Pitched warm (82 F) with starter

Hey,

So I recently purchased a Brewferm 12 plate chiller and I just used it for for the first time. I purchase all of my supplies by mail (I live in Sweden and gas is too expensive to drive the 60 km to the brew store and back). I tested the chiller and found that everything flowed okay, but I couldn't increase the pressure too much without blowing the hoses from the chiller nipples. I used the hoses advertised to be used with the chiller. I brewed before I realized how high you need to get the pressure on the cold water to sufficiently cool the wort. With my pressure limitations, I could only cool it to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. I do not have a bath tub to use as an alternative to the chiller, and I didn't want my brew to get infected. So, I crossed my fingers and pitched my starter at 86. I checked the temp about 11 hours later, and it was down to 69.8 and the growth phase seemed to be moving right along (not quite a foamy krausen). The next morning the beer was actively fermenting.

I used a 1 liter starter of California Ale yeast that I began the day before. The beer is an IPA with a OG of 1.065. Do you think I shocked my yeast, and will get some unusual esters and other off flavors? I figured I'd post and see what you guys think. I have ordered smaller diameter hoses, and they hold pressure just fine so this shouldn't be a problem in the future.

In the future, I would say it is better to wait and pitch at the right temperature, rather than pithing the yeast hot. Tough to say if you will have efffects of the warm pitch as it did cool down shortly thereafter. US-05 is pretty decent at 70, so you should be fine.

You'll likely get off flavors. I pitched at similar temps on my first couple of brews and they turned out crappy. I was brewing kits and the instructions didn't really specify what temp to pitch at. Thinking I was following instructions I blamed my sanitization. After double cleaning my equipment and bottles, I just figured that was how homebrew was supposed to taste.

After a lot of reading (mostly on this forum) I learned the importance of temperature and fermentation. Now, if I can't get my wort temp down to the low 60s, I transfer it to a carboy, cover it, put it in a cold bath and walk away. I never pitch over 64 degrees and my brews are as clean tasting as commercial beer.

Thanks for the feedback. I have typically pitched around 62 in the past, depending on the yeast strain. I guess we'll see how this brew comes out. Fingers crossed. I will post what happens after I pop open the first bottle

So, after reading the "To Secondary or Not? John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff Weigh In" thread, I decided to let the beer sit in the primary for one month. I bottled on Saturday, and tasted it too. While the beer tasted okay, there seemed to be a pretty strong fussel alcohol flavor. I tasted the beer again after five days in the bottle. The beer seemed to be carbonating well, and while it definitely tasted green, the fusel alcohol taste was still moderately noticeable. The original gravity was 1.065, and the final gravity was 1.010. Extract brew with some steeping grains.

I imagine the fusel alcohol flavor is mainly from the warm pitching temperature. However, the fermenter was not full, and all of the trub that I was unable to remove by whirlpooling the kettle fell back into the beer. Was it a bad idea to leave the beer in primary for four weeks with no blow off? Do you think that also contributed to the fusel alcohol flavor?

brewerG said:

I imagine the fusel alcohol flavor is mainly from the warm pitching temperature. However, the fermenter was not full, and all of the trub that I was unable to remove by whirlpooling the kettle fell back into the beer. Was it a bad idea to leave the beer in primary for four weeks with no blow off? Do you think that also contributed to the fusel alcohol flavor?

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The fusel is entirely from the warm pitch and potentially warm ferment. They also don't really age out very well, but they will get a little mellower with time, but they won't go away. I would have left this one in the fermentor much longer before packaging.

Okay, thank you for the reply! Your advice is well noted.

Like Daksin said, the fusels will mellow. Whether they completely dissipate is anyone's guess. I have never seen any issues caused by trub or a month residence time in the primary. The fusels are from the pitch. The one time I had to pitch warm I ended up with buckets of acetaldehyde that would not reduce. Dumped that one.

I checked the temp about 11 hours later, and it was down to 69.8 and the growth phase seemed to be moving right along (not quite a foamy krausen).

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It's likely you'll have some off-flavors, but to what extent you'll just have to wait and see. At least you got it down in range before the end of the growth phase, so it's possible you'll still have a decent beer.

CharlosCarlies said:

so it's possible you'll still have a decent beer.

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Yeah, the beer is totally ok. Its carbing up well with good color, clarity, body, and head retention. While the fusels hit the nose a little bit, it has a nice hop aroma. And the fusel taste is not in your face, so the beer is totally drinkable (I wanted another one after my first). I'll let it sit in the bottle for a while, and see if it improves. I'm lucky it came out as good as it did: an easy lesson learned.