Sunday 12/15 I brewed the Trick or Treat weizenbock from BCS. Just checked the gravity of it yesterday and was a bit disappointed. OG was 1.081 and I pitched a healthy 2 step starter of WLP300 at about 60* and kept it between 60-62 for the first 5 days. Had a decent krausen at the top for the entire time. I then brought it upstairs and slowly raised the temp to about 67 over the next couple of days, each day rousing the yeast. On the 8th day the krausen had fully dropped, I raised it up to around 72 and left it there for 3 more days.
My gravity reading yesterday read 1.029. Target for the recipe is 1.021. I raised the temp a little more to the mid 70’s and plan to leave it there for another couple of days. What’s everyone’s gut feeling about this one? Think it’s done?
It was extract/specialty grains (almost 12lbs of LME) so I expected a bit worse attenuation but this being the first beer I’ve brewed from BCS expected the recipes FG to be attainable. The recipe said to leave it at 62 the entire time but I knew I would never get anywhere near the required attenuation if I did that.
The beer as it is now is really thick (like orange juice thick) in mouthfeel so not too sure what that means. I’m sure that will thin out when I carb to around 2.8 vols. It’s actually pretty good flavor-wise. I get only a little banana ester in the aroma but taste has almost no detectible banana/clove flavors which I’m cool with cause I didn’t want those flavors to be too strong but a I’m a little disappointed cause I wanted to stay true to the style.
That does seem a little high, but maybe only a little higher than I’d expect from extract. I also don’t think more time will do anything to the gravity. I’m gonna blame the LME. I brew all grain now, but when I did use extract I had trouble getting beer beers below 1.020 and I always used DME. LME will usually finish even higher than DME.
As a side note, I’m going to brew a Weizenbock this weekend. Another post (possibly yours) got me interested in brewing one. I’m shooting for a OG of 1.080 and FG aournd 1.020.
[quote=“dobe12”]That does seem a little high, but maybe only a little higher than I’d expect from extract. I also don’t think more time will do anything to the gravity. I’m gonna blame the LME. I brew all grain now, but when I did use extract I had trouble getting beer beers below 1.020 and I always used DME. LME will usually finish even higher than DME.
As a side note, I’m going to brew a Weizenbock this weekend. Another post (possibly yours) got me interested in brewing one. I’m shooting for a OG of 1.080 and FG aournd 1.020.
Yeah I would have been happy with a gravity in the mid 20’s but even with the gravity as high as it is, it doesn’t taste overly sweet at all.
My next brew will be all grain in a ferm chamber so hopefully all my attenuation issues will slowly fade away. That sounds like a tasty brew. Keep me posted on how it turns out.
Dude, it’s been 12 days…at this point, I’d still have it in primary for another couple weeks. And 12 lb. of LME has a lot of unfermentables. I’m not surprised by where it is now. To get lower attenuation, always replace part of the extract with sugar. I did that with the recipes I designed for NB and the FG is almost exactly where it ends up in the AG versions.
I don’t plan on bottling for at least 2 more weeks. I keep all of my beers in primary for 3-4 weeks total. I still like to check gravity after a couple weeks to see how its going. I’ve yet to have a beer that isn’t at final gravity within 10 days though (of course I’ve only got 6 batches under my belt so not much of a sampling size).
Also, I normally add sugar to all my extract recipes but since this one was from a book I wanted to do it verbatim. I’d never worked with WLP300 before so I wasn’t sure if maybe it would be able to chew through that much extract. Just kind of curious why Jamil or JP don’t suggest methods for getting better attenuation. Most of the FG’s appear to be only attainable with all grain.
This wasn’t an “OMG I’M WORRIED” post. Just posting the state of things and seeing if anyone has any thoughts. Stimulating conversation and hoping to learn something new (which is everyday in this hobby).
I don’t plan on bottling for at least 2 more weeks. I keep all of my beers in primary for 3-4 weeks total. I still like to check gravity after a couple weeks to see how its going. I’ve yet to have a beer that isn’t at final gravity within 10 days though (of course I’ve only got 6 batches under my belt so not much of a sampling size).
Also, I normally add sugar to all my extract recipes but since this one was from a book I wanted to do it verbatim. I’d never worked with WLP300 before so I wasn’t sure if maybe it would be able to chew through that much extract. Just kind of curious why Jamil or JP don’t suggest methods for getting better attenuation. Most of the FG’s appear to be only attainable with all grain.
This wasn’t an “OMG I’M WORRIED” post. Just posting the state of things and seeing if anyone has any thoughts. Stimulating conversation and hoping to learn something new (which is everyday in this hobby).[/quote]
Okey dokey.
I suspect that JP and JZ have never brewed that recipe from extract so really don’t know how to advise on it.
