Is it too late to save my hefeweizen?!

So, last Wednesday night I brewed my first ever 'Brew in a bag', this was my first ever experience using base malts, and I was/am extremely siked to taste the outcome. I fermented with Wyeast 3068 Weheinstephan, and fermentation took off within hours. While at my LHBS buying the ingredients, I was talking to the store owner about how excited I was to be brewing my first hefeweizen, and moving closer to all grain brewing. He briefly mentioned that I could fiddle around with fermentation temps to get either a more dominant clovey or banana flavor. For some stupid reason I was under the impression that lower temps = more banana esters , and higher temps = more clove esters. As I'm sure most of you reading this already know, I had it completely backwards. After figuring this out around an hour ago, I ran downstairs, racked the hefe a day early (it's been 6 days, I'm not so worried about the early racking), wrapped my carboy in thick blankets secured with old belts, and placed it on my heating pad. It's been fermenting for the last 6 days in the very low 60's, and all I could smell was cloves during racking. Personally, I am a MUCH bigger fan of banana rather than clove esters (Erdinger comes to mind, as I had one earlier ). By the time I came up stairs to write this the temperature was nearly at 68, and depending on the answers I get here, I may let it rise as high as 75. I'm certainly no expert on yeasts, so I suppose my question to those that are, as well as those familiar with brewing weissbiers and hefeweizens is at this point in the fermentation (6 days) will raising the temperature grant me any banana esters, or is this too late to be reversed?

Thanks to all that read this.

-Cheers

I just wanted to acknowledge that I read this....I honestly have no idea. It will def be more clove flavor than you were going for..but a little banana may come out. Maybe after this beer is done you can post the results so anyone else who may have this problem can read it. remember, either way you will most likely have a beer that you will enjoy. Sometimes on the journey of homebrewing you end up someplace different than where you meant to go, sometimes that unexpected fork in the road brings you to Disney Land, other times it brings you to New Jersey...Either way, make a map of how you got there!

The ester profile gets locked in within the first few days of fermentation, so you're out of luck this time, especially since you pulled it off the yeast early (why???).

Next time pitch around 65F, let it rise to 68F and hold it there...this gives a nice banana/clove balance. Pushing it over 70F tends to accentuate the banana in a harsh way, IMO.

There are many people, myself included, that ferment their weizens at 62 degrees using the same yeast. I do it based on Jamil's advice in Brewing Classic Styles. He claims that at that temperature, you actually get the best balance between clove and banana. I've fermented a few hefes and a weizenbock at that temperature, and I have to agree. So I think you're fine, though I agree with g-star that it shouldn't have been racked.

Another benefit of fermenting 3068 lower is that the krausen doesn't go as nuts.

Another vote for "the ester profile is already set", as well as one for "why the heck are you racking the beer so quickly"?

I racked it because the area that I ferment is quite cold, and I have no temperature control while it's in the bucket. The plastic on the bottom is both to wide, and too thick for my heating pad to do much justice, and I don't have a heating belt. What harm may I have done by racking? Should I let it fall back down to 62 and hope for the best?? Thanks guys.

The ester profile is definitely set by now. Racking to the secondary was the right move. I always rack as soon as primary fermentation is over, one week or less.

Also, if it helps any, i pumped some of the muck at the bottom into the carboy with my auto siphon simply as I wanted to preserve some of the cloudiness associated with hefe's. According to Wyeasts website 3068 remains in suspension for an extended period of time... Am I going to end up with a higher FG because I racked???

Unusmundus said:

Also, if it helps any, i pumped some of the muck at the bottom into the carboy with my auto siphon simply as I wanted to preserve some of the cloudiness associated with hefe's. According to Wyeasts website 3068 remains in suspension for an extended period of time... Am I going to end up with a higher FG because I racked???

Click to expand...

Or an infection... Joke.

ericbw said:

Or an infection... Joke.

Click to expand...

Haha, I'm pretty diligent about sanitation... Not too worried about that, but seriously what was the harm in racking?? :/