Fermentation Temps

I've recently been listening to the Jamil show ( http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/jamil.php ) and he states that he ferments almost all of his ales at 68F and that anything over 70 can affect the flavor of the beer. My first AG is fermenting at 72F right now. A couple of questions:

1. Is it a big deal that I'm 4 degrees over "ideal temps" ?
2. Is there an easy way to drop the temp?

Right now my beer is sitting in my basement and it's a pretty constant temp.

Thanks for your replies!

Eric

That is warm, but in the weather we're having, you should be glad. Look up son of fermentation chiller in the search and there s a cool way to get the temps down. Also, you can put your fermenters in water (like a rectangle cooler) and put in some frozen, full soda 2 liters. That will help for now. I would say 4 degrees isn't even worth that, though. I just fermented my hefe at 78 and it is yummy (yea, it's a hefe...but still).

Well I've been brewing since the first of the year and am learniing alot from trial and error . But have made some fantastic brews. My latest task has been narrowed down to fermentation temps. Not so much with the pales, porters,and stouts. But been summer time with temps over 78 degrees in house even with the tee shirt /fan method Hefes have been a challenge to produce the way I have earlier with the banana nose, just seem to get a lot of cloves. I got a fridge off craigslist for free, now I guess I need a ranco temp. control for hot temps. Staying in the temps. seem to have a lot of say in final brew.

You should be fine. Depends a lot on the yeast you're using. I tend to do simple dry-ale-yeast recipes in the warmer weather because I find them to be more forgiving of slightly higher temps. 72 degrees is not going to ruin your beer. If you can, set your carboy into a tub of water and drape a t-shirt over the carboy and partially in the water. The tshirt will wick up the water and cool the carboy, especially if you can set a fan in the room.

Who needs all that attention making award winning beers.





You realize that he has a temperature controlled shed that is effectively a walk-in cooler. Of course it's 65 degrees.
Always try to get the best, do the best, but be satisified knowing you tried your best. It'll still be a fine beer.

Hey, thanks for the quick replies. This place is great

The Son of a Fermentation Chiller sounds like a project for the near future.

griffondg said:

Hey, thanks for the quick replies. This place is great

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We drink and we talk beer. Ain't no shortage of opinions around here. Just wait till the cold weather sets in and everyone is stuck inside.

I ferment in my basement and it is a consistent 68-70 degrees year round and my ales turn out just fine. I've used liquid and dry yeast strains with great results.

Last night I did a good batch of Ed's Haus Pale, and as I wathced the chiller, the temp would never get below 90Deg F. It was very late (2:30 am) and I was getting pissed. I put the primary in the fermentation chamber for another hour at 55Deg f to try to cool the wort, which was still 88 deg f. I finally said screw it and pitched the wyeast 1056, put in the air lock, dropped another block of ice in the frementation chamber, set the temp to 60 and went to bed. This morning, the temp in the chamber is 60 and the primary is showing bubles in the airlocke every few seconds. So....what flavor impacts do you think I will see from the higher pitch temp?

I use my cooler with an ice bath for each batch and can easily get fermentation temps in the 60's. It sounds as though you could do that as well without to much trouble.

BierMuncher said:

We drink and we talk beer. Ain't no shortage of opinions around here. Just wait till the cold weather sets in and everyone is stuck inside.

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Whoah, you mean 200 posts/day is *slow*??

Pirate Ale said:

Last night I did a good batch of Ed's Haus Pale, and as I wathced the chiller, the temp would never get below 90Deg F. It was very late (2:30 am) and I was getting pissed. I put the primary in the fermentation chamber for another hour at 55Deg f to try to cool the wort, which was still 88 deg f. I finally said screw it and pitched the wyeast 1056, put in the air lock, dropped another block of ice in the frementation chamber, set the temp to 60 and went to bed. This morning, the temp in the chamber is 60 and the primary is showing bubles in the airlocke every few seconds. So....what flavor impacts do you think I will see from the higher pitch temp?

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It sounds like you did the best you could to get that temp down. If anything, you probably just shocked the yeast. But if it's bubbling this morning chances are it recovered just fine. If you had used the dry yeast that the recipe calls for it would've been even less reason to worry, because yeast should be rehydrated in ~90* water.

I've read somewhere on the forums here that too high a pitching temp can cause off-flavors, but I've never experienced that myself. First of all whatever esters were produced in that first couple hours probably don't amount to much, may not even be noticeable. Even so, they will probably get broken down at later stages of fermenting. I'd recommend to definitely use a secondary on this one.

One question about temps to go along:

Do you have to worry as much about temps when you are bottle aging? I have a porter that I plan to age until Christmas Eve and am going to Secondary it very soon for a while then toss it in bottles. Once it bottled though what should I do to control temp? Or, is it really necessary at that point? My closets usually stay around 74-78 degrees without an ice bath...

Pirate Ale said:

Last night I did a good batch of Ed's Haus Pale, and as I wathced the chiller, the temp would never get below 90Deg F. It was very late (2:30 am) and I was getting pissed. I put the primary in the fermentation chamber for another hour at 55Deg f to try to cool the wort, which was still 88 deg f. I finally said screw it and pitched the wyeast 1056, put in the air lock, dropped another block of ice in the frementation chamber, set the temp to 60 and went to bed. This morning, the temp in the chamber is 60 and the primary is showing bubles in the airlocke every few seconds. So....what flavor impacts do you think I will see from the higher pitch temp?

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All you likely did was to accelerate the start of fermentation. IF the temp is right around ideal now (*12-20 hours into it) then you should have no issues.

I've had to pitch at higher than desireable temps too. This time of year sucks...hose water coming out of the ground is 80 freakin degrees and even my prechiller melts the ice too quickly.

Jekster said:

One question about temps to go along:

Do you have to worry as much about temps when you are bottle aging? I have a porter that I plan to age until Christmas Eve and am going to Secondary it very soon for a while then toss it in bottles. Once it bottled though what should I do to control temp? Or, is it really necessary at that point? My closets usually stay around 74-78 degrees without an ice bath...

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You will be fine. Cooler would be ideal but the next best is stable - ie no wild temperature swings daily. I just bottled a Robust Porter that will be aging until X-Mas time as well...

Pirate Ale said:

Last night I did a good batch of Ed's Haus Pale, and as I wathced the chiller, the temp would never get below 90Deg F. It was very late (2:30 am) and I was getting pissed. I put the primary in the fermentation chamber for another hour at 55Deg f to try to cool the wort, which was still 88 deg f. I finally said screw it and pitched the wyeast 1056, put in the air lock, dropped another block of ice in the frementation chamber, set the temp to 60 and went to bed. This morning, the temp in the chamber is 60 and the primary is showing bubles in the airlocke every few seconds. So....what flavor impacts do you think I will see from the higher pitch temp?

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This is an area much debated - Pitch warm vs Pitch cold. Some - like JZ - argue your beer will be better if pitched cool, others if it is pitched warm. I think for most of us mortals we probably won't be able to tell the difference. Now if it had still been 80 deg in the morning that would be different.

Pirate Ale said:

Last night I did a good batch of Ed's Haus Pale, and as I wathced the chiller, the temp would never get below 90Deg F. It was very late (2:30 am) and I was getting pissed. I put the primary in the fermentation chamber for another hour at 55Deg f to try to cool the wort, which was still 88 deg f. I finally said screw it and pitched the wyeast 1056, put in the air lock, dropped another block of ice in the frementation chamber, set the temp to 60 and went to bed. This morning, the temp in the chamber is 60 and the primary is showing bubles in the airlocke every few seconds. So....what flavor impacts do you think I will see from the higher pitch temp?

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You may pick up more fusels. In the past, I never really cooled lower than 95 because my IC sucked, I didn't want the wort to be exposed too long, and basically I'm just impatient After some thought, I realized I was causing the yeast to metabolically adapt to an environment that was too warm, and that their first dealings with the wort would be to create fusel alcohols and esters. In essence, I was setting them into "harsh mode" from the get go. Better to get your pitching temps at or very near 80F. But that's JMHO.