Lindsay Dive
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 25/3/03
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I recently made a Hefeweizen (all grain) using Whitelabs WLP300 which is my favourite wheat yeast.
Everything was quite normal until those really hot days hit Sydney a couple of weeks ago. I was fermenting the beer in my garage with wet towels around the fermenters (2 x 25 litres in 30 litre fermenters) as I like to keep the temperature at about 20 - 22 degrees. I have found in the past that this temperature tends to give you just the right amount of nice banana esters. Well, when the weather went troppo so did the yeast. It completely filled the head space in the fermenters and I was forced into removing the lids so I could clean and sterilize them, and whilst I had the lids off I skimmed the yeast off the beer with a sterilized spoon. I carried out this procedure about three times until the yeast had settled down.
I kegged this beer on Monday and force carbonated it overnight. I drank some of the beer last night and it has obsoletely NO banana esters at all. Extremely bland. The beer looks marvellous and has a long lasting creamy white head.
This has made me think that the banana esters must stay with the yeast and must be passed on after the yeast falls back through the finished beer. I'm certainly not a brewing chemist and I have really no idea of what's gone wrong other than the beer getting too warm and me skimming off the yeast. Any ideas?
I have made some great Hefeweizens in the past, but this one is not even near the ball park. Dont get me wrong, the beer has great mouth feel and body, its got no off odours or flavours, but its just lacking that nice aroma you get as you lift a nice Hefeweizen beer to your mouth
I thought I would pass this onto you folks as the hot weather is about to hit us and it could prevent you from buggering up your favourite Hefeweizen.
I was passing on this information to a friend of mine last night and he simply said, Why didnt you turn on the Air-conditioning and set it to 22 degrees and put the fermenters in the lounge room? I wont repeat what I said, but I bloody well know what Ill be doing when I make the next Hefeweizen.
Regards,
Lindsay.
Everything was quite normal until those really hot days hit Sydney a couple of weeks ago. I was fermenting the beer in my garage with wet towels around the fermenters (2 x 25 litres in 30 litre fermenters) as I like to keep the temperature at about 20 - 22 degrees. I have found in the past that this temperature tends to give you just the right amount of nice banana esters. Well, when the weather went troppo so did the yeast. It completely filled the head space in the fermenters and I was forced into removing the lids so I could clean and sterilize them, and whilst I had the lids off I skimmed the yeast off the beer with a sterilized spoon. I carried out this procedure about three times until the yeast had settled down.
I kegged this beer on Monday and force carbonated it overnight. I drank some of the beer last night and it has obsoletely NO banana esters at all. Extremely bland. The beer looks marvellous and has a long lasting creamy white head.
This has made me think that the banana esters must stay with the yeast and must be passed on after the yeast falls back through the finished beer. I'm certainly not a brewing chemist and I have really no idea of what's gone wrong other than the beer getting too warm and me skimming off the yeast. Any ideas?
I have made some great Hefeweizens in the past, but this one is not even near the ball park. Dont get me wrong, the beer has great mouth feel and body, its got no off odours or flavours, but its just lacking that nice aroma you get as you lift a nice Hefeweizen beer to your mouth
I thought I would pass this onto you folks as the hot weather is about to hit us and it could prevent you from buggering up your favourite Hefeweizen.
I was passing on this information to a friend of mine last night and he simply said, Why didnt you turn on the Air-conditioning and set it to 22 degrees and put the fermenters in the lounge room? I wont repeat what I said, but I bloody well know what Ill be doing when I make the next Hefeweizen.
Regards,
Lindsay.