Trouble With Weissbier

Northern Brewer General
1

Hi Guys,

I urgently need some advice. Was ready to bottle my Weissbier today and came across a problem. The O.G. was 1.055 and I pitched with White Labs #WLP380

After 2 days the fermentation was off the scale and had spilled out over the top of the FV. I cleaned up the mess and thereafter it was a lot calmer.

I racked it off into my bottling bucking today, after 2 weeks in the FV, and took a hydrometer reading expecting close to 1.010 but it came up with 1.020!!!

What would you recommend - I assume that I don’t want to be bottling at 1.020? Surely there must be some more fermentables in there that haven’t been converted.

I thought I would leave in the bottling bucket for another week and see of the reading changes, but
what if it doesn’t, where do I go from there?

Yours hopefully,

One panicked brewer

2

Its probably fine, its not unusual for extract beers to finish high. It would have been best to rouse the yeast, warm it up a bit and check it over a few successive days to make sure its stable. If you haven’t cleaned your fermenter yet, you can always rack it right back in and do exactly that. Leaving it in the bottling bucket isn’t going to do much good.

But odds are its done what its going to do and if you go ahead and bottle you’ll be fine.

3

Sadly the first thing I did after racking was to clean to FV. Getting too damn efficient :smiley:

This was an AG brew by the way, although I did add a bit of DME to bring it up to expected OG.

One thought I have had - I’m in the process of making another brew today using a Wyeast 1007 German yeast. Would it be nuts to pitch a small amount of that into the bottling bucket to see what happens? Guess I may have to reaerate which could be a problem.

4

I would personally be afraid to bottle it at 1.020 for a beer that should have finished 8-10 points lower, for fear of bottle bombs and gushers.

I would pitch the wyeast 1007 and hold it on the high 60’s in hopes of bringing it down.

Lesson learned- take that gravity reading before bottling. It’s easier to vent a keg, but a pita to re-cap bottles.

5

Yeah, bottling at 1.020 does worry me quite a lot. Any idea how pitching a small amount of the German ale yeast could affect the flavours?

6

Most of the flavor develop happened during and before your violent blowoff.
And with wyeast 1007, it’s pretty neutral.

I would pitch half a vile and make twice the size starter for the remaining to use in your altbier.

And you are definitely sure it is at 1.020? What was the grain bill and mash temp?

7

I will check gravity again before pitching the new yeast. I thought I was going mad the first time I saw it but checked a couple of times to make sure.

Grain bill was as follows

2.00 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 2 46.0 %
2.00 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 46.0 %
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 4 2.3 %
0.25 kg Light Dry Extract [Boil for 90 min](15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 5 5.7 %

I added the extract when I discovered I was a bit unded my expected OG. Mash temp was good at 64C but I guess there must have been something amiss as I didn’t hit the correct OG.

8

Wow, 64C is unusually low for a weizen. I usually go from 65-68C.

But with that low mash temp, you should have attenuated very well.

You may want to go back and check you gravity, ensuring the sample is around 15C.

9

Taken a new reading, looks more like 1.019 but still 8 points off what I was expecting.

Despite that it tastes and looks great. All the more reason to make sure to get it sorted and bottled!

For the mash I was going with what Beersmith suggested (64.5C). What characteristics does the higher temp impart?

10

Just more mouthfeel.