Hefeweizen - slight off flavor...again.

[vthokiedsp]

Thanks. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow then. When you skim the yeast and put in a sanitized jar, do you cover with spring or distilled water like you were washing the yeast? Not sure I'll do this bc I'm not sure when I'll brew another hefe. I've got 10 gallons already. How long have you kept it? If I don't use it then it becomes a whole mystery of how much is viable out of a scum and what size starter yada yada.

 

[Medarius]

Thanks. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow then. When you skim the yeast and put in a sanitized jar, do you cover with spring or distilled water like you were washing the yeast? Not sure I'll do this bc I'm not sure when I'll brew another hefe. I've got 10 gallons already. How long have you kept it? If I don't use it then it becomes a whole mystery of how much is viable out of a scum and what size starter yada yada.

I brew every 2 weeks, so have never kept yeast for longer. If you're going to skim yeast to keep it from a hefe, the best method(IMO) is to skim 3 times, once daily for days 2-4 of ferm, the first skim will be full of hops and trub, the second skim is the only one worth keeping as this is the most viable/clean, and again the third is tossed away. I cover yeast in jar with cooled boiled water for storage.

5:12Top cropping yeast
A quick video that shows a process close to mine, I recommend turning volume down if you watch this,
music can be a bit much.

 

[vthokiedsp]

Update:. I cracked open the first bottle from this batch and was expecting the plastic taste but much to my amazement...it wasn't there. 5 weeks bottle of conditioning and carbonating did the trick apparently.

It would seem that the yeast activity to carbonate the hefeweizen cleaned up whatever compound was leading to that taste. Not sure why it didn't do that in my batch last year. Maybe the starter was better this time around and the yeast was in better shape for conditioning. Thoughts?

Regardless, I'm ecstatic. It's a fantastic hefe and that 6 gal batch isn't gonna last long now that my wife has confirmed the taste/aroma is gonna.