Wyeast 3068 off-flavors, 81% attenuation?

[luckybeagle]

I brewed my go-to Hefeweizen recipe (recipe: https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-weissbier/) via all grain on my eherms system - 10.5 gallon batch.

I did NOT do a step nor a decoction mash this time, and instead opted for melanoidin malt, as usual. Grains were mashed at 152F and recirculated the entire time.

I did not aerate the wort and simply pitched 1 packet of WY3068 per carboy at 64F. My OG was 13 brix (1.053), which was my goal. I realize one packet is an underpitch, but I really wanted to tease out some clove flavors by stressing the yeast.

I've made this one too "clean" before with starters and aeration, but have had good luck with the no-aerate, no starter approach in the past. However, I'm wondering if I stressed the yeast out too much. I held 64F for 2 days, then bumped to 66 after I noticed it wasn't fermenting as vigorously as it has in the past with this recipe.

I dug the WY3068 packets out of the trash and looked at the manufacture date: December 15, 2019 (~3 months old). Currently I have a medium-sized head of krausen in each carboy and they're coming in at 6.6 brix (1.010, or 81% apparent attenuation). This is only day 6 of fermentation, so naturally I'm smelling/tasting some sulphur, but the flavor itself is quite sour. I don't recall this occurring the other 4 or 5 times I've brewed this one. Being stuck at home I'm probably obsessing over my apocalypse beer a little more than I normally would.

Based on my numbers and process, yeast dates, where I'm at in fermentation etc, do you think the beer is trash or likely to "right" itself with more time in the carboy? Should I bump to 70F to try to encourage the yeast to clean up their crap or...?

Many thanks.

 

[rburrelli]

RDWHAHB. Sounds like things are on track to me. I think your attempts at underpitching are doing their thing and time will settle things out. Maybe raise the temp as suggested.

 

[luckybeagle]

RDWHAHB. Sounds like things are on track to me. I think your attempts at underpitching are doing their thing and time will settle things out. Maybe raise the temp as suggested.

Haha, yesss, I did just that after reading your post. Today, I bumped the temp to 71F and took another sample. Tons of sulphur now, but the sourness has subsided. Not exactly palatable yet, but clearly becoming a hef. I'll check it again in a few days and will see where I'm at. From what I can recall, I've bottled with carboy samples tasting somewhat like this before and was amazed to see all sulphur disappear during bottle conditioning. Since this batch is going in the keg, I think I'll play it safe and wait for all sulphur "essence" to be gone before racking.