Help! Need to turn around a quick Wheat Beer!

[Fallen]

Good work Floyd. I've got a bavarian hefewiezen getting close to bottling time. Fermented it at 18 degrees so I'm looking forward to tasting the difference between this and earlier versions (fermented around 23-24).

[floydmeddler]

Cool! What yeast did you use?

[Fallen]

Hmmm, had a few issues here.

I used Wyeast 3056 initially which I think is the traditional Weihenstephan Bavarian strain. Smacked and left it to swell for ~3 hours before pitching. There was no sign of fermentation after ~36 hours so I bottled it (in the squeaky bum sense) and pitched a pack of WB-06. After a further 12-24 hours there was a massive foamy head and all was well.

It was in primary for ~ 7 days from the start of active fermentation and has been in secondary for 6 days. I'll be bottling it tomorrow.

Tastes good at the moment, really smooth and mellow. No pronounced banana, bubblegum, TCP.

From what I can tell, an 18 degree fermentation gives a much more agreeable subtle flavour than the higher temps I've used previously.

Just in time for the summer trip to St Ives

[floydmeddler]

Pity the 3056 didn't work out. Sure it will be a great beer regardless though. Weizens are the perfect holiday beer!

[coatesg]

The 3056 probably did work out, but pitching the WB-06 helped it on the way - pitching one smack pack without a starter will take a *long* time to probably get going. You need to make starters with the Wyeast packs (and really the White labs vials as they tend not to be very fresh) - one pack isn't really enough to reliably ferment a 5 gallon batch without one.

(Sometimes you can get away with it, but it takes much longer to take hold and finish - the long lag time increases the risk of getting an early infection while conditions are favourable).

[Fallen]

Yeah, I was going for the lazyboy approach and couldn't be ar$ed making a starter. Lesson learned!

In saying that, the flavour is much smoother and rounded than I've experienced before when using WB-06 so there probably is some contribution from 3056.

Ah well, I'm bottling it tonight and hopefully quaffing it this time next week (2 weeks max!).

[Spud395]

Cool, been following this tread.
Next brew is very close to this.
Lager malt 2500g
Wheat malt 2500g
Hallateur hops

Will prolly use wb06, not graduated to liquid yeast yet.
But can ferment at 18-20deg.

Glad it turned out so well for you!