Conditioning and OG questions

[Travis K. Jansen]

1.) I have a hefe fermenting right now, which smells amazing btw, day 2. I took a hydrometer reading after putting into the carboy and got a 1.032 reading which as I read more in the forums, seems way too low. Disclaimer, I could have read it wrong but it seemed simple enough, just spin and read. Am I screwed or is there anything I can do to increase gravity after it had already started to ferment?

2.) Recipe says 1-2 weeks in primary, 1-2 weeks bottle conditioned. Everything I hear is "be patient, let it condition for longer." Since I'm kegging with force carb, what does conditioning look like for me? 2 weeks in primary then rack into keg or keep on yeast cake in carboy and let it sit? If in keg, keep it Under pressure or not? Cold or warm temps?

Thanks for your help!

 

[dmtaylor]

What was the temperature when you took your hydrometer reading? Temperature has a MAJOR impact on accuracy. Hydrometers only read accurately at 60-70 F. At higher temperatures, they read much lower.

Ferment until it is done. I just made a hefeweizen myself. Took 4 days to look like it was done fermenting, the beer started to clear, and then I checked gravity but then waited 3 more days, then bottled. So it took 7 days from brew day to bottle for my batch. However in the past it took as long as 9 days. Two weeks would not be a bad idea but probably not necessary for a standard or small gravity hefe. Should be done sooner than that. Always when you think it's done fermenting, take a gravity reading, then wait 3 more days, then check again to make sure the gravity isn't changing anymore. If it is, then wait a couple more days, and repeat until it stays constant. Once it does, you are free to bottle or keg.

After bottling or kegging, just start drinking it after a few days or whenever it is fully carbonated. No need to wait any longer if it tastes good. If it has a lot of sulfur or diacetyl or something, wait longer. But if it tastes good, drink it! I would keep it warm until it reaches that point. This will help the yeast clean up after themselves, including absorption of any sulfur, diacetyl, or other off-flavors. Once those odd flavors are gone, then chill it down.

There are no hard & fast rules of thumb for when a beer is finished, other than when the gravity isn't changing anymore, and it's carbonated, and it tastes good! Just go based on those things, and you'll be in great shape.

 

[NSMikeD]

I prime my kegs and treat them like bottling. I add some sugar and then put down a layer of CO2 to purge any air. Then I keep them at fermentation temp (65° - 68°) for about a month. Then I move them to a fridge a few days before they get tapped (my kegerator can only hold one keg).


I am not vouching that this is best practices, it's just the way I give the yeast ample time to clean up the beer and mimics the schedule when i used to bottle.

 

[myndflyte]

1.032 as a starting gravity probably is low but that is a whole different issue in figuring out what may have caused that. I would just leave it for now and not try messing with it and you could always post your recipe and methods and we can try to help figure out where things could be improved.

As for conditioning, "bottle conditioning" in the keg still happens when it's cold. So I'd just transfer it to a keg, keep in cold and carb it up and start drinking it when it tastes good. With a hefe, those are usually best when they are young.

 

[jalc6927]

2-3 weeks in primary is fine

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

What was the temperature when you took your hydrometer reading? Temperature has a MAJOR impact on accuracy. Hydrometers only read accurately at 60-70 F. At higher temperatures, they read much lower.

Ferment until it is done. I just made a hefeweizen myself. Took 4 days to look like it was done fermenting, the beer started to clear, and then I checked gravity but then waited 3 more days, then bottled. So it took 7 days from brew day to bottle for my batch. However in the past it took as long as 9 days. Two weeks would not be a bad idea but probably not necessary for a standard or small gravity hefe. Should be done sooner than that. Always when you think it's done fermenting, take a gravity reading, then wait 3 more days, then check again to make sure the gravity isn't changing anymore. If it is, then wait a couple more days, and repeat until it stays constant. Once it does, you are free to bottle or keg.

After bottling or kegging, just start drinking it after a few days or whenever it is fully carbonated. No need to wait any longer if it tastes good. If it has a lot of sulfur or diacetyl or something, wait longer. But if it tastes good, drink it! I would keep it warm until it reaches that point. This will help the yeast clean up after themselves, including absorption of any sulfur, diacetyl, or other off-flavors. Once those odd flavors are gone, then chill it down.

There are no hard & fast rules of thumb for when a beer is finished, other than when the gravity isn't changing anymore, and it's carbonated, and it tastes good! Just go based on those things, and you'll be in great shape.

Thanks all. First time brewing in about 10 years. This was a simple kit so my method was simple, following the instructions to the letter. Hydrometer reading was at room temp. I wonder if I left too much malt in the container leaving less sugar in the wort.

Good to know about conditioning and kegging, I'll go about it as planned and condition/sample until it tastes good. Never kegged before so I'm looking forward to it, followed by building a keezer.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

P.S. How big are your flasks for checking hydrometer readings? I bought one from Amazon and it ended up being 11.5 oz which is proably too much. I think I might take a saw to it and cut it down...

 

[Yooper]

P.S. How big are your flasks for checking hydrometer readings? I bought one from Amazon and it ended up being 11.5 oz which is proably too much. I think I might take a saw to it and cut it down...

Just fill it until the hydrometer floats- no need to fill it to the top!

 

[chickypad]

Thanks all. First time brewing in about 10 years. This was a simple kit so my method was simple, following the instructions to the letter. Hydrometer reading was at room temp. I wonder if I left too much malt in the container leaving less sugar in the wort.

If this was an extract kit and you hit the correct volume it's very unlikely you missed the kit OG. It's common to have a measurement error due to mixing issues topping off with water. Did you top off before taking the reading?

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

I did fill with water before taking the reading.

 

[dmtaylor]

P.S. How big are your flasks for checking hydrometer readings? I bought one from Amazon and it ended up being 11.5 oz which is proably too much. I think I might take a saw to it and cut it down...

I think mine is about 3 ounces. Not huge. It's the tube that the hydrometer came in back in 1999.

 

[dmtaylor]

If this was an extract kit and you hit the correct volume it's very unlikely you missed the kit OG. It's common to have a measurement error due to mixing issues topping off with water. Did you top off before taking the reading?

Great point. Could just be a failure to mix adequately, i.e., a layering effect where the heavy wort stays on bottom and water stays on top. You can't get an accurate measurement without ensuring a homogenous mixture.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

I think mine is about 3 ounces. Not huge. It's the tube that the hydrometer came in back in 1999.

Doh! That's a good idea. I can't believe I bought one instead of using the hydrometer tube.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

So, I've been trying to keep it a little higher in the temp range around 72-75 to get my hefe to get more of that banana flavor I enjoy so much. Temp was dipping into the 60s so I turned on my space heater near it to give it a little boost, forgot about it and woke up this morning to the temp reading on the side of the carboy at 82. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean the entire batch was 82, but I'm hoping that won't have any adverse affects.

 

[dmtaylor]

I'm sure it's fine.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

Yeah, I wrapped it in a wet towel and hit it with a fan to normalize the temperature. I gotta make my mistakes and learn from them!

 

[RM-MN]

You're getting a lot of good advice....for a typical ale where you want the flavors to be clean and the beer to be mature and the yeast dropping out. However, you are making a hefeweizen. The hefe part means "with yeast" and if you let your beer sit too long the yeast will drop out, defeating the hefe. Most ales benefit from a cool ferment so we avoid the banana esters. You want them so you ferment warm. With the warm temperature your yeast produce the banana ester but they also ferment faster. That means that your primary, fast ferment happened in the first couple days and that set the flavor. Raising the temperature to 82 now probably had little effect on your beer. Let it set until the beer reaches final gravity, probably by the end of the week, then keg it and turn on the CO2 so it carbonates. You'll want to drink this beer soon or all the yeast that makes this a hefeweizen will settle out leaving you with a kristalweizen.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

You're getting a lot of good advice....for a typical ale where you want the flavors to be clean and the beer to be mature and the yeast dropping out. However, you are making a hefeweizen. The hefe part means "with yeast" and if you let your beer sit too long the yeast will drop out, defeating the hefe. Most ales benefit from a cool ferment so we avoid the banana esters. You want them so you ferment warm. With the warm temperature your yeast produce the banana ester but they also ferment faster. That means that your primary, fast ferment happened in the first couple days and that set the flavor. Raising the temperature to 82 now probably had little effect on your beer. Let it set until the beer reaches final gravity, probably by the end of the week, then keg it and turn on the CO2 so it carbonates. You'll want to drink this beer soon or all the yeast that makes this a hefeweizen will settle out leaving you with a kristalweizen.

Thank you for that! It's still bubbling yet so fermentation isn't done. I'll be sure to keg it as soon as it's done.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

You're getting a lot of good advice....for a typical ale where you want the flavors to be clean and the beer to be mature and the yeast dropping out. However, you are making a hefeweizen. The hefe part means "with yeast" and if you let your beer sit too long the yeast will drop out, defeating the hefe. Most ales benefit from a cool ferment so we avoid the banana esters. You want them so you ferment warm. With the warm temperature your yeast produce the banana ester but they also ferment faster. That means that your primary, fast ferment happened in the first couple days and that set the flavor. Raising the temperature to 82 now probably had little effect on your beer. Let it set until the beer reaches final gravity, probably by the end of the week, then keg it and turn on the CO2 so it carbonates. You'll want to drink this beer soon or all the yeast that makes this a hefeweizen will settle out leaving you with a kristalweizen.

PS. About how long generally speaking does it take before a hefe drops it's yeast. I need to know how much I need to imbibe. [emoji3]

 

[RM-MN]

PS. About how long generally speaking does it take before a hefe drops it's yeast. I need to know how much I need to imbibe. [emoji3]

Too many variables to say for sure. A lot depends on the storage temperature and on the particular yeast used. Being in the keg I'll assume you'll be keeping it cool, the very conditions people use to clear an ale so the yeast would drop clear fairly soon, probably in less than a month. You could take a hint from what is done in some bars with bottled hefeweizen, stir up the yeast again. They do it by rolling the bottle on the bar top, you might do it just by jostling or shaking the keg.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

She's still bubbling at about once every 25 seconds. I dropped by Northern Brewer and dropped some coin, picked up a fermtech wine thief. I wanted to try it out so I sanitized it and grabbed a hydrometer reading. It's still at 1.024 as you can see in the pic so it has some ways to go yet. It has only been 5 days...

However, it's tasting REALLY good so far. Hopefully the gravity drops and I can have this in a keg for a new years party!

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

Starting to get a bit nervous. I took a gravity reading 3 days ago and it was at 1.024. Took one today and we're at 1.020. Its been on for 9 days now. It's moving but going slower than I expected from what I hear about hefe-weizen. Crauesen has mostly reduced to a thin brown film. I think I just need my first batch here to set a baseline for how patient I have to be. I mean, it is dropping 0.53% per 3 days so in another week maybe it'll be correct. I'm shooting for new year's Eve to unveil!

Is this where you tell me RDWHAH? [emoji4]

 

[dmtaylor]

RDWHAH!

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

RDWHAH!

Heh yeah, I figured. Patience in Homebrew seems to be a learned skill!

 

[Dcpcooks]

Can you warm it up a bit?

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

Can you warm it up a bit?

Yeah I've been hitting it with a space heater. I'm going to do another gravity reading tomorrow to see where we are at.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

Took another reading today, hasn't moved from 1.020, no airlock activity.

Temp on carboy read 66. Put a space heater on it and now it's bubbling.

I wonder if my temperature is the problem.

 

[ESBrewer]

It may go a little further by heating it up a bit but the bubbling may also be caused solely by the escaping co2 that has been produced earlier during the active fermentation (the warmer the beer, the less co2 will remain dissolved in it).

 

[RM-MN]

Starting to get a bit nervous. I took a gravity reading 3 days ago and it was at 1.024. Took one today and we're at 1.020. Its been on for 9 days now. It's moving but going slower than I expected from what I hear about hefe-weizen. Crauesen has mostly reduced to a thin brown film. I think I just need my first batch here to set a baseline for how patient I have to be. I mean, it is dropping 0.53% per 3 days so in another week maybe it'll be correct. I'm shooting for new year's Eve to unveil!

Is this where you tell me RDWHAH? [emoji4]

It isn't uncommon for an extract batch to stop fermenting at 1.020. In fact it is so common that people on here mention it as the 1.020 curse. Warming the beer may help but I wouldn't count on it. Check it in a couple days to see if the gravity has changed. If not, bottle it up because it isn't going any lower.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

It isn't uncommon for an extract batch to stop fermenting at 1.020. In fact it is so common that people on here mention it as the 1.020 curse. Warming the beer may help but I wouldn't count on it. Check it in a couple days to see if the gravity has changed. If not, bottle it up because it isn't going any lower.

Really? That's interesting. That must be what's happening then.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

Can I use malt from my extract kit to make my starter, or do I need to purchase a bag of DME to make one? I'm thinking a starter might help prevent this next time and I've never made one. Using Omega yeast.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

Racked and carbonated yesterday and force carbonated. After a long day of baseball tournament for my son, I took a pull from it. It was freaking delicious. No off flavors, good banana flavor. Not great head retention though.

 

[Travis K. Jansen]

I'm not sure if anyone is still watching this thread, but I had about 10 pints from it, including one I just opened at my desk today at work, and it turned out phenomenal!! Thank you all for the help you provided, I'm so stoked I was able to brew my own hefe-weizen to my liking and have it taste like it came from the store. Fresh ale at my fingertips is going to be a dangerous thing.