Hefe prob. Turned into soda water in keg.

[surly]

Hey guys,

I brewed a Hefe back in October (kegged start of Nov). It started out very flavoursome, plenty of banana, nice body to it and a nice golden colour with a lot of fluffy head.
I have been having the occasional pot/pint from it ever since and was thinking that it seemed lighter tasting nearly every time. I originally put this down to the dropping out of the yeast (used wyeast 3068) and a reduction in esters over time, but the beer has now become as boring as a corona. Maybe worse.
It is VERY light in colour, has little flavour to speak of (just a mild bitterness) and almost no head.

Is this typical of an ageing hefe? Or could I have some other bug living in my keg, slowly destroying the remaining sugars etc in my beer?
Any other possibilities?

Keg is about to become hop fertiliser...

 

[slcmorro]

Wheat beers are best drank fresh mate. They don't age well like some other beers. I try to kill my kegs within 6 weeks when they're full of wheaty goodness.

 

[surly]

Wheat beers are best drank fresh mate. They don't age well like some other beers. I try to kill my kegs within 6 weeks when they're full of wheaty goodness.

I realise they don't age well, but this is is a bit beyond that I reckon.
Never noticed a beer significantly change colour before..

 

[verysupple]

I realise they don't age well, but this is is a bit beyond that I reckon.
Never noticed a beer significantly change colour before..

Yeast in suspension can change the colour so if it's all flocc'd out then that could explain that. To find out you could rouse the yeast back up and see if the colour goes back to what it was.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

+1 for rousing the yeast. Personally I love my wheaties "mit hefe"... not the biggest fan of kristallweizens.

 

[surly]

Cheers guys, will give the "rouse" a go.

 

[surly]

So, gave the ol' keg a bit of an agitation.
1: turns out it is just about empty, result= yeast soup.
2: despite pouring a glass of yeast soup, it still tasted MUCH more attenuated. I suppose I could pour off a hydrometer sample and warm it up? this would tell me if something has been munching on previously un-metabolised sugars..

 

[The Gas Man]

Hey guys,

I brewed a Hefe back in October (kegged start of Nov). It started out very flavoursome, plenty of banana, nice body to it and a nice golden colour with a lot of fluffy head.
I have been having the occasional pot/pint from it ever since and was thinking that it seemed lighter tasting nearly every time. I originally put this down to the dropping out of the yeast (used wyeast 3068) and a reduction in esters over time, but the beer has now become as boring as a corona. Maybe worse.
It is VERY light in colour, has little flavour to speak of (just a mild bitterness) and almost no head.
Is this typical of an ageing hefe? Or could I have some other bug living in my keg, slowly destroying the remaining sugars etc in my beer?
Any other possibilities

Keg is about to become hop fertiliser...

I have seen the exactly the same thing this week with a hefeweizen that was just about to run dry. It lost all cloudiness, head retention and banana flavour. This Hefeweizen was probably about 3 months old. It had obviously reached its shelf life.