I brewed an all extract bavarian hefe on Monday afternoon. Had made a starter (about 1700ml) using WLP300. Had it in the flask for a bit more than 24 hrs, then I put it in the fridge for a couple nights as I wasn't going to get to brew on Sat or Sun as I had hoped. Took it out a few hours ahead of pitching, decanted, and let it sit at room temp.
did my first full boil outside, new pot, chiller, etc. Briess wheat DME and Muntons wheat LME. Everything in the boil went smoothly. All the LME was late addition. Chilled, whirlpooled, siphoned to the fermenting bucket. Had the wort pouring against the side of the bucket so as to spread wide and thin and get as much surface area open to the air as possible. Got it into the mid/low 60s, pitched the starter, shook it up, and set it in a larger bucket with a water bath to help keep the temp in the low-mid 60s. On the Jamil Show on this style, Jamil stressed a big improvement in the clove and banana by fermenting at 62°. Mine is around 63 and has been since Monday night.
I set the bucket up with a blow-off tube into a large plastic jug containing a sanitizer solution. By Tues morning I heard it bubbling slowly (once every 12 secs or so). when I got home from work Tu evening, it was more like every 5 seconds, holding at 63°. Great!
Wed night I get home from work and it's slowed back to the once every 10-12 seconds, and TH morning it was 15 sec between burps.
From all I've read, Hefe's tend to give a pretty intense ferment, no? I was expecting a lot more activity, even if only for 2-3 days.
I have not opened the bucket to take a gravity reading yet (OG was 1.052). Is that the next step? I'm concerned something ain't right, that perhaps my starter wasn't all that great (being the first starter I've made, I really don't know, but it appeared that I have increased my yeast amount when I chilled it and saw what had accumulated at the bottom). Picking up another vile of WLP300 isn't going to be easy during the weekdays given where I'd have to go to find it.
