Temp Issues

How much of a problem is large temperature swings going to make. I have an american wheat that when I came home yesterday was in the high 80 then i ripped apart a fridge and stuck it in there on its warmest setting. I woke up this morning and it was at 50F. i turned of the fridge for while I was at work thinking that it is insulated enough that it shouldnt get to high before I get home.

I know that I need a temp controller but until I can get one how much are these fluctuations going to hurt the beer? Also anyone have any ideas what I can do until I get the controller?

Get a large cooler or a rubbermaid tub or some other large container, fill it with ice water and throw your fermenting bucket/carboy in there. Cover your carboy with a wet t-shirt and point a fan at it. check the temp every few hours and add more ice as needed.

going from room temp to 80s to 50 is going to stress the heck out of your yeast, and stressed yeast can produce of flavors, which may or may not be noticeable, depending on the style of the beer. I would say try to find a way to regulate your temp, let it sit in the fermenter on the yeast cake for longer than usual, even after alcohol production is done, to give the yeast as much time to clean up after itself as you can, and then bottle, wait, drink, enjoy.

WOW, dude that's pretty drastic change. The yeast have to be seriously stressed at this point which will lead to off flavors and you may not be able to get you SG down. I would do what he said ^^^^ and let it go for at least 2 weeks, maybe 3. I would definitely make this a must area to work on. Good luck, and hey you never know, could lead to an experiment.

Since you have the fridge setup, you can freeze bottles of water and use them in the fridge.

Temperature control has been the single most important thing that I've done to produce quality home-made beer. I've never shocked beer like this, but fermenting somewhere in the 60's to very low 70's has been the secret to making beer that I'm proud of and want to share with people. I know this seems easy for some but without a basement and a cold-blooded SWMBO it had always been a challenge until I learned some tips here.

Well in the past 24 hours I have slowly raised the temp to 65 degrees as of this morning. The recomended temp range for the yeast is 59-75, so i think the temp that is at now should be fine but my only question now is do you think the yeast are still good in there or should I get more and repitch?

dataz722 said:

Well in the past 24 hours I have slowly raised the temp to 65 degrees as of this morning. The recomended temp range for the yeast is 59-75, so i think the temp that is at now should be fine but my only question now is do you think the yeast are still good in there or should I get more and repitch?

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It should be ok. Just let it sit and let the yeast recover a bit from the wild temperature fluctuations. The fermentation might be about done, but maybe not. It can use some time to finish up and clean up some of the off-flavors that might be present.

I have a bottle of Yeast Energizer do you think that would help clean up the flavors or just make things worse?

dataz722 said:

I have a bottle of Yeast Energizer do you think that would help clean up the flavors or just make things worse?

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I would just leave it alone. The yeast has been stressed, and it'll settle down now that it's at a stable temperature. I wouldn't add anything to it or even touch it for at least a week.

That sounds good to me! Thanks for all the advise