oms1981
Scum
Tonight I took a sample of my first batch for a gravity reading. It is a hefeweizen. I brewed it up 9 days ago. In the last few days airlock activity has slowed to a crawl so I decided it might not be a bad idea to take periodic readings to see if its winding down.
I took off the stopper and siphoned out my little sample. It smells very much like haacker pschor (sp?) which I was just drinking at the bar about an hour earlier so the smell was still fresh in my mind. I assumed this was a good sign. I took my reading and drank the sample. The flavor is decent but it is VERY light, like almost watery. It smells a lot stronger than it tastes.
Some details:
I used a 3.75 lbs can of Coopers Brewmaster Selection Wheat Beer, and 1 lbs Muntons Light DME boiled in 1.5 gal water for 30 min. Poured 3 gal cold water into carboy and added the wort. Topped off the headspace with cold water to bring it right around 5 gal. Shook the crap out of it. The temp was at 105 F. I put the carboy in the tub full of cold water. When it was at ~76 degrees F I shook again and pitched the yeast. It was White Labs WLP300 Hefe Yeast. I didn't use a starter and the fermentation started slow, about 32 hours. It fermented very vigorously for about 30 hours, and now after 9 days it is bubbling every 40-60 sec. Still some tiny bubbles coming up the inside glass, so its still doing something. The sample was taken off the very top, only put the hose in about an inch or so.
I'm fairly unhappy with the light flavor, I was hoping for a heavier wheat beer. But since its my very first attempt I'm not terribly concerned. Does anyone have any idea why it smells so good and tastes so watery? Does the fact that I skimmed right off the top have any affect?
I took off the stopper and siphoned out my little sample. It smells very much like haacker pschor (sp?) which I was just drinking at the bar about an hour earlier so the smell was still fresh in my mind. I assumed this was a good sign. I took my reading and drank the sample. The flavor is decent but it is VERY light, like almost watery. It smells a lot stronger than it tastes.
Some details:
I used a 3.75 lbs can of Coopers Brewmaster Selection Wheat Beer, and 1 lbs Muntons Light DME boiled in 1.5 gal water for 30 min. Poured 3 gal cold water into carboy and added the wort. Topped off the headspace with cold water to bring it right around 5 gal. Shook the crap out of it. The temp was at 105 F. I put the carboy in the tub full of cold water. When it was at ~76 degrees F I shook again and pitched the yeast. It was White Labs WLP300 Hefe Yeast. I didn't use a starter and the fermentation started slow, about 32 hours. It fermented very vigorously for about 30 hours, and now after 9 days it is bubbling every 40-60 sec. Still some tiny bubbles coming up the inside glass, so its still doing something. The sample was taken off the very top, only put the hose in about an inch or so.
I'm fairly unhappy with the light flavor, I was hoping for a heavier wheat beer. But since its my very first attempt I'm not terribly concerned. Does anyone have any idea why it smells so good and tastes so watery? Does the fact that I skimmed right off the top have any affect?