Hefeweizen Ferment Temp Question

The last two beers I made were a apa and a wit. So similar to yours. I fermented the apa at 68. All good. The wit I wanted to try at a higher temp as I wouldn't mind the fruity notes from ester. So I fermented it at 73. Honestly it came out a little boozy. It was a wit so boozy wasn't what I was going for. The thing is that there was probably a bit of error on my part. I pitched at around 73 to 75 so maybe to high of a temp and thus I got alot of fusel alcohol probably. If I do it over again I'll pitch at say 68 or 70 degrees, start fermentation there for 2 or 3 days to cut down on the fusel alcohols then bring it up to 72-73 for the rest of primary fermentation. No real help here just thoughts from a similar experience.

 

The internal temperature is what matters. Fermentation creates internal heat that can be 2-8F higher than the ambient temperature. It's quite possible your beer was fermented too hot too soon.

Fermenting too hot too soon makes rougher booze that can produce headaches even though it might taste fine. It can also create more esters, in this case, banana.

Keeping the internal temperature in the mid 60s for the first 4 days and then letting it warm to 68-74F internal will generally make a smooth ale.

 

Yeah, my bad too. The temp at which I pitched was internal temp but the temp I stated I fermented at was ambient. As was said above, when I make it again I'll get it cooler when I pitch and start fermentation then gradually bring the temp higher a few days later. Thx

 

White Labs suggests pitching ale yeast at 70F and letting it cool to a more ideal starting temp such as 65F within the first 24 hours. Not much fermentation is happening within the first 12 hours unless you are pitch actively fermenting yeast and the whole starter. Even then, the yeast can stall for 12-24 hours. So it's possible you started fermenting in the high 60s. Going from the low 70s to the high 60s overnight shouldn't be a problem.

 

Temperature is everything with a hefeweizen yeast. In the low 60s you'll get more clove and very little banana. Around 68-70 F you'll get a nice balance of clove and banana. Above 70 F you'll get all banana and bubblegum and no clove. Re-read the last sentence, that's what you'll have. And it will only take about 3 days to get there, not 2 weeks.

 

I brew a lot of hefeweizens and like to ferment around 64-65. Sweet spot to me and I like the clove to dominate the banana slightly.

As to your question, probably impossible to guess what 24 hours at higher than optimal temps will do. I'm willing to bet it will still be tasty though

 

Will probably be a lot of banana and bubblegum. I like those flavors in a Hef and try to ferment around 75 with that yeast. Should be good!

 

Not good. Suggests wort was under-aerated.

 

Makes no sense to me either. Jury's still out on aeration. In general I am very skeptical and believe most of the old brewer's tales are false. See an interesting experiment here anyway: http://brulosophy.com/2015/05/25/wort-aeration-pt-1-shaken-vs-nothing-exbeeriment-results/

He ran a recent experiment on fermentation temperature as well. People can't tell the difference. The exception though is for hefeweizen yeast, and Belgian yeasts as well. There's oodles of data available showing that cool = clove, warm = banana and bubblegum. Balance is not too difficult but is around upper 60s. With Belgian yeasts, things are a bit more complicated. In my experience also, the Wyeast and White Labs yeasts are NOT AT ALL equivalent, totally different. But anyway...........

 

The hefe I brewed on Saturday started bubbling at about 5-6 hours after pitching my starter of 3068 as well. Even when I did the starter I was seeing krausen in the flask literally 3-4 hours after pitching, so I'm pretty sure this strain is just eager to get going. I aerated the hell out of my wort too, so I wouldn't worry about it. I'm smelling clean banana/yeasty aromas out of the airlock now. The sulfur odor should subside after the vigorous ferment winds down.

Banana is what I'm wanting in the final flavor, since I want it to be a kind of pseudo-tropical hefe (citra at flameout and amarillo dry hop). I am fermenting at around 70. By what you've said so far, you should be good on fermentation and temp. The temperature range for this yeast is anywhere from 64-75, so it really just depends on the flavor your wanting. Low end or high end..

 

From MoreBeer ...
"Lag time is a common benchmark that brewers use to gauge the health of yeast and the vigor of fermentation. It is possible, however, to overemphasize the significance of lag time, on its own, as a meaningful indicator. A very short lag time, for example, does not necessarily mean that your yeast has gotten off to a phenomenal start and just can’t wait to ferment. It could well mean just the opposite — that a low supply of nutrients and oxygen in the wort gave the yeast no recourse but to begin converting sugar to alcohol in order to survive.

"The latter stages of fermentation may also appear to finish more quickly when in fact the process was not super-efficient, but rather, incomplete. The point is that speed does not necessarily correlate with quality."

 

Nice theory. Deep. Perhaps true but I don't believe so. My bet is everything's fine and full of banana, and if he's luckly maybe some bubblegum (which I think is tasty).

 

Christopher White speaks ... you listen.

 

it's not a theory and it's not deep either. it's just the way of yeast. we have learned a lot about how beer is made in the last few decades. some people actually study this stuff if you can believe it!

Cheers.

 

"Does not necessarily mean". "Could well mean the opposite"

Classic Chris White non-committal double speak right there.

Statements with blatant ambiguity written by so called experts are easily mistaken as facts for those who seek validation for their confirmation bias.

Kaboooom!!!



(should have used more emoticons)

 

The MoreBeer quote did not come from White; however ... it does capture the essence of his article in BYO.