temp fluctuations

I have my First brew a pale ale sitting in the primary right now. Yesterday we had record temps around here it was almost 85 degrees. I had the primary at around 68 and fermentation was going good. After the record day when I got home from work it was almost 75 on the sticker thermometer, I immediatley wrapped a cool towel around it to help cool it down. The rest of the week around here is supposed to be back to normal for temps around 55 to 60 degrees for this time of year.

Anyways what is the downfall of temp fluctuations, the fermentation is still going good. Will it slow fermentation? Affect the taste? Thanks in advance for the input.

75F isn't too bad for most yeasts, but it was a good idea to cool it off. Warmer makes for faster ferment. You might notice some fruity esters.

david_42 said:

75F isn't too bad for most yeasts, but it was a good idea to cool it off. Warmer makes for faster ferment. You might notice some fruity esters.

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ok thanks, guess I will find out in a month or so. Hopefully it wasnt to hot for to long. Not sure how accurate those sticker thermometers are that sit on the out side of the carboy.
I wish I would have put it in the basement right away.

Besides stirring the sediment up is there anything wrong with moving it? As long as I dont get alot of shaking moving it? I would have to go down two flights of stairs, I thought the basement might have been to cold right away but then we started getting this nice weather

Moving it is fine, but you don't want to change the temp too drastically during active fermentation. If it only got to 75 where it is, and the weather has cooled off, I'd probably leave it.

If you're going to rack to secondary, you might then move it to the cooler basement. Cooler temperatures help to drop dead yeast cells and trub out of the suspension an onto the bottom of the carboy where you want them to be.

cweston said:

Moving it is fine, but you don't want to change the temp too drastically during active fermentation. If it only got to 75 where it is, and the weather has cooled off, I'd probably leave it.

If you're going to rack to secondary, you might then move it to the cooler basement. Cooler temperatures help to drop dead yeast cells and trub out of the suspension an onto the bottom of the carboy where you want them to be.

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thanks for the info, yah I will probably slowly bring the temp back down, it has only been fermenting for 2 days. And then when I rack bring it into the basement, as long as we dont get a cold spell or something.
I do have a walkout basement so there are parts of it that are not underground which might help

Keep in mind that the fermentation also makes it's own heat during active fermentation. At the most active stage, it's not unusual for the wort to be 5 degrees (or more) above the ambient temp. I brewed a 1.080 tripel this weekend and pitched it on a huge yeast cake. After about 24 hours, it was about 13 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature!

So as the weather cools over the next couple days, your fermentation is also going to be slowing down over than same period and producing less heat itself.