# Off Smelling Hefeweizen



## tanked84 (11/11/12)

Started brewing my first Hefeweizen last week. It is from a St Peters brewery fresh wort kit.
OG 1042
After about 2-3 days it was bubbling along nicely and was putting out this awesome banana smell.
The temperature being 21-22C, but on the 4th day it got to 24C for a couple of hours.
Now after a week after testing it with the hydrometer(1025) i decide to taste and smell it.
Tastes pretty good, but it smells off. Smells like someones hung a shit in there.
What i really want to know is will this smell go away? 
Did someone take a dump?
What has caused this?
Is this normal for a hefeweizen?
will is disapear after another week?
I'm assuming that because it tastes alright the beer is not infected?
Hope i don't have to tip it out 

Edit. yeast used was safbrew wb-06


----------



## Nick JD (11/11/12)

tanked84 said:


> Is this normal for a hefeweizen?
> 
> will is disapear after another week?



Yes.

Maybe. 

Hefeweizens can throw shitloads of sulphur. Some come right at FG; some don't. 

The sulphur issue and how to control it lead me round the gaarden path so much I started fermenting my german wheats with belgian ale yeasts to avoid it. 

Farty hefes are the pits.


----------



## Juzdu (13/11/12)

tanked84 said:


> Started brewing my first Hefeweizen last week. It is from a St Peters brewery fresh wort kit.
> OG 1042
> After about 2-3 days it was bubbling along nicely and was putting out this awesome banana smell.
> The temperature being 21-22C, but on the 4th day it got to 24C for a couple of hours.
> ...


Interesting that it's only at 1025 after a week, i've done 2 hefe's in the last 2 weeks, the first went from 1036 to 1006 in 6 days, the second went from 1044 to 1011, also in 6 days. The first one was a Coopers kit yeast, the 2nd using the WB-06.

Neither of them had any kind of bad smells coming out of them...both fermented around 21 degrees. Is there an email address for the St Peters mob, you can ask them the question? I didn't use a wort kit, mine were both brewed using the Thomas Coopers pre-hopped wheat cans.

Too late to do anything now anyway, let it get to FG (do they tell you on the kit what to expect as your FG?) then let us know if it still stinks. Then let it bottle condition for a week, fridge one for a few hours and give it a taste. I did that on the weekend with my first wheat, and it tastes great already. Apparently wheat beers mature more quickly so don't necessarily need weeks/months in the bottle to come good.

EDIT: Don't worry about it getting up to 24 either, i've read that yeast beers can actually be better when brewed at 24 degrees with a specialty wheat yeast like WB-06. Is it fermenting somewhere dark?


----------



## tanked84 (13/11/12)

Cheers for the reply's
Today after taking a reading the hef is 1008. (10days)
It smells better with only a faint yucky smell remaining at first....well after smelling it a few minutes later the off smell seems to be nearly gone.
I should say that this is from smelling the sample used in the hydrometer tube, not come through the airlock
Yes its in a dark room wrapped in a blanket. steady 21C
I was going to email them, thought a wider audience on here would more useful. No they don't tell you that or much else just add 5L of water.

Taste test shows up as awesome. Pretty happy with it i guess its coming good at the right time.

Maybe it just needs a few more days to sort itself out and get rid of the slight smell?
Or
would this disappear while carbing in bottles?


----------



## wyane (15/11/12)

tanked84 said:


> ...
> Maybe it just needs a few more days to sort itself out and get rid of the slight smell?
> Or
> would this disappear while carbing in bottles?



Bottled a Coopers wheat beer 17/11 last year using WB-06 -- thanks for the reminder to do this again! Was only doing 7 day primary fermentations back then. I can remember the trub still bubbling away when done bottling. This was one occasion where the plastic bottles definitely had an advantage over the glass -- they ended up tight as snare drums! But it's a fizzy style so nu wuckers  

The smells and aromas keep changing for weeks after you bottle it. The brew log says it wasn't that good until 40 days. Put a few away and had them after 110 days, last one at 154, and they were fantastic.


----------



## NewtownClown (15/11/12)

I generally use Wb-06 when I want to turn around a wheat quickly.
Gravity around 40-45 points. Pitch at 22 and let it rise to 24 over 5-7 days by which time it is done. Keg, carb and drink.

Like Jimmy Saville's dates, they are best enjoyed young.


----------



## Juzdu (15/11/12)

wyane said:


> Bottled a Coopers wheat beer 17/11 last year using WB-06 -- thanks for the reminder to do this again! Was only doing 7 day primary fermentations back then. I can remember the trub still bubbling away when done bottling. This was one occasion where the plastic bottles definitely had an advantage over the glass -- they ended up tight as snare drums! But it's a fizzy style so nu wuckers
> 
> The smells and aromas keep changing for weeks after you bottle it. The brew log says it wasn't that good until 40 days. Put a few away and had them after 110 days, last one at 154, and they were fantastic.


Very interesting....what else did you put in with the Coopers wheat, just dex or malt and dex? Also, you say it wasn't good 'til 40 days...how long did you leave it it the bottle, but not in the fridge, the whole 40 days? Or do you transfer to the fridge after a few weeks of bottle conditioning? Same q for the 110 & 154...were they in the dark above 18 degrees that whole time?


----------



## wyane (15/11/12)

Juzdu said:


> Very interesting....what else did you put in with the Coopers wheat, just dex or malt and dex? Also, you say it wasn't good 'til 40 days...how long did you leave it it the bottle, but not in the fridge, the whole 40 days? Or do you transfer to the fridge after a few weeks of bottle conditioning? Same q for the 110 & 154...were they in the dark above 18 degrees that whole time?



Followed the kit instructions for the rest: 500g LDM, 300g dextrose. The bots are stored in boxes covered by blankets or towels and under benches, tables, beds, old car chaises, shipping containers, buried in the backyard and basically anywhere anywhere dark and at a constant and comfortable "room temperature". Don't exactly have a beer fridge as a beer shelf in the fridge :unsure:


----------



## Juzdu (15/11/12)

wyane said:


> Followed the kit instructions for the rest: 500g LDM, 300g dextrose. The bots are stored in boxes covered by blankets or towels and under benches, tables, beds, old car chaises, shipping containers, buried in the backyard and basically anywhere anywhere dark and at a constant and comfortable "room temperature". Don't exactly have a beer fridge as a beer shelf in the fridge :unsure:


Ok wow, so even the 154 day beer was kept out of the fridge until just before drinking. You don't know how hard that sort of info has been to find. All the guides are really vague on when beers should be moved from room temp to the fridge. For example the Coopers 'how to brew' guide for wheat beer from their website:



> Store the bottles out of direct sunlight at 18C or above for at least 1 week while secondary fermentation occurs. Your beer can be consumed after 2 weeks.
> 
> Bottles may be stored (conditioned) for long periods of time (3 months or more). Conditioning should improve flavour, reduce the size of the bubbles and make the yeast sediment more compacted.



I'm curious to know if "conditioning" is a process that's considered to occur only outside of the fridge, i.e. at room temps, or if bottles still 'condition' once transferred to the fridge, only at a much slower rate?

And as usual, real world examples from people just bring this to life, such as "I drank a Coopers wheat beer that had been at room temp in the dark for 6 months and it was great". 

Thanks.


----------



## QldKev (15/11/12)

Conditioning definitely occurs in the fridge. All good wheat beers should be drunk very young. 

QldKev


----------



## dr K (15/11/12)

> All good wheat beers should be drunk very young.


and probably use a wheat beer yeast, unless you are brewing American Wheat (there is a story that the classic American Wheat "Widmer" was brewed (and still is generations and mutations) on with an Alt yeast from Zum Uerige), I suspect that the supplied yeast in Coopers (and most kits) is standard ale yeast.
Anyway, wheat beer is best drunk young, I recently had some sucess at comp where the beer was bottle conditioned and less than two weeks from the fermentor (indeed only just over two weeks from the mash). It was a re-brew of a beer that did well in an other comp, in the other comp it was probably only a week older.
There are some excellent recent books on Wheat beer brewing, read them and life is easy.

K


----------



## NewtownClown (15/11/12)

WB-06 is a Wheat Beer Yeast...


----------



## tanked84 (20/11/12)

Just thought i'd update you all on my outcome.
After carbonating this hef for 6 days i put a couple in the fridge last night.
Just cracked one, no longer smells off at all. It has a beautiful bubblegum smell too it. Tastes great too!!
Surprisingly it is fully carbonated.
This batch won't last long! :chug:


----------

