Hefe Taste

Mashing
1

Brewed up a hefe a week ago, had all kinds of trouble with mash temp/water volumes. anyway doughed in on the low side like 149F or so, turned the burner on and got to 154F. This whole screwing around took about 20min, thought we were good there so i put a sweatshirt over the kettle and there it sat. 75min later going to sparge and mash sitting at 157F. I’m pretty sure it didn’t get too much hotter and the 20-30 min it sat at 149-154 helped. our OG was spot on at 1.040 (was suppose to be a 3 gal 1.051 batch but turned into a 4 gal session hefe.) Grain bill was 60/40 german wheat and pils.

Let it ride pitched my 1L starter of wyeast 3068 and it went crazy 4hrs later for roughly 36hrs. Granted this thing fermented at around 72F which is fine, we like the bannana. However i took a sample yesterday down to 1.010 so good on attentuation, but there is absolutely no bannana, clove, belgian influence of any kind, tasted like the american wheat i made 2 months ago. I realize yes, its only 7 days old, tastes diffrent in the bucket than bottle, etc.

Being my 1st experience making a hefe with 3068 is this pretty normal? I’ve never tasted a beer this early or even check gravity this early, this one just has me with those old newbie jitters.

2

3068 should give you plenty of good Hefe flavors, especially at that temp. I use it exclusively for any/all non-American wheat beers I brew. I prefer it when fermented at the lower end of the temp range though. Not sure what could be the problem. That’s as solid of a Hefe yeast as you can get.

3

From what i’ve read, yes 3068 is THE hefe yeast, surely i’d be able to detect some form of clove/bannana even this early. My first thought was the high mash temp killed my conversion, but we still hit 75% eff, so i think i can rule that out. Maybe like always it just needs a little time, but fermentation is basically done, just come cleaning left. Confused…

4

It obviously fermented very vigorously and that may have blown some of the esters off in the process. You’re better off at 62F than 72F with that yeast. Thats my experience, but more importantly its what is recommended in JZ’s book Brewing Classic Styles. Also you might have over-pitched as far as cell count and that lowers ester production too. I bet you still have some hefe character in the beer after its carbed and chilled though.