1st day ferment temp 80..move it, or will it shock the yeast?

Hi, just joined found the site and joined today. Wifey gave me a Brewers Best Deluxe Equipment Kit for our anniversary. I made a few batches before in a cheaper Mr. Beer kit.

Anywho 2 questions really.....

Keeping it simple to start with, pre-packaged brewers best kits, got the American Malt, and American Micro Pale Ale pre packaged kits. Not near enough experience to pick out my own ingredients and expirement yet. I started with the American Light Ale, boiled the cans of malt, hops etc for an hour.

Cooled the wort then siphoned it into my 5 gallon primary fermenting bucket, and added yeast, being careful to leave the trub in the boiling pot. I placed the 5 gallon fermenter in my sons light free closet, and the whatchya call it econo-lock half filled with water is bubbling now at a steady rate of 1 bubble every 5 seconds. The temperature on the fermenter is 80 degrees during the day, then a couple degrees lower eraly in the morning. I have read this is a little too warm and will produce unwanted flavors. My wife keeps our bedroom much cooler, I was afraid the yeast would go inactive if I tried to ferment in our closet as she runs the ac in our room all night. Should I move the 5 gallon primary fermenter into our closet and see how the temp is on it after 24 hours? Will I risk shocking the yeast if it turns out our room is more than 10 degrees colder? Or just let it ride all week in the 80 degree closet as it is now, and try next batch in our closet?


2nd question, I have the second kit ready to boil as soon as this first batch is ready to bottle. I have a 6 1/2 gallon primary fermenting bucket, similar size glass carboy, and priming bucket. Can I siphon my first batch into the glass carboy to finish fermenting, to free up my primary bucket for my next batch, or should I just skip secondary fermentation carboy and wait til it's ready to bottle.

Thanks in advance.

1st question: It will not shock it to cool it down, and you need to. 80 is really high, you want it to be around 68-70.

2nd question: It's always a good idea to use a secondary vessel. It takes the beer off the trub that has settled, which can cause off flavors, and it helps the beer clear. The 1,2,3 rule is very practical and used by most knowledgeable homebrewers. 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary, 3 weeks bottles... ready to drink.

Welcome to the addiction Glad you have gotten away from Mr. Beer.

hello and welcome! I'm not nearly as experienced as most of the brewers you'll find on the forum, but I thought i'd offer my opinion and if im way off, im sure someone can correct me.

First off, as far as I know, yeast shock usually refers to pitching a lager yeast starter into wort that is closer to ale fermentation temperature, or otherwise abruptly changing the temperature of the wort. 80 degrees is a bit warm, and if it were me i'd get it out of there and into the high 60's low 70's.

As far as racking to secondary is concerned, given that your secondary is a 6.5 gallon carboy, I would probably say leave it in the bucket until bottling time, if you're going to brew again before then just use your carboy as a primary.

Hope this helps!

rereading your original post now, if you're doing a 5 gallon batch, it seems to me that the 6.5 glass carboy would probably be the best choice for your primary, if not than the 6.5 gallon bucket. Thats going to give you more head space and free up your 5 gallon for a secondary. I'm sure its ok for now but I'd imagine if you did a hefe in the 5 gallon primary surprising things would happen!

thanks for the advice, i just moved it to the other room, i'll check the temp in the morning but i'm sure it will be cooler than the 80 degrees it has been at the first day.

i live in kentucky and we have had stupid hot weather all summer, and it is still warm, but the ambient high is supposed to drop into the 60's this weekend, been high 80's low 90's all week.


still undecide as to whether to boil this weekend, and siphon my first batch into my carboy as a secondary fermenter, or use my carboy as a primary for next batch. Like to have both brews at least drinkable, if not in peak condition to drink by Halloween. Kinda late for second batch now though I guess.

lencombs said:

thanks for the advice, i just moved it to the other room, i'll check the temp in the morning but i'm sure it will be cooler than the 80 degrees it has been at the first day.

i live in kentucky and we have had stupid hot weather all summer, and it is still warm, but the ambient high is supposed to drop into the 60's this weekend, been high 80's low 90's all week.


still undecide as to whether to boil this weekend, and siphon my first batch into my carboy as a secondary fermenter, or use my carboy as a primary for next batch. Like to have both brews at least drinkable, if not in peak condition to drink by Halloween. Kinda late for second batch now though I guess.

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If you brew one now or later it's gonna be super "green" at halloweed time, which means young and you can still taste the youngness in it.

As far as your decision you have to make, might as well rack the first into secondary then use it's bucket as primary for your next brew.

At 80f you'll get a lot of higher alcohols and esters that you might not like the taste of. These are usually formed at the beginning of fermentation so you may be SOL on this batch. You will still make beer and it may be that it will be drinkable, just not as good as you can get it.

Next time start your ferment at the mid 60's. Your beer will thank you for it.

BTW when you get a chance, read this on-line book http://www.howtobrew.com/

Just a word of caution....be careful of fermenting in your closet. Certain yeasts have very vigorous fermentation and create a large krausen. If a blowoff tube is not used, it is more than possible for the lid to blow off and krausen and beer go everywhere. If this is your wife's closet like you say, I cant imagine she would be too thrilled about that. But definitely find a place that is lower than 80 degrees.

cubbies said:

Just a word of caution....be careful of fermenting in your closet. Certain yeasts have very vigorous fermentation and create a large krausen. If a blowoff tube is not used, it is more than possible for the lid to blow off and krausen and beer go everywhere. If this is your wife's closet like you say, I cant imagine she would be too thrilled about that. But definitely find a place that is lower than 80 degrees.

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Thats very good advice. One beer I did blew the airlock off and spurted beer and yeast everywhere. I didn't see it happen, I just came home to the mess - there was gunk all over the place. Fortunately I keep the fermenters in the shower in the spare bathroom so it wasn't hard to clean up.

Heh, on my latest batch, a stout, I put in both an airlock and a blow off tube on (via carboy cap), hoping that I could just yank off the tube later and not bother exposing it to the slight risk of contamination when putting the airlock in. Oops. The next morning the airlock was completely clogged and dangerously close to popping off. If I hadn't put that blowoff tube on, my clothes would have been soaked . Next time, it's straight to blowoff exclusively.

On a side note as far as temps go, if you have a spare bathtub fill it half way full of water (cold) put your Primary in there and wrap a towel around it so the towel will hang in the water. The natural wicking action will help cool a bit. If you do not have a spare bathe, go to wal-mart and get a large Rubber maid tote and do the same thing. If your ambient is still pretty warm you can fill half gallon mil jugs with water and freeze them, then keep one in the tube and rotate them out every day or so.....

Yes, I agree with the blow-off tubes for Primary. Even so, I still get explosions every now and again.
And yes, I agree it may be too late for this batch. I had similar problems with my first couple batches. I ended up using a wet towel and a fan to cool off the primary. Now I have a nice cool basement I like.
And by too late for the batch, I mean it already is what it is, and there's not much you can do to change, not that you should just toss it. AS someone said before, it IS still BEER! and shouldn't be wasted. Have a party and invite lots of people: it'll be gone soon enough.