I just made what I am calling a strong tangerine wheat. I added a few extra pounds of grains to the mash to get it "strong." I did a small mistake and got a bit extra from the tun and so did a longer boil. After that I ended up with roughly 4.8 gallons at 1.065 (repeatedly checked with a refract AND hydo at 70*). Recipe: 8 lbs. Weyermann Pale Wheat malt 6.5 lbs German Pilsner malt 1 oz German Tettnang (90 min) .5 oz coriander (10 min) Zest of 4 tangerines zested (10 min) Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Wheat. Mashed at 152* according to two separate external thermometers, but only at 145* according to the internal one in the new tun (never used it before). Mashed for 60 min, raised to 170* and sparged (40 minutes or so). Boiled ~90 minutes to get down to 5 gal. Cooled and swirled the hell out of it with a drill attachment. Made a starter, cold crashed and decanted it ahead of time, then pitched while room temp. Started fermentation at 72* and ended at 75* 4 days later, left it there. After 2 weeks fermenting, where it REALLY fermented, I end up at 1.003.This gives me a bit over 8%, and I was hoping for 6.5%. I'm happy to have the extra kick but the beer currently tastes a bit thin (it is still in the carboy, possibly even still fermenting...). Questions: • I have never had a beer get this low, is it normal for wheat beers? Was I drunk and just didn't know it??? • Will the beer "thicken up" after awhile? • Will carbonation help? • If not is there anything I can do before bottling/kegging? • After this hard of a fermentation will the yeast be worth washing and trying to use in another upcoming beer? To anyone that bothers to read this book of a post and respond: thank you VERY much for any help!
Found this on a homebrew site, hope this helps. "Use a Low Attenuation Yeast Strain Select a brewing yeast strain with low average attenuation. Low attenuating yeasts will consume fewer complex sugars leaving a higher final gravity and ultimately a beer with more body. Select a yeast with average attenuation below 70% if possible. Examples of low attenuation yeast include many English, European and traditional ale yeasts, Alt and many of the English and British ale yeast variants." http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/02/27/making-full-body-beer-at-home/
Assuming your gravity readings are correct, that's about 95% apparent attenuation. There's no way you should have got that much attenuation with Wyeast 3068, that grain bill, and any mash parameters I can think of. There would have to be something other than the Wyeast 3068 at work. Have you, by any chance, ever used White Labs WLP3711 in your fermenter? How is your sanitation?
I would say one of 2 things has occurred: 1) you were drunk and miss read the OG or the FG. First thought is the FG because a FG of 1.003 is pretty unique as wheat usually leaves extra protein for a higher FG. 2) you got an infection from the oranges and the beer fermented super low On a side note I always find it interesting when a homebrewer says they got a higher abv than planned and their response is cool i’ll Take it. If you want a higher abv just brew a high abv beer?
Wheat malt does yield more proteins than (for example) pilsner malt, and some proteins are soluble in water, but the amount of proteins in wort/beer is insignificant from a gravity perspective. Assuming the gravity readings were accurate, I agree that an infection is the likely cause. But I think it's unlikely it came from the tangerine zest, which was apparently boiled for 10 minutes. Whatever it was, if it happened, it happened fast, only two weeks in, which makes me lean toward measurement error. I remember one LHBS owner, no longer in the business, who used to suggest buying an extra bag of priming sugar, to add to the boil. It was his "secret trick" to boost OG and ABV. Ugh.
Thanks, I just went with the yeast recommended by Northern when I picked up the grains. In the future I will keep this in mind.
Sanitation is really good as far as I can tell. I clean my equipment thoroughly after use, then again before the next use, and use StarSan liberally. I thought that attenuation was crazy too! I would say it was some mistake, or all in my head, except that it DOES taste stronger than I expected, and thinner. And advice on giving it more body now that it is where it is? Is there a way to check the current gravity of a beer without knowing the OG? thanks!
THANK YOU! I will look into this. It is still in 1st fermentor (might do 2nd for clarity... might not).
Sure, just de-gas it and measure with a hydrometer. Or do you mean a way to check ABV without knowing the OG? If that, then no, unless you want to spend some money and send a sample off to a lab. Or spend even more money on a home lab setup.
Well I am making this beer at my wife's request so I was going for a medium strength beer that was a good compromise in ABV. The additional %'s would make me happy but was not what I was intending. I thought I might have missed the OG, except I wasn't actually drinking (strange that) and checked it multiple times with both a refractometer AND a hydrometer. I will check the FG again in a week and maybe will find out I did something wrong. I hope I didn't get an infection from the orange zest. I didn't think that was possible, it just being zest and being put in during boil... but maybe I am wrong. Thanks for the help!
"which makes me lean toward measurement error." That's what I am currently thinking too, just hard since I know I checked repeatedly with both instruments for OG and then checked multiple times with the Hydro for FG because I refused to believe my eyes. On a side note, I put what I thought was a pound of honey in my first beer right before fermentation, to up the ABV, only to discover that it was 1 quart so about 3 pounds. So many things wrong with that first batch.
Yeah, I meant without knowing the OG. It is still in primary so hasn't been bottled or kegged yet. Kinda thought there wasn't really a way to check. Maybe my hydrometer got messed up...? I might try to use the refract and do the conversions I've seen and see if they match. Again, thank you!
I didn’t read that you boiled the zest so most likely not. The infection comment is mostly due to the super Low FG. As vikeman said that would be a 95% attenuation when the yeast averages @75-77%. The specifications aren’t exact but 95% is really good for an ale yeast. Getting below 1.008 would be good.
You can double check your hydrometer with water to confirm it calibrated correctly. However. That would yield either a higher FG and higher OG or vice versa. Also, the beer could be stronger than planned but maybe not as strong as your reading suggests. You’ll know for sure when you start drinking it. My only thought, and it’s just a thought as I haven’t done this post fermentation. to maybe help the body is to add some Calcium chloride. When I want more body I adjust my water profile to have higher calcium chloride to sulfate ratio. You can pull a sample and add some and see what it does. Might need to do two and do a blind taste to see if you can really tell. Just don’t add too much or could taste off.
Yeah, that's what prompted my post. I just can't believe it got that low. I was expecting around 1.010 - 1.012. It is most likely an error on my part or my equipment. Or... the alcohol fairies got into my carboy.
Love the idea of a blind taste test. Think I will do that with yours and limits' suggestions. Thanks!
