Help please

I just boiled my first batch, chilled down with wort chiller to 80, and put in primary to set for pitching. My fermometer is not reading. Not sure what to do? I was planning on pitching at 70, but I now don't have a way to gauge temp. What should I do?

One option, ice path the primary and stir like crazy. You'll eventually show up on your fermometer. You could also sanitize a floating thermometer but be very careful if you stir.

Another option, put your wort chiller in your fermenter. Sanitize it really well before.

Finally, you could just seal it up for the night and let it sit until morning, check the temperature then, and pitch if ready. The only negative here is this is probably highest risk for infection. I'd hate to see your first patch go bad.

In the very worst case, you could always pitch a little warm. You might get some off flavours. Being your first batch, you probably will be so excited that you won't even notice an off flavour.

Relax, just let sit for an hour or to untill it comes to room temp. Then pitch.... And relax, let the yeast do all the work... And they usually do.

Thanks for the input. Not sure if I blew it, but I think I may have. Pretty sure I pitched way to warm. While wort chilling, my kettle thermo read 80, so I transferred into my carboy. Like I said, the fermometor did not read, so I was unsure about when to pitch. Being a noob, I was worried about waiting, so I pitched. Well, it's only been about 5 hrs, and it appears to be fermenting. Also, my fermometor now reads, and it shows 78. I'm guessing I pitched while it was still too warm. Can't figure out why my kettle thermo read 80, then it took nearly 3 hrs for my fermometor to read 78. My recipe told me to cool rapidly to 100, then begin the transfer. I thought that was too high, so went to 80. Should I be cooling the wort to below 80, say 70?

even if you pitched it now it wouldn't hurt it, it's just going to start reproducing and get ready to chow down

I like to chill my wort even more than you've suggested because as soon as the yeast take off they give off heat and it's really hard to bring the temperature down. I prefer to pitch my yeast when the wort is nearer 60 and I try to keep it below 65 for the first few days to control how fast the yeast ferment, then warm it to the low 70's to encourage the yeast to complete cleaning up the byproducts.

Got it.... I will go way lower on the next batch.


So, should I cut my losses now and start a new batch? Not even 5 hours after I pitched my yeast went by and I had to remove my airlock and install a blow off tube. I just checked it now, and the fermentor is going crazy, and it only been 10 hours since I pitched. Temp is still really warm, about 78.

I would prefer to pour this one out and chalk it up to a learning experience, rather then invest more time into it only to turn out 5 gallons of undrinkable beer.

Should I stay the course, or cut my losses? I do have another kit of Russian River Blind Pig IPA waiting to be brewed

arborman said:

I would prefer to pour this one out and chalk it up to a learning experience, rather then invest more time into it only to turn out 5 gallons of undrinkable beer.

Should I stay the course, or cut my losses? I do have another kit of Russian River Blind Pig IPA waiting to be brewed

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Do not give up on this brew. Beer fermented at higher temps can produce fusel alcohols. Fusel alcohol can give the beer a harsh solvent like flavor. However, do not fear. Aging your beer can mellow these flavors. Aging may cause the alcohols to esterify and gibe the beer a banana like flavor. Again, do not fear age can help these too. Also just because it can produce these flavors doesn't mean it always will and even it does it rarely renders your beer un-drinkable. If you toss the batch you will lose out on a valuable learning experience and most likely a decent beer.
Just remember to note what you did and what the temps were. Then you can keep from replicating the mistake in the future.
Good luck on future brews.
Ryan.

If you throw it out now, you'll never know what it tastes like. If you want to learn from it, you have to see what the finished product is like. Finish it and see how it is. In spite of what you read/hear, it might be fine.

Also, it sounds like maybe your temp was/is a little too high, but that's all. This isn't rocket science, and it's even more forgiving than baking bread.

RDWHAHB.

Next time, just feel the sides of the container while it chills or sanitize your finger in alcohol and stick it in.

arborman said:

Got it.... I will go way lower on the next batch.


So, should I cut my losses now and start a new batch? Not even 5 hours after I pitched my yeast went by and I had to remove my airlock and install a blow off tube. I just checked it now, and the fermentor is going crazy, and it only been 10 hours since I pitched. Temp is still really warm, about 78.

I would prefer to pour this one out and chalk it up to a learning experience, rather then invest more time into it only to turn out 5 gallons of undrinkable beer.

Should I stay the course, or cut my losses? I do have another kit of Russian River Blind Pig IPA waiting to be brewed

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never dump beer out. let it run its course and try it out. some of the best beers i have made have been ones that i had an "incident" and thought the beer would be horrible. There is a thread somewhere on here that even talks about this. Trust me your beer is more resiliant than you give it credit for. I have never had to dump a batch and i have had some bone head mistakes over time!

Keep it !!! And join the club, it's your first brew! No mulligans! You'll be surprised in a couple months. Now get that rr ipa going, you know u want another carboy, 6.5 gallon. Do it, do it, doooo it

Thanks for the encouragement guys! I'll keep the beer going, and hope for the best. Well, I do have another 6.5 gallon carboy, so I'm gonna go back to back and get on my IPA today and learn from the mistakes I made yesterday and cool the wort much lower then 80. Thanks for the help

arborman said:

Thanks for the encouragement guys! I'll keep the beer going, and hope for the best. Well, I do have another 6.5 gallon carboy, so I'm gonna go back to back and get on my IPA today and learn from the mistakes I made yesterday and cool the wort much lower then 80. Thanks for the help

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Perhaps on Monday you can pick up a couple bucket fermenter too so you have enough to practice with. It would be a shame to have all your fermenters full and an urge to brew again. :rockin:

You can't cut your losses on that first batch because at this point you don't have any losses. Let it finish with more time in the fermenter than you think it should need and then bottle it up and let it have plenty of time to mature before you open one. You may be pleasantly surprised with what you made.

Does this seem excessive for only being in the primary for 12hrs?

I would try to bring the temp down a bit to 66 - 70 degrees, I can tell by the thermometer being at the high end of the ale spectrum. If you can move it to a cooler place untill active fermentation slows, then you can move it back to a warmer area. Fermenting at that temp may cause some off favors, you can cool it in the bathtub with cold water to slow it down.

I believe swamp cooler is the term used, for those who live in warmer climates.

arborman said:

Does this seem excessive for only being in the primary for 12hrs?

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Is that an aluminum pot with starsan in it?

If it is, use something else because the starsan will eat holes in it. DAMHIKT.

Rick

Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I just put it into my bathtub with cold water. Hopefully I can get her to drop down to 66 pretty fast.

F250 said:

Is that an aluminum pot with starsan in it?

If it is, use something else because the starsan will eat holes in it. DAMHIKT.

Rick

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Oh, no... yep. It sure is! Ok, thanks for the heads up. I will drain it now

F250 said:

Is that an aluminum pot with starsan in it?

If it is, use something else because the starsan will eat holes in it. DAMHIKT.

Rick

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Oh, no... yep. It sure is! Ok, thanks for the heads up. I will drain it now


Where would I be without the help of you guys

I had to dump my first batch because when I went to put my airlock on I was a little uhhh vigorous and pushed the rubber o ring that holds the lock in place into my bucket. Couldn't come up with any feasible way to fish it out :/

arborman said:

Oh, no... yep. It sure is! Ok, thanks for the heads up. I will drain it now


Where would I be without the help of you guys

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Rick

eandersen said:

I had to dump my first batch because when I went to put my airlock on I was a little uhhh vigorous and pushed the rubber o ring that holds the lock in place into my bucket. Couldn't come up with any feasible way to fish it out :/

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You dumped it! I brewed 140g of beer in 2012 was elbow deep in wort looking for either a grommet or stir bar or something else I dropped in it. I only lost one batch to infection and it was due to an infected racking tube going from primary to keg.