Just bottled my first attempt at a Belgian Wheat Beer (using a WLP400 yeast starter) after two weeks in the fermentation bucket at temps between 21-23 Celsius. OG was 1.068 and FG at bottling was 1.008. Used the Beer Priming Calculator from this site:
and added 4.5 grams of glucose per 500 ml bottle for a target of 3 volumes of CO2.
Krausen had dropped and tasted the beer before bottling, wasn’t particularly sweet/tasted decent actually. Like a flat wheat beer, with a hint of bitterness and citrus but higher in alcohol than what I’m used to.
Questions:
Do I need to worry about my bottles exploding at this point?
In general, is two weeks enough time before bottling for a wheat beer or any beer?
How long do I need to let the beer stay in the bottles before I can start drinking?
Bottle bombs. Only if the beer was not done fermenting and your bottles are very light glass.
Using the NB calculator you may have primed to 3.2 volumes of CO2. My math could be wrong. I figured each bottle at 0.125 gallons. Did you confirm the SG of 1.008 with a couple of readings several or more days apart. Was the SG read of 1.008 temperature corrected?
Have you bottled in the heavy glass swing tops?
I usually have my beers in the fermentor for three weeks to allow them to clear. Fermentation is usually done by day 10 to 14. Two weeks is not unreasonable to bottle a wheat beer since by being a wheat beer they will be a little hazy.
Bottle conditioning time is temperature dependent. Warmer is faster. Too hot can lead to early staling in a month or three. At 21° to 23°C sample a bottle after two weeks of conditioning and two days in the frig.
This is, or can be, done. I have beer finishing much higher than that without any bottle bombs. I have a few recipes that always finish at 1.02 which sounds crazy, and is, but still no bottle bombs. I do tend to go for more for the 2 - 2.5 volume of CO2 with these however.
