High temp w/ 1968

Help me out here...

I'm using Wyeast 1968 for the first time, in a 1.048 English Summer Ale (Randy Mosher's recipe). I pitched at 66F as planned, and seven hours later, the temp had risen to 68F and the beer was clearly fermenting. After this, I let the temp get away from me, and by the end of day 1 the temp had reached 72F before I cooled it down a bit. (It hovered at 68-70 overnight.)

At 72F, in the first day of primary fermentation, did I produce fruity esters, fusel alcohols, or both? I confess that the metabolic processes of yeast confuse me sometimes--I thought that esters were produced only during the adaptive and growth phase (when my beer was at 66-68), but I realize I could be wrong.

For those with experience with Wyeast 1968/ WLP002: given the fermentation regimen I described above, how crazy do you expect my ale to taste? I'll definitely try again with 1968 and monitor temps more carefully, but what flavors would you expect to result from a 72F ferment?

Thanks in advance for your input.

My most popular beer is an American Pale Ale fermented with WLP002(same as 1968) at 72 degrees. The yeast produces some fantastic esters and I've never noticed any hot alcohols. Given the amount of time it took your beer to reach 72 after pitching I'd bet you have very few of those esters. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

TarheelBrew13 said:

My most popular beer is an American Pale Ale fermented with WLP002(same as 1968) at 72 degrees. The yeast produces some fantastic esters and I've never noticed any hot alcohols. Given the amount of time it took your beer to reach 72 after pitching I'd bet you have very few of those esters. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

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Thanks for the reassurance, TB13. Fermentation appeared to be slowing tonight, and the yeast was definitely flocculating, so I took the first gravity sample to see where we were. 66% aa, not too bad. It's still working, so I feel good about reaching 71% or so. I closed it up and swirled the carboy up a bit.

The sample was fruity, but not too intense. There was a bit of diacetyl. Really, t was more green than anything else. Anyway, I'm eager to see what another 10 days will do to it. (I'm planning to dry hop with 1 oz of Willamette.)

Tony - how did this turn out? I've just come home to find my ESB clone using 1968 is at 26oC (78F)!!! I feel like shooting myself for being so stupid but I am hoping that only one day will not render my brew undrinkable. It's now outside covered in icepacks.

What's worse is the brew was done to show a guy I know how to do AG brewing, so I also look like a tool and I'll also owe him $20 if his half of the beer is stink.

Man I'm pissed off with this - I got a $1000 bonus at work today, and right now I'd rather have had this not happen. Anyone got any experience with WY1968 and 78F fermentations?

cwhouston said:

Anyone got any experience with WY1968 and 78F fermentations?

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Get ready for fruit salad beer. Sorry.

1968 is by far the most resilient yeast I've ever used in terms of heat. Before I got my fermentation temp game under control this yeast would get up to the mid 70's during my summer brewing and I never detected any fusels. I should add, I had horribly experiences with fusels from some other yeasts that caused pounding head-aches for me. This yeast, in my opinion, is great if you can't keep the ferm temp under control.

cwhouston said:

Tony - how did this turn out?
...
Anyone got any experience with WY1968 and 78F fermentations?

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I don't know if my experience will help you know what to expect from your ESB, since my ale fermented relatively cool during the first day, and never got above 72F. I will say that I should not have worried at all. My English Summer Ale was delicious at 14 days in the bottle, no higher alcohols, and barely a hint of fruitiness. In fact, I taste the pilsner and English pale malts first, and only afterwards do I get any yeast character. And not much then.

I don't know if I would purposefully let 1968 reach 78F in the first day, but I wouldn't worry about a rest at 72-74 during the growth phase. Depending on what I was looking for in that beer, of course.

Two other notes about my first experience with 1968: I got high attenuation, 81%, and I find the yeast isn't as flocculent as I was expecting. It stayed in suspension in primary all the way to 12-14 days. It does clump together in the bottle (in a granular sort or way), but it doesn't paint itself to the bottom of the bottle as others have described, and it's pretty easy to kick up if you don't pour carefully.

Maybe my next experience will be more typical, in terms of attenuation and flocculation. I definitely like 1968, and I'll brew with it again.

Ok - thanks for the feedback guys. I've just sampled it and it tastes real ugly so I'm tipping it and reusing the cake. I know I should wait see how it turns out etc etc, but I need the fermenter and since bottling is such a PITA, I'd rather start again.

cwhouston said:

Ok - thanks for the feedback guys. I've just sampled it and it tastes real ugly so I'm tipping it and reusing the cake. I know I should wait see how it turns out etc etc, but I need the fermenter and since bottling is such a PITA, I'd rather start again.

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Define "ugly", at 70 degrees you will almost certainly detect things that you won't at serving temp once it's carbonated. I think you're foolish to dump the batch because it hit 78 during fermentation. If it was Safale 04 or another yeast that's intolerant to heat I would say maybe dump it, but with this yeast I promise it'll be fine.

OK jwible - I like your persistence, so I'll copy it. Batch will be bottled. I wanted to top crop this but after it finished going off like a rolling boil, it's dropped like a rock.

Update - I sampled this while taking a gravity reading and I'm astonished that it tastes OK. Jwible, I thank you.