in the fermenter. It won't effect the flavor of the beer.

 

[drlars]

Just returning to the hobby, myself, but I have a couple of thoughts:

1.) I concur on not necessarily needing a secondary, especially for a hefe. I personally like the taste of the suspended yeast, and for a hefe thats intrinsic to the style. Right now, I am planning on doing a secondary only if I have some real risk of particulate issues (e.g. adding fruit or other similar stuff to the primary).

2.) Having said that, I also like hops but I don't necessarily want chunks of them floating in my finished beer, either. Four tips here:
a.) I did try to manually remove some of the 'hot break' from by wort towards the end of the boil. It looked like it mostly consisted of hop pellet debris.
b.) Are you straining your partial-boil wort as you are dumping it into the fermenter? Although some stuff does get through, my strainer was able to get most of my hop pellets. I'm sure you could also rig up some double-straining mechanism as well, if you wanted to really get into it.
c.) My biggest suggestion is to let it ferment LONGER before bottling. I know it sucks to wait, but honestly I don't think I would bottle before 4 weeks total fermentation in any event (unless it was a really low gravity brew). Its an alcoholic liquid in a closed system, and can stand to wait at least that long. Basically, more time = more sedimentation.
d.) you hear some guys on here talking about 'cold-crashing'... well, with my first I did a modified version of this (basically, just moved the fermenter down to the basement from my first floor for the last week of fermentation). Don't know if this works or not, but seemed to make sense to me.

3.) think about maybe adding some fining. My local home brew supply store was out of irish moss, so I bought some Whirlfloc tabs instead (which are made from Irish moss), and it was pretty easy to drop one of those in the final 15 min of the boil. Admittedly I don't have any non-Whirlfloc beer to compare it to, though.