New comer brewing American Wheat

[nateg]

I am making my first batch of homebrew, the American Wheat Beer extract kit, and the boil went well and fermentation started the same day. The OG was 1032 or so. 3 days in the fermentation has pretty much stopped though, the room that I have the fermenter has been at about 72 degrees the whole time which is why I think it has stopped already, it was going really good the second day. I broke down and cracked the lid, didn’t take it all the way off, there is a ring on the bucket about 3/4" above the top of the level of the beer and some globs to debris floating on the surface, it smelled great. I popped the lid back down and gave it a gentle rock, I read somewhere that rocking the boat can rouse yeast back up.

Does it sound like everything is going okay, I figure I will probably leave it in the fermenter for another week just because I don’t think I will have time this week to bottle it and I haven’t read anything that would suggest that it will hurt anything to leave it in the bucket.

[baratone_brewer]

Congrats on the first batch!

Are you sure that you measured your OG right?
NB’s American Wheat Extract kit should have an OG of 1.043. If you followed the directions to the “T”, it would be hard to be off by that much. If you did a partial boil and added top up water you might not have had it mixed completely.

Your fermentation temp is too high. You should be shooting for a fementation temp in the low 60’s for most ales. Once fermentation starts temps will climb and high temps can cause unwanted flavors. If the ambient temp of the room is 72F your fermentation temp is much higher and the reason that you are seeing it finish so early. You can do a search for “swamp cooler”, its a cheap and easy way to control temps for future batches.

2 weeks in the primary is good for most wheat beers.

Welcome to the hobby!

[nateg]

Will do, its all a process of trial and error I guess, I’m am just impatient some times I guess so I don’t like not knowing whats going on, I have and old 5 gal. Pyrex acid jar kicking around, I might get a bung for and use to make the next batch so I can see whats going on next time.

[nighthawk]

Remember you need space for the krausen during fermentation. Either reduce the volume to 4 gallons or set up a blow off tube for that 5 gallon carboy.