Wheat beer timing

[sundown1]

This was my first brew. I wanted to drink it out of a keg for the 4th of July party. I know this is too quick but it is what it is. I pitched the yeast 7 days ago. It fermented quickly with no new bubbles out of the airlock for 24 hours. I have 4 more days. Do I keg it now and force carbonate or wait for several more days and force carbonate? or will it be terrible?

 

[Douglefish]

I made a wheat beer about the same day a couple of days earlier than you did, and mine is done. You shouldn't have any problem so long as you pitched the right amount of yeast and kept the temp under control. I tasted mine at 9 days it was ready to go. Taste it and if there aren't off flavors keg and drink!!!

 

[bknifefight]

Your beer is probably done fermenting and you COULD keg it soon (as long as you check with your hydrometer and make sure it is done) BUT people generally feel that three weeks in the primary is a minimum. Hefe's generally are good when they are really fresh but I think this is too soon. If you can confirm it is done fermenting and have time to force carb it, then you will have a good beer BUT with a little more time you will end up with a better beer!

 

[sundown1]

What type of off flavors. Should it taste like flat beer?

 

[Douglefish]

What kind of wheat beer and what yeast? The most common would probably be DMS (Cooked Corn). If it tastes good I say keg it! I don't fully understand the 3 weeks in primary stuff. I'm no expert brewer by any stretch of the imagination, but what does 3 weeks in primary give you when fermentation is done in a matter of days?

If you pitch the right amount of yeast and control temps ...

Fermentation - 5-7 days ???
Yeast Cleanup Off Flavors - 2 days ???
Cold Crash / Clearing Time - 2 days, depending on temperature
Keg?

 

[edecambra]

At risk of seeming way too fresh, I am going to quote Charlie Papazian:

"The purpose of two-stage fermentation should be to isolate the beer from prolonged contact with an inordinate amount of inactive yeast cells. For the homebrewer, this is a matter of concern only if you plan to ferment your beer over 2 or 3 weeks, because after this period of time the spent yeast will begin to break down and may impart a degree of off flavors to your beer. But remember: there is really no advantage in keeping your beer sitting around for over 3 weeks unless you are brewing at cold temperatures and with quality lager yeast."-Charlie Papazian-

sorry for the long quote. I am new at this and I have a thread where I am getting these suggestions to let it sit in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks to a month. I am not arguing with more experienced brewers, but I am getting mixed signals.

 

[edecambra]

...By the way, Charlie states that the yeast will begin to eat itself without the presence of sugars, which is what contributes to the off flavors.

 

[Revvy]

...By the way, Charlie states that the yeast will begin to eat itself without the presence of sugars, which is what contributes to the off flavors.

That book, as good as the basic info is, is 30 years old don't forget. There has been a lot of change in the homebrewing community, especially over the last few years.

There's been a big shift in brewing consciousness in the last few years where many of us believe that yeast is a good thing, and besides just fermenting the beer, that they are fastidious creatures who go back and clean up any by products created by themselves during fermentation, which may lead to off flavors.

Rather than the yeast being the cause of off flavors, it is now looked at by many of us, that they will if left alone actually remove those off flavors, and make for clearer and cleaner tasting beers.

You'll fine that a great many folks, maybe even the majority on here these days, leave their beers in primart for 3-4 weeks, skipping secondary.

Even John Palmer talks about this in How To Bew;

Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring. And, three weeks in the primary fermentor is usually not enough time for off-flavors to occur.

John Palmer

As a final note on this subject, I should mention that by brewing with healthy yeast in a well-prepared wort, many experienced brewers, myself included, have been able to leave a beer in the primary fermenter for several months without any evidence of autolysis.

People have left it as much as six months. Autolysis is a myth for homebrewers.

Even when Palmer is talking about it, he's talking about it in terms of LAGERS not ales. Most people get so freaked out about in reading Palmer, that they don't notice it is in the Lager chapter, nor do they notice the caveat at the end of the section that I posted above.

I still believe that POSSIBLY autolysis WAS a concern to homebrewers 20-30 years ago, when the yeast came in dry cakes, of dubious heritage and came across from where homebrewing was legalized in the hot cargo holds of ships and may have sat for months in terrible conditioned...In other words was unhealthy to begin with.

And therefore may have crapped out and made for nastiness, (and also was prone to stick fermentation as well.) and tales of it just continued to perpetuate over time, even though yeasts are much more healthy and fresh, and more is understood about them nowaday....people gravitate to the negative and fear and still perpetuate those worries...over and over and over....

But you have to realize that modern yeast is fresher and healthier than the old cakes that traveled halfway around the globe.

And I still maintain that as much as I like Palmer, he contributed to the hysteria.....I mean noone but me seems to notice that that section on the scary autolysis appears in the chapter on lagering. He is not talking about it with ales...or beers in general..just lagers..because flaws are more perceptable in lagers...since in essence most commercial lagers are tasteless...anything would stand out..

and I think most new brewers have crapped themselves at the mere thought long before the notice the closer to the section I mentioned earlier.

This is where the most up to date brewing wisdom and ideas can be found...In fact a lot of stuff has been started on here, and made it into byo or zymurgy or podcasts...in fact BYO DID a piece on no secondary/long primary, along with the BASIC BREWING PODCAST and even they said that there were no issues/harm with doing it and in some beers it did actually improve the flavor and clarity. And I believe that really WAS influenced by the discussion we have had for the last couple years on here.

Now many of us leave our beer in primary for a month. Been doing it for years. The rest of the HB community is starting to catch up. And that's why it appears that we're starting to see it in magazines now.

Read this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

 

[sundown1]

This is an incredible site. I appreciate the different opinions. We will see what happens. I used 6lbs wheat extract, 3lbs amber extract, 1lb honey and boiled 60min. I then added puree of 1 pineapple & 5 mangoes and cooled the wort. I strained into the primary, cooled and pitched 2 packets Safbrew WB-06 yeast. My starting gravity was 1.06. It started to ferment bubbles into the airlock 3 hrs later with strong fermenting bubbles between 12-24 hrs and tappering off to no bubbles after 96 hours.

 

[ksbrain]

You'll be fine. Keg and quick carb (high pressure and shake method) and you'll be good. Just make sure you give it a few days to get cold.

Makes me wish I had a week-old wheat to quickly put on tap.

 

[rockfish42]

I'd keg it and give it some time cold conditioning, assuming a sample didn't have any gross defects.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I'd let it condition in the primary as long as possible and then force carb to be ready on the fourth.