Wheat beer fermenting question/query

[Davie]

Good morning all,

I think this is might be a silly query, or perhaps I am over thinking it. I am still new to homebrewing. I have only brewed a couple of lagers thus far with decent results but I will be attempting my first wheat beer shortly, my question relates to fermentation, is it better to, once fermenting has completed, leave on the trub for additional time? Is it better to dump the trub and allow to sit in the fermentor for a bit? I wouldn't have thought cold crashing would help so much with the style but would anyone recommend this? Or is it better just once fermentation has completed, package to bottles right away?

If anyone could give me any pointers it would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Davie

 

[jof]

You don't want to leave it on the trub too long.
However I can't define too long, so you just have to go with your gut. (A super strong imperial stout may take many weeks to finish fermenting)
But from my experience if you use our 2 week fermentation rule, as long as the FV airlock is in place, I've had no problems pushing it to 4 weeks on the trub for standard strength beers (3-5%).

Also as I don't have a fancy fermentor with trub dumping capability, my beer goes direct from FV to bottles. Transfering off the trub in bulk to another FV increases risk of infection.

 

[emmever]

Hi,
Yesterday I tasted the first bottle of my first bavarian weizen, so I am for sure not an expert.
Just sharing what I have done.

I used Munich Classic yeast, started fermentation at 20C, than raised up to 22C. It stayed in the FV for 13 days (gravity was stable from day 10), then bottled with bottled conditioning.
I didn't cold crashed as I believe it is not needed for a hazy stiles like weizen

 

[RichardM]

If you have a conical fermenter and can dump the trub then you may as well do it.
Otherwise, just leave it for a couple of weeks. If you Google "autolysis" you will read about leaving the beer on the trub too long can cause autolysis and lead to off flavours. However, as @jof says we don't know how long too long is. I have read that it is more a problem in commercial breweries, where large volumes of beer in tall conical fermrnters are exerting a lot of pressure on the yeast in the trub.

 

[Davie]

Thanks everyone for the input, I have a conical so I can dump the trub, I think I'll aim for the suggest 2 weeks, dump the trub and let rest in the fermentor for another week then bottle and see what happens. As I suggested in the question I think I have been overthinking it a bit.

 

[MashBag]

Tbh there is no one answer to this. To many combinations of styles / recipes / kit / methods / yeasts.

That said I ferment on all the trub and wouldn't leave it there longer than 7 days. Ordinarily not more than a 14.

 

[Davie]

Tbh there is no one answer to this. To many combinations of styles / recipes / kit / methods / yeasts.

That said I ferment on all the trub and wouldn't leave it there longer than 7 days. Ordinarily not more than

Tbh there is no one answer to this. To many combinations of styles / recipes / kit / methods / yeasts.

That said I ferment on all the trub and wouldn't leave it there longer than 7 days. Ordinarily not more than a 14.

Not sure if I have picked this up wrong or not, so with a conical would you ferment until gravity stable and package straight away? Same as with a standard bucket/fermenting vessel? or would you ferment until the final gravity has been reached, dump the trub and leave until the 14 days then package after?

 

[Davie]

I think this is the approach I will take, thanks for your help
 

Hi,
Yesterday I tasted the first bottle of my first bavarian weizen, so I am for sure not an expert.
Just sharing what I have done.

I used Munich Classic yeast, started fermentation at 20C, than raised up to 22C. It stayed in the FV for 13 days (gravity was stable from day 10), then bottled with bottled conditioning.
I didn't cold crashed as I believe it is not needed for a hazy stiles like weiz