Beer Forum

So...I have brewed two german wheat beers so far with wyeast 3068. The first one was a disaster as I bottled too soon and got an ass load of acetylealdehyde in the bottles. Oops. The second I just bottled today. I get clove flavors and aroma but no banana in the nose..I also get some sulfur which alarms me a bit.. Both attempts where at 64 degrees as I have heard people say the low 60's where good for this strain. Two months ago I brewed a heffe from jamils book but used 3638....it was f'ing awsome....same ferment temp of 64. The 3638 gave a perfect balance of refreshing clove and bready banana. Is there another trick to getting that out of the 3068? I gave the 3068 another try because i figured if it was great with 3638 it would be even greater with 3068. So far I am underwhelmed. The only difference im my process is that for the hefe with the 3638 I did a double decoction...with the 3068 I did a single infusion witha decoction to mash out. For both batches I did a 1.5 litre starter and pitched just above ferment temp(about 68). About 50/50 wheat to pils malt. Does anyone have some advise for me as I am baffled. I really want to like the 3068 as weihenstephan is one of my favorite breweries but im starting to lose faith.

I'm with you. Tried 3068, but wasn't impressed. I'm thinking of using one of the new dry wheat yeasts available. My target is Paulaner Hef, but I've struck out badly so far. My beers have all turned out kinda watery and lacking that great rich bready character of Paulaner. I'll try a decoction next time, but I'm at a loss too.

This is a post waiting for a Bub rant.

Any minute now...

i brewed a weizenbock yesterday. pitched a starter of 3068 at 6pm. at 12:30am the stopper blew off! I've never had a fermentation take off like that so quickly.

Bub? You out there? Hellloooo?

Hey, booboo, most of my wheat fermentations are explosive. I tried to be like Bub and make his Imperial Hefe. It blew the lid off the bucket! A nice resounding BOOM in the middle of the night is not good for the bedding!

I've used that yeast several times with good luck. Jamil recommends 62°F fermentation, but I think Dan Gordon said they used 64°F. Dan said they also pitch at a rate of 5 million cells per ml instead of the usual 0.75 million cells per mL per degree Plato (about 9.5 million cells per mL for a 12.5P beer).

I tried pitching just a fresh smack pack on the last batch and it turned out balanced with slightly more clove than bananna which I prefer.

You might try pitching at a lower rate to see if you get more bananna and less clove.

I've heard that certain types of step mashes can actually have an effect on ester production. For example: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index. ... es#Maltase

As for the 3068 yeast itself, I think you get the banana esters more around 66F and the cloves at lower temps like 62F. Then around 68F and above you get bubblegum. I'm not positive on this though.

I have used 3068 twice, both times with good results, and both times at 62F. But the first time I too got a LOT of sulfur after I racked to the keg. So on the second batch I let it rest at 70F for about 2 weeks after the fermentation was done and it didn't have any sulfur. FYI, the sulfur eventually aged out of the first batch as well and it turned into an excellent beer.