Hello,
Hefeweizen is one of my favorite styles, but unfortunately I've had the least success brewing this style of all beers. At this point having made two sulfur bomb Hefeweizens in a row with a weizenbock currently fermenting on the same Weihenstephan 68 yeast cake, I need your help if you've got experience with this issue. I am very sensitive to sulfur and thiol compounds, it's one of my secret weapons as a beer judge actually, but these beers have so much sulfur that anyone could detect it.
Let me get right into my process. The brewfather batch details are here: Brewfather
The predecessor to this beer, which had slightly more sulfur, actually, was where I pitched one OYL-021 package without a starter, and did not use yeast nutrient. Omega told me the sulfur production was a result of yeast stress. Homebrew club members suggested a small starter and to add 1/2 tsp Wyeast yeast nutrient at 15 minutes in the boil.
I brew on a modified Unibrau V3 dual 120V setup which is equipped with a whirlpool arm and uses a brew bag instead of the standard false bottom. I add my water salts, then boil my RO water and chill to strike temperature and add my ascorbic acid (antioxidant). At the conclusion of the step mash, I remove the grains, without sparging, heat to a boil, and then chill by whirlpooling through my copper immersion chiller. After chilling, I wait 30 minutes and run off into the fermentor without oxygenating beyond splashing, and pitch. I am careful to exclude as much trub as possible. Fermentation blow-off goes through a short line into a small glass containing about 1" of starsan. Fermentation completes within a week and then I wait an additional week before both kegging and bottling.
I am really stumped, as the last thing it seems I could do is to try a full open fermentation, just running the blowoff tube into an empty glass. This has been suggested to me by a local brewer who has had sulfur issues at the 10 bbl scale before. Thoughts?
Hefeweizen is one of my favorite styles, but unfortunately I've had the least success brewing this style of all beers. At this point having made two sulfur bomb Hefeweizens in a row with a weizenbock currently fermenting on the same Weihenstephan 68 yeast cake, I need your help if you've got experience with this issue. I am very sensitive to sulfur and thiol compounds, it's one of my secret weapons as a beer judge actually, but these beers have so much sulfur that anyone could detect it.
Let me get right into my process. The brewfather batch details are here: Brewfather
The predecessor to this beer, which had slightly more sulfur, actually, was where I pitched one OYL-021 package without a starter, and did not use yeast nutrient. Omega told me the sulfur production was a result of yeast stress. Homebrew club members suggested a small starter and to add 1/2 tsp Wyeast yeast nutrient at 15 minutes in the boil.
I brew on a modified Unibrau V3 dual 120V setup which is equipped with a whirlpool arm and uses a brew bag instead of the standard false bottom. I add my water salts, then boil my RO water and chill to strike temperature and add my ascorbic acid (antioxidant). At the conclusion of the step mash, I remove the grains, without sparging, heat to a boil, and then chill by whirlpooling through my copper immersion chiller. After chilling, I wait 30 minutes and run off into the fermentor without oxygenating beyond splashing, and pitch. I am careful to exclude as much trub as possible. Fermentation blow-off goes through a short line into a small glass containing about 1" of starsan. Fermentation completes within a week and then I wait an additional week before both kegging and bottling.
I am really stumped, as the last thing it seems I could do is to try a full open fermentation, just running the blowoff tube into an empty glass. This has been suggested to me by a local brewer who has had sulfur issues at the 10 bbl scale before. Thoughts?