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Gravity dropped fast than expected.

BeerSteve

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Hi guys,

So I recently returned to home brewing after a ten year hiatus.  My second batch is a Brewers Best Weizenbier.  Everything seemed to go fairly well until after I pitched my yeast I found out one of my thermometers was not accurate.  So in the end I pitched my yeast around 82F, a little higher than the desired temperature.  OG was 1.050.  Fermentation starting humming along nicely within 7 hours and went strong for about 3-4 days when some slowing was noticeable.  I racked to secondary on day 5 and took a reading.  My SG on day 5 was already 1.012 and the target for this kit is 1.011-1.015.  I've never had a batch reach it's target that fast.

Is this normal?  OK?  Should I be worried?

Thanks all!

Steve
 
It will be fine. Worst case scenario you get some banana flavor from the yeast working at a higher than optimal temperature.
 
Wheat beer yeasts are aggressive beasts that can consume  fermentables in your  beer in 3 days. I love them. They also smell crazy and look like black webs in the empty primary after fermentation. Your aroma and flavour profile will be slightly different than if you did it at a cooler temperature. As with trappist yeasts you should have a more fruity nose and spicy flavours, while cooler means more earthy, and less or no fruit. I like both on the warmer end myself. Weizen loses some  banana - clove, and  trappist  loses plum aromas when done cooler.    The benefit of having beer finish fermenting at one week means you can bottle early and wait longer in the bottle.
 
They also smell crazy and look like black webs in the empty primary after fermentation.

True. The last wheat beer I brewed smelled so terrible going into the keg that I thought it was a loss. It came out awesome.
 
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