Hefeweizen

[bod]

well, buy the tyime i get round to bottling/kegging it, its going to have been two weeks in the primary. i left one of my kegs at a friends after a party and my other one is full.

[Calum]

I've just spent the evening washing out 50 odd bottles for the Hefe. As jobs in this hobby go I think that must be the most tedious (especially the ones with the dried in yeast from the last time).

I just checked and it is down to 1017 which means it doesn't have too far to go before I bottle (I'm hoping to do it on Wednesday so heres hoping its down to 1010/1012 by then). I had a quick taste of the beer (well we all do don't we) and it tastes right on track.

I have a question on bottle conditioning of the Hefe. This is the first beer I have made where I want quite a lot of CO2. Given that I'll probably have around 22litres to bottle, how much sugar should I use to prime to get that classic Hefeweizen look when poured

[mysterio]

Calum, cornelius kegs are the antidote to all that bottling palaver.

There are other bottle priming calcs but this is the one i have bookmarked (remember it's in US gallons so adjust accordingly) :

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

I think the standard Hefe carbonation is 3 volumes. I used this in my last hefe and I liked it.

[Calum]

thanks mysterio - good link.

I have to admit that I like having the bottles. It also means that my dad and father in law can pinch a few when they pop round. This in turn gives an excuse to make some more beer. On top of that my only cornie is full of my Directors (which is also very very nice).

It looks like I need around 8oz of sugar for this.

[Calum]

whoops, I forgot to change for US v UK gallon. Its actually around 9.7oz.

[Calum]

Fermentation has slowed down dramatically over the last couple of days.

It had only come down from 1017 to 1014 in two days when I checked yesterday. I think the Brewferm Blanche yeast has an attentuation rate of 71%-75% so this gives me a target of approximately 1012.5-1014.5 from a 1050 OG.

I'll check tonight and if the OG is fairly static I'm going to get it in the bottles.

Its definitely going to be a White Christmas in my house this year.

[Andy]

Stats for my Hefe:-

OG 1051
FG 1013

Took quite a few days to drop the last few gravity points. I also used Brewferm Blanche.

[Calum]

Thanks Andy. I initially thought I would get to 1010 but the last couple of days made me doubt that.

I'm going to give my "Little Bottler" its first outing tonight.

[Andy]

It likes to be carbed DaaB so give it plenty of gas when you get it in the cornie

[Seveneer]

How's it looking today, DaaB? I'm guessing you probably need not worry about not having that extra pack of yeast

/Phil.

[Andy]

start shouting at it DaaB or wave a bottle of sanitiser at it, that should stress it.

[steve_flack]

I'm not sure about 'sprinkling Safale or Gervin for other brews, I think I prefer to make a starter on the day, i've just got to weigh in the 'faff' factor

From what I've read, making a starter of Safale, Nottingham etc does more harm than good. The yeasts come in the packet with good reserves of lipids etc in the cells and making a starter just means they use them up so they're more knackered when you actually use them in your beer. Most of the dried yeast companies recommend simple rehydration at the correct temperature in sterile water (not distilled).

[steve_flack]

I think one of the problems is that when dried yeast is first rehydrated it can't control what crosses the cell walls so being plunged into a sugar rich solution full of hops extracts probably isn't a good idea for the cell. That's also why they say not to distilled water as then the problem is the cell contents head the other way out of the cell into the water though osmosis.

But if it works for you....

[Calum]

I got mine all bottled last night. I now have 43 bottles of Hefe sitting in boxes in the corner of the kitchen. If they behave themselves and my wife doesn't trip over them I leave them for a few days and then take them out the garage.

I had a about a half pint left over last night so I poured into a glass with a couple of ice cubes to cool it down and drank it. It was actually very nice and refreshing for a beer straight out the bucket.

[Seveneer]

You can't beat a hefe fermentation for drama