Fermentation Temps?

I am doing my first AG over the next week or so. I decided to do a Harpoon Summer clone and purchased a AG kit from Austin Homebrew Supply and the instructions were not clear on fermentation temps.

The grain bill is 7.75 lbs of pilsner malt and 1.5 of wheat. The yeast is the Wyeast American Ale #1056.

The instructions talk about pitching when wort is below 80 degrees and then to ferment for 5-7 days and then move to secondary for another 5-7 days. Since they don't have any temps to ferment at, I assume that means room temp, or typical Ale temps.

But what is throwing me off is that where most of my grain is pilsner, it makes me thing I should be fermenting at lower temps.

Also while it does not say to do so, would a yeast starter be recommended?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

The type of malt doesnt effect the goal fermentation temp. The only thing that is important is the yeast strain. With your strain, I would say ideally you need to keep fermentation temps below 67-68. That is beer temp, not the ambient temp. The ambient temp will need to be several degrees cooler to do this.

It seems like the gravity is going to be pretty low (?), if its below 1050 you "dont have to" make a starter, but its always better to do so. You ensure the yeast is viable and healthy and that you are pitching enough. Go to www.mrmalty.com to see what your pitch rate should be

Ferment temps should be in the 60-72F range... As per the info on the Wyeast site about 1056.

If you can make a starter, do it... Make the starter a day or two before you'll be brewing... Even a small starter (~1qt) will give the yeast an additional leg-up when they get pitched in..

I would also cool the wort to under 70F before pitching the yeast in. Also, I wouldn't rack to secondary at all, but that's me (and a lot of others on here)...

The grain doesn't dictate fermentation temps... The yeast will determine that more.

+1 to whats been said, and if you do decide to rack to secondary, don't do it after 5-7 days, do it after you've determined the fermentation is complete by measuring the gravity and seeing thats its stable over the course of a few days

Thanks for the info everyone! I should have thought about that more, that it's the yeast not the malt...just got the pilsner is lagered stuck in my brain!

Coypoo - Don't have the recipe in front of me, but I think the FG is around 1.015.

Dcp27 - Thank! I definitely do check the gravity all the time before moving to secondary and usually always go 10 days instead of the 7 max.

Golddiggie - Why not the rack to secondary?

Was hoping to brew this coming Monday since it's a holiday here in MA (Patriots Day, a Revolutionary War day...or as we mostly call it in MA...Marathon Monday!). But going to be gone for the weekend, so guess I will go without a yeast starter since I will not be around to shake it up every hour or so.

you can rack if you want to, its more of a personal preference, but its an outdated technique and when not being stored for a long time (months), its kinda a waste of time. theres nothing about a secondary that makes a beer any clearer than leaving it in the primary for the same length, theres no fear of autolysis cuz it won't happen that quickly on a homebrew scale, and using one just adds an extra chance for infection/oxidation. if you like using one, feel free to keep on using one, but don't feel that you need to use one.

you can read through this if you want more info on the subject: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

dcp27 said:

you can rack if you want to, its more of a personal preference, but its an outdated technique and when not being stored for a long time (months), its kinda a waste of time. theres nothing about a secondary that makes a beer any clearer than leaving it in the primary for the same length, theres no fear of autolysis cuz it won't happen that quickly on a homebrew scale, and using one just adds an extra chance for infection/oxidation. if you like using one, feel free to keep on using one, but don't feel that you need to use one.

you can read through this if you want more info on the subject: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

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+1. It's personal preference. I don't see the point anymore. I even tried dry hopping in the primary last time and it worked great.

Other people feel they get better results and like to think that it makes the beer taste better and come out clearer. My experience doesn't back this up, but it's homebrewing; do what you wanna do! It certainly won't hurt your beer if you use a secondary (unless you are not sanitary and introduce a bacteria to your beer, the odds of which are very low).

jdauria said:

Coypoo - Don't have the recipe in front of me, but I think the FG is around 1.015.

Click to expand...

Not with that yeast it won't be. You're starting with a fairly low gravity beer in the first place (I don't have a calculator on hand so I can't calculate exactly), and 1056 gets pretty high attenuation. Just last night I checked my Bad Boy Ale (a rye barley wine) that started at around 1.085 or 1.090, and after two weeks it was at 1.011. I then dosed with two pounds of sugar, and it'll be back down soon enough and ready to be aged. I used the dry version of 1056: US-05.

Thanks for info. OG is 1.048 FG 1.012 per recipe.

OK, so first AG done today and I had three issues.

First off, I got a lot of grain in my wort. Using a 46 qt cooler mash tun with braid. Vorlaufed to pitcher several times until it appeared to be running clear, but still got a lot of grain. That was the least of my concern.

Problem 2....recipe called for mashing with 11.5 quarts for 9.25 lbs of grain at a 1.25 quart ratio. Then sparging with 5 gallons of water. Did this until the required 6.25 gallons needed to boil. Supposedly after an hour I was suppose to have 5.25 gallons of wort. I finished with just over 3 gallons! Did I boil too high of a temp? Where did it all go??? I did have a boil over, but had it under control in like 1 second, did not lose more then a dribble down the side. I had boiled water and cooled it yesterday, so used that to bring wort up to 5.25 gallons.

Problem 3 - Pre Boil gravity was 1.030...OG is suppose to be 1.048 and I have got only 1.031 after cooing down. I did mix in the plain water before taking the reading. Am I low because of adding more water or because to losing too much wort during the boil, or both? How much will this hurt the final product?

Have to say loved doing the all grain method as it feels more like real brewing...will definitely do again...once I know what I did wrong!

1) probably not a problem, but easily something you can improve upon next time

2) damn! you may want to turn that down next time

3) its most likely cuz of the top-off. kinda tuff to gauge where you are tho unless you mixed the sparge and first runnings before the pre-boil reading. if the pre-boil reading was correct, then you'd be around 1.036 now. if not, its still beer. congrats on getting the first AG done

Thanks DCP. As for #2...I guess I consider a "rolling boil" different then what a rolling boil is! LOL!

As for #3 - By first runnings, you mean the wort I vorlaufed until clear? I poured that on top of the grain bed (as to not disturb it) and took my pre-boil reading after sparging. Also did a mash efficiency calculation last night and came up with 54.5%. Pretty pitiful for a first timer? I think I should have just stuck with batch sparging the first time rather then trying to do a continuous sparge.

So with low mash efficiency, I guess my sugar levels in wort will be lower, thus less yeast activity and less ABV. If it hits target FG, I am looking at 2.4% ABV. I will just have to "market" it to my friends as a summer chugging beer!

I am living in Japan and brought a bunch of kits back with me last time I was back home. I started my first batch yesterday and am concerned with getting the temperature high enough. Old Japanese houses are neither heated or insulated so at night my kitchen gets down to low 40's. Right now I have a small heating pad next to the primary fermenter and then wrapped the whole thing in a blanket but I don't see any activity yet. Should I be concerned.

Kit = Austin Homebrew Supply Holiday Ale
yeast = Sterling 514 English Ale

Any advice would be great