wheat beers fermentation/bottling

[ninkasi2012]

I'm making my first wheat beer 50% pale wheat/25% pilsner/25%munich...that is slightly hoppy.
I was told with brewing wheat beers that u need to bottle after visible fermentation has stopped (3-4 days) and no priming sugar is needed....I'm guessing u do this to get the yeast flavors in the beer.

Is this correct ?

Also I'm wondering if it is true when/how would I dry hop this ?

 

[AmandaK]

IDK who told you that, but it does sound like an excellent way to get bottle bombs if you don't know what you're doing.

Bottle it like any other beer. If you want the "yeast flavors"... well, I'm not really sure if you mean you want it cloudy or if you really want this hoppy soup to be 'mit hefe'. Please clarify.

Dry hop like any other beer. Transfer to secondary (only AFTER you take a gravity reading to confirm that you are done fermenting, please) and dry hop. Simple.

 

[TyTanium]

I'm with AmandaK...that's some bad advice. Not worth the risk.

Let it finish, then prime as usual. The suspended yeast is not from bottling early, it's from yeast that stays in suspension longer than most other strains.

 

[sweetcell]

i would skip secondary and dry-hop directly in primary, after fermentation is done. secondary will only reduce how much yeast you have in suspension - not that this will be a big deal, since there will be plenty in suspension regardless. wheat beer yeast is not very flocculent so it stays in suspension a lot better/longer than other yeasts.

 

[ninkasi2012]

ah...thanks guys for the clarification. i thought this advice was a bit dodgy and when searching online there was nothing to back this up! one more question - if i want to get some foam should i add some flaked barley or will the protein in the wheat give me a foamy head?

 

[DPBISME]

Most of the wheat beers I brew are to be consumed "young" (low ABV and low hops).

They ferment for a minimun of 14 days... then priming suger and bottled or kegged.

Like the other folks said your information is WRONG,,, let the fermentation Primary and Conditioning Phases complete before you bottle.

DPB

 

[TyTanium]

Wheat + higher-than-normal carbonation = PLENTY of foam

 

[sweetcell]

Wheat + higher-than-normal carbonation = PLENTY of foam

yup. wheat has more protein than barley, so more foam. in fact i sometimes add 5% wheat to my "non-wheat" beers for the sole purpose of getting better foam. so no need for flaked barley.