Conditioning time for Wheat beer

[booldawg]

How long does a wheat beer take to reach good condition after the warm week? Mine turned out woefully low at a 1038 gravity (3.6%, was hoping for 1050 ) So guess this will take even less time to mature.

[mysterio]

Strange it turned out so low, what was your recipe?

I think an average wheat beer at 1.050 needs a bit of conditioning to reach its prime although not as much as an equivalent British ale of the same gravity. My last one reached its prime about 2 or 3 weeks after the fermentation had finished. My dunkelweizen which i'm drinking now really needed a full month after fermentation before it started tasting really good. Much before that you could taste the alcohol and it had a bit of a yeasty twang. Belgian wit beers tend to mature even faster I reckon. This is all assuming you're kegging.

Be your on judge, you can probably start drinking yours after a week or two in the keg, if it doesn't taste right, give it a little longer.

[booldawg]

I cant recall the recipe as I'm at work at the mo. The trouble was with Beersmith, I've been regularly over-hitting OGs and found the answer was to knock up the efficiency to 90%; this gave accurate results - until I brewed the wheat beer. I'd allowed for 90% but hit closer to 75% (which is what it most likely is 'in the real world'

The total grain bill was about 4.5kg with a 60/40 Wheat/Lager malt mix for 25L.

I am guilty of relying on Beersmith too much for recipe formulation!

[Subsonic]

My last one I brewed turned out woefully low as well at 1032 and my grain bill was similar to yours, although at 50/50. I use a step mash and have a feeling that I fly sparged just a bit too fast and didn't boil as much as I should have done. Wheat is tricky, that said my 1032 has turned out to be a lovely beer so all is not lost. I don;t condition it long, I think this one has been kegged 2 weeks, got a nice protein haze and is spot on. So if it tastes good I'm happy.

[mysterio]

Strange you guys experienced the same thing. I use wheat a lot and never suffer any drop in efficiency. I even fly sparge pretty fast. Possibly an issue with the crush?

[Subsonic]

Well, since you asked... I had the wrong type of wheat delivered (uncrushed) and since I couldn't be ar$ed sending it back I jerry rigged a hand turned coffe grinder to an electric drill and ran through about 2.5kg! It crushed it ok but totally mullered the coffee grinder. I never used the coffee grinder anyway, it was an unwanted present so at least I got some use from it. That may explain my low efficiency!