High temperature at beginning of fermentation

[Mambo]

Hi, this is my first brew, im using a youngs american IPA kit.

I struggled to get the wort down below 26c so added the yeast at the temperature although the instructions said to bring the temp down to 25c.

The temperature stayed at 26 for the first 48 hours and there was some overflow from the airlock.

I wrapped a wet towel around the vessel and managed to get the temperature down to 22c for day 3 and 4. Day 5 and 6 it has been sitting at 20c as its cooler weather.

Day 7 The airlock is now bubbling at a rate of every 50 seconds, the instructions state adding hops at a rate of 1 bubble every 30 seconds. The instructions state at it should take 15 days for complete fermentation.

Has my brew fernented too fast and will the flavour be affected, and is there anything i can do to prevent it getting worse?

My starting sg was 1060.

Thanks

 

[sven945]

I'm far from an expert, but I may be in a similar position to you with this brew. I should have waited longer before pitching, but I was too impatient!

My beer has a harsh alcohol flavour after a week which I suspect may be down to this (I've read a few things suggesting it may be). I'm going to leave it on the yeast for a few more days in the hope that it'll continue to work some magic to make it settle down.

I suspect a combination of longer in the primary and longer in the bottles would help if your beer turns out like this, but the downside is IPAs lose hop flavour so are best drunk fairly fresh.

Others will have a much better insight than me, I'm sure.

 

[BeerisGOD]

I had a similar problem but managed to get it cooled between the 72 hour period but I'm still bit concerned.
what made me feel a bit less stressed was the coopers yeast I used has a (according to the coopers forum) 21-27c tolerance.
so I'm thinking it was at the halfway stage so even if I had it at I higher temp than 24 then all should be fine.
the question id be asking is was Ur yeast strain tolerant of 26 degrees?

 

[Soton]

If it still fermenting now then your yeast seemed to be tolerant of the temptures.
The temperature you ferment you beer at dose effect the flavours the yeast imparts to your brew, 26 degrees is a bit high but that said it would depend on the type of brew and the type of yeast used, some yeasts, like for instance Nottingham yeast have a good tolerance range but that is from about 12c up to about 21c where as a Safbrew US-05 can work well right up to something like 29c, I should think as you cooled the ferment down you should be ok
What you might find is you love the finished product because the higher temptures produced a slightly fruitier flavour to the beer, it would be interesting to see how it turns out and then to brew the same beer again under more controlled conditions and see if that it made much difference to the outcome, which I suppose that then shows a good reason to keep good records of your brewing so if you make a good beer you then should be able to repeat again by sticking to the details of your brewing records

 

[BeerisGOD]

if you get urself in this predicament again and hope you don't, I found a quick solution.
wet kitchen towel and press onto the FV all way round.use string to tie round the FV to keep in place.
get a fan on and aim it at the FV, if you have a rotating setting use this if not Youl get Ur FV cooled down a couple of degrees within three hours.
a spray bottle of water can be used to maintain wetness (for want of a better word)

this method can you used if you do pitch at a high temp regardless.
just wish id done it earlier than later.

 

[sven945]

where as a Safbrew US-05 can work well right up to something like 29c,

That's the yeast I used, and I don't think it went anywhere near that (26° at absolute most, but nearer 23° for the first 48 hours) so that's a relief for my situation!

 

[dad_of_jon]

Hi, this is my first brew, im using a youngs american IPA kit.

I struggled to get the wort down below 26c so added the yeast at the temperature although the instructions said to bring the temp down to 25c.

The temperature stayed at 26 for the first 48 hours and there was some overflow from the airlock.

I wrapped a wet towel around the vessel and managed to get the temperature down to 22c for day 3 and 4. Day 5 and 6 it has been sitting at 20c as its cooler weather.

Day 7 The airlock is now bubbling at a rate of every 50 seconds, the instructions state adding hops at a rate of 1 bubble every 30 seconds. The instructions state at it should take 15 days for complete fermentation.

Has my brew fernented too fast and will the flavour be affected, and is there anything i can do to prevent it getting worse?

My starting sg was 1060.

Thanks

As said elsewhere if depends on the yeast used and if you like the fruitier/funkier flavours (esters) you get with higher fermentation temps.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/03/07/esters-in-beer-brewing/

maybe for a clean IPA you'd want to keeps the temps down but i've pitched at 28 before now and brewed at 23-24 and it's been lush.

 

[ericmark]

The wet towel and fan does work, latent heat of evaporation, but too late now, I have in the past had some rather bitter beers as a result of over temperature, but given time to condition they do seem to have mellowed somewhat.

For a few years I only brewed in the Winter, this is first year of Summer brewing using a fridge/freezer in the freezer compartment to keep the temperature down. However Indian Pale Ale was developed to allow it to be transported to India in sailing ships so would remain in the cask a long time and also have quite a variation of temperature. Today the casks are stored 6 months before sending to the Pub to emulate the sea crossing. So I would think this beer will stand some temperature increase without too much of a problem.

There is more of a problem in the 6 months conditioning, although I have a large stock, 6 months is pushing it a bit even for me to allow beers to condition.

 

[Soton]

I am not sure where I heard this from or if it's just an old wives tale but I think I recall reading that if your beer over heats for a short while cold crashing it will help with smoothing out some of the esters that formed in that time, of course unless someone has actually test this out you can't be sure if it's true or not

 

[BeerisGOD]

I am not sure where I heard this from or if it's just an old wives tale but I think I recall reading that if your beer over heats for a short while cold crashing it will help with smoothing out some of the esters that formed in that time, of course unless someone has actually test this out you can't be sure if it's true or not

sounds like worth a try. although not having a fridge the best I can do is an ice bath along with the wet kitchen towel and fan trick.

 

[Mambo]

thanks for the replies, I will take this all into consideration for my next brew,
looking through information online it seems that the yeast that comes with the pack is US West Coast Yeast BRY-97, i can't seem to find any information on limits of the temperature range, does anyone know what the high limits are for this strain?

thanks

 

[Soton]

I thought I had read about high temp fermentation somewhere, take a look at the link below, it quite interesting, it seems in the article that if you keep you beer chilled for a month ( it says a keg but bottles should be ok ) it smooths out the flavours

http://beerandwinejournal.com/high-temp-yeast/

 

[Dutto]

If I have a beer that on first tasting seems a bit "odd" I just move it to a cool shelf in the dark for a couple of weeks before having another taste.

It's amazing how extra conditioning time can mellow a harsh beer and at the same time remove a lot of "off-tastes" that are there when the brew is new. :thumb:

 

[Slid]

I am not sure where I heard this from or if it's just an old wives tale but I think I recall reading that if your beer over heats for a short while cold crashing it will help with smoothing out some of the esters that formed in that time, of course unless someone has actually test this out you can't be sure if it's true or not

That is an interesting idea for sure. Could not say from experience whether it would work or not. My own experiences lead me to believe that a stressed yeast just needs longer at its preferred temperatures to complete the job of turning wort into beer. Initial high temperatures tend to lead to an over-rapid initial ferment that can seem to stop after a few days.

In reality, the stressed yeast should be given a further fortnight or so at least to get on with not only fermenting the remaining sugars, but converting the by-products of the initial fermentation. This can add several weeks onto the fermentation cycle.

In my experience US 05 and the Coopers yeast are very good for tolerating the heat experienced in centrally heated houses, but the Muntons yeast, which I understand to be Notingham yeast, is much less tolerant of temperatures that exceed even 21C.

The best advice I can offer is not to bottle a kit brew unless it is below, say, 1012 for a one can, 1014 for a 2 can brew. Only bad things happen from bottling cloudy or fermenting brew.

 

[Slid]

I did this experiment once, with saving the worn out ends of bottled beers. It did show up a number of interesting features, which include:

Brewed beer to 5% or the like is very resilient to any infection or interference. Not surprising, as beer has been brewed at least since the time the Egyptian Pyramids were built, and probably for a long time before that.

Even yeasts that ferment best at 18C still ferment, only much more slowly, at fridge temps - 3C.

So, in the end, patience is going to be your best friend with a stuck fermentation.

The thread below has all the musings:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=53862