Hefeweisse - no head/ low carbonation

[brewbear]

Hello all

I've made a few batches of a nice but disappointing hefeweisse. On each occasion I've had two (presumably related) disappointments:
1) No head (well, 2mm that dissipates immediately)
2) Low carbonation
Oh - and 3) Thin body

I'd be grateful for any advice on why 1 and 2 (and 3 if anyone has an idea) might be occurring. I'll be making the batch again in May/ June, so can try tweaks then.

Note: Every other AG beer I've made has a perfect and rich head. However, ironically, the hefe-'famous for it's big head'-weisse fails every time. I know it's not about my process in general therefore (no soap used, etc), but specific to this beer.

Am I under-carbonating? Should I add more sugar? Or should I try plonking in a King Keg - if so what psi?

Any ideas and suggestions gratefully received.

Brewbear


Details:
Conditioning: Bottle conditioned. Primed with 1/2tsp table sugar in each bottle. Conditioned for 10-14 days at 18c in fermentation fridge before cold crashing at 1c for 2 days, then cellar temps 6-9c. Bottles opened between 14 days from bottling and 3 months - no differences.

Fermentation: At 21c for between 10 and 25 days (one batch bottling was delayed!)

Recipe:
Pale wheat malt 3.45kg
Pilsner malt 3kg
Oat hulls 200g
Mash: 67 90 mins
Boil: 60 mins
Hops:
60min Hallertau Hersbrucker 50g @1.85% ~10 IBU
15min Hallertau Hersbrucker 15g @1.85% ~2 IBU
WLP300 directly pitched. V vigorous fermentation activity.

 

[Covrich]

Never made one of these , at least yet but I think they tend to be carbed a little higher than your average ale beer..

 

[Leon103]

I would say it's under carbed. Plus what glass are you using and how is it cleaned?

 

[brewbear]

I would say it's under carbed. Plus what glass are you using and how is it cleaned?

Both a Edinger-style weissbier glass and also in a regular pint glass. Cleaned in a dishwasher, but then fastidiously re-cleaned with warm water and 'brewing only' brush (no soap). Wet glass or dry glass - same issue.

 

[cheapbrew]

I would say try more priming, create more co2 to get more head, as for thin body, a bit more info on the brew and fermentation conditions would help.

 

[wfr42]

I think you're priming too low.

Have a play with this - http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?18242085#tag
(found from a Google search you may find a metric one with more time on your hands).

 

[brewbear]

Thanks, wfr42 - if that thing's correct and my poor Maths is accurate, I'm wayyyy under-carbonating.

At 18c (my usual bottling temp), it recommends 253g per 23L. That comes out at around 5.7g per bottle. That's just over 1tsp, so in my past batches I'm about half-carbonating (at 1/2 tsp per bottle).

I guess that would explain things.

I'm nervous about bottle bombs if I double my sugar levels though

Be good to hear if anyone else bottles weissbier and their approach. I have until end of May to decide how far to push it.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Thanks, wfr42 - if that thing's correct and my poor Maths is accurate, I'm wayyyy under-carbonating.

At 18c (my usual bottling temp), it recommends 253g per 23L. That comes out at around 5.7g per bottle. That's just over 1tsp, so in my past batches I'm about half-carbonating (at 1/2 tsp per bottle).

I guess that would explain things.

I'm nervous about bottle bombs if I double my sugar levels though

Be good to hear if anyone else bottles weissbier and their approach. I have until end of May to decide how far to push it.

I've done 3 weissbiers and used http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/ to prime my beers to 3.2 volumes and then bottled them - they were fine :-) I've not fermented /bottled below 20 deg for them - and they were above 20 deg for 7-10 days then down the shed.

 

[brewbear]

Thanks, dad_of_jon - I can see that I've definitely been under-carbonating. I guess I hadn't really given any thought to varying the amount of sugar used in carbonation and had just been sticking with the old '1/2tsp per bottle' approach I'd always used.

I suspect I may be bottling 5-10 bottles each with different amounts of sugar next time to find the right level, starting from 3.0 volumes and up to 4.something:)

Thanks for the advice

 

[Leon103]

I use around 10g per litre in mine and I batch prime

 

[brewbear]

Yep: more priming sugar next time, definitely. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Alan_H]

As for the thin body: what was your mash temp.? If it's too low it will create a more fermentable wort, resulting in a thinner body.
http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/12/20/mash-temperature-and-beer-body-in-all-grain-brewing/

 

[brewbear]

Yes, I wondered about this. Mashed at 67, but I'm beginning to wonder if my thermometer is accurate. Adding a thermowell and calibratable thermometer to the mashtun for this reason.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Thanks, dad_of_jon - I can see that I've definitely been under-carbonating. I guess I hadn't really given any thought to varying the amount of sugar used in carbonation and had just been sticking with the old '1/2tsp per bottle' approach I'd always used.

I suspect I may be bottling 5-10 bottles each with different amounts of sugar next time to find the right level, starting from 3.0 volumes and up to 4.something:)

Thanks for the advice

no probs,

you can once you get the hang of priming alter the amount depending on what you fancy, I like my big ipa's fizzier than the normal levels of carbonation for the style because a hoppy amarillo burp is the gift that keeps on giving :-)

my next brew once I get my xmas ris bottled is a wheat beer with about 160g of brewing sugar for 21 litres or thereabouts :whistle:

 

[brewbear]

Sounds grand. RIS: do you have a good recipe? Had my first bottles of this over winter (lots to choose from at Beers of Europe!) and loved every one. Would be interested in trying to brew one (if my mashtun is big enough for the grain bill!)

 

[dad_of_jon]

Sounds grand. RIS: do you have a good recipe? Had my first bottles of this over winter (lots to choose from at Beers of Europe!) and loved every one. Would be interested in trying to brew one (if my mashtun is big enough for the grain bill!)

I pinched the one from the Greg Hughes - Home Brew Beer Book on page 180 and tweaked the recipe for MORE POWER :lol: I'll be bottling it today but it does take 16 weeks to condition according to the book :-(

re your mashtun you could always substitute some of the grain with extract. Whichever way you do it the extra fermentables make it a dearer brew than usual.