German Hefe

[Tarp Town]

I brewed 10 gallons of German Hefe (don't have the recipe in front of me) with Kolsch yeast and kegged them into two cornies.

One keg I did the set-and-forget carbonation method, and the other I tried the shaking technique for the first time.

After it was chilled, I gave it 30 punds of CO2 and shook the hell out of it for 2-3 minutes and put it back in the fridge and tasted it the next day. It has beyond great head retention, but tastes flat as a tire. Seeing it have such a massive head while tasting that way has confused the hell out of me.

Any help would be great, thanks.

[Nate Diggler]

Koelsch yeast is way too clean of a strain to use for that beer unless you up the hops to give it some flavor since Hef's are generally light on hops. You essentially have an American Wheat. Use a real Hef strain (Wyeast 3056, 3068, 3333, etc.) to get the banana/clove phenolics... Koelsch fermented warm is yuck.

[Tarp Town]

I pitched at 64 and fermented at 54, it's got good taste, just no carbonation.

Trust me, Hef with Kolsch yeast tastes great.

[Nate Diggler]

I don't deny that, but with Koelsch yeast, where's the Hef part? That yeast flocs out and leaves clear beer instead of cloudy, so you may have Weizen, but not Hefeweizen.

[Tarp Town]

Quite Floculacious as well.

I reccommend you try it sometime. This is the fourth batch I have done of the same recipe with the same yeast. The only things different this time was the shaking to carbonate method and I did the opposite fermentation temperature technique.

I can understand why the taste may differ, but I don't get the carbonation part of it....that's why I asked.

[Henning1966]

To answer the original question. It sounds like you have up front carbonation but not full carbonation. Check a glass and see if it has carb bubbles rising from bottom to top. If not then it is just not fully carbonated and equalized yet.

[mediumsk]

idunno, wheat will do awesome things for head retention. i wouuld just give it a few more days