Zombie Hefeweizens and Long, Slow Fermentations
I’ve been a little down on brewing for a few months, now. A couple beers I made turned out disappointing, and one of them (#07, the IPA) may have had some minor infection that made it taste way way too harshly grapefruity. My Imperial Stout hung at around 1.032SG (between 8-9% ABV, I think). I was just having no luck at all. Then I made a Hefeweizen and never got it into secondary (see previous stuck fermentation in my only other carboy). My friend and great homebrewer, Nate helped with good advice and positive comments, but I was starting to get very discouraged, though I didn’t want to admit it. Friends and fellow Beercrafters Christy and Brad have been brewing up excellent extract-only brews, and sampling their craft has been encouraging me to get my hands back in the boiling wort again.
With the goal of re-entering the brewing world, yesterday I bit the bullet, did a bunch of cleaning and taking stock of my brewing equipment, sanitized my wine thief, and took me a sample of my hefe. It’d been sitting in the primary since March 22 (that’s five months it sat there), and looking very glum. Shockingly, it wasn’t bad. Maybe it was bad, but not as bad as I thought, but I dunno - it tasted like a mellow but definitely German-style Hefeweizen to me. Banana phenols and all. I ended up bottling it in two 3 Liter plastic bottles (Tap-a-draft system), a 22oz bottle, a 16.5oz bottle, and a 12oz bottle. If all goes well, I’ll enter it in the Punk Rock Homebrew Contest/Festival/Party thingamajig coming up on the 30th.
After sampling the Hefeweizen, but before bottling it, I tried out my Imperial Stout, previously stuck at 1.032, last checked March 22nd (the day I brewed the Hefeweizen). It’s now down to betwee 1.023 and 1.025, which puts it at around 11% ABV, pretty much what I’d hoped for. It’s incredibly smoky (that was a lot of Rauch malt), with chocolate undertones and a bit of tamari. It reminded me somewhat of a smoky, less tamari-laden Old Viscosity. I’m in love with it, but it’s definitely a sipping beer. I hope to bottle it in the next week.
Now I’m planning my next beer… maybe another all-extract Hefeweizen, just bottled without sitting in the primary for five fucking months.