First Batch Concerns...

I have been reading on this board for the past few weeks and I just brewed my first batch last night. An extract Porter recipe I got with my beer kit.

Everything went realatively smooth for my first time, but I had a few issues and I was hoping I could get an opinion on how these things might effect the final outcome.

1. My wort never really got to a full rolling boil for 60 minutes. I would say it got to a "partial boil" for 45 minutes. I added the other half of my LME with 15 minutes left and it never got to that "partial boil" again;

2. When pitching my yeast, about 1/5 of the yeast spilled on the floor. Really silly accident. Anyway, pitched it at 66 degrees farenheit and now, 24 hours later, my airlock is bubbling away. I assume the spilled yeast is not a big deal; and

3. The fermenter is now registering about 72 degrees farenheit. I am worried that this is too warm for primary fermentation. I live in an apartment and I see no way to get the temp down. Is 72 degrees a problem?

fbones24 said:

I have been reading on this board for the past few weeks and I just brewed my first batch last night. An extract Porter recipe I got with my beer kit.

Everything went realatively smooth for my first time, but I had a few issues and I was hoping I could get an opinion on how these things might effect the final outcome.

1. My wort never really got to a full rolling boil for 60 minutes. I would say it got to a "partial boil" for 45 minutes. I added the other half of my LME with 15 minutes left and it never got to that "partial boil" again;

2. When pitching my yeast, about 1/5 of the yeast spilled on the floor. Really silly accident. Anyway, pitched it at 66 degrees farenheit and now, 24 hours later, my airlock is bubbling away. I assume the spilled yeast is not a big deal; and

3. The fermenter is now registering about 72 degrees farenheit. I am worried that this is too warm for primary fermentation. I live in an apartment and I see no way to get the temp down. Is 72 degrees a problem?

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1 and 2, nah....a wise brewer once said a boil is a boil whether it is "roilling" or not, and I've had a few batches that never quite boiled heavily, and yet it still turned into beer.

I have had both mead and yeast over flow my carboy, and again there was enough to do the job.

Temp controll on the other had is important for the first 72 hours or so....I live in an apartment and use a simple swamp cooler in the heat of summer.



A tub, frozen water bottles, water, a tshirt wick and a fan, and sometimes even rock salt. I have been able to get the water in the bath to the mid 50's and the fermenter itself in the low 60's with this method...

Some folks even use a garbage can as their swamp cooler.

If you search for threads about swamp coolers, you will see all manner of variations, but the principal is the same, and ice bath for the first 3 days or so of fermentation.

If you don't wanna run out tonight for a big plastic bin, you could fill your bath tub with cold water and put it in there.

Unfortunately I cannot run out tonight. If I fill the bathtub with cold water and leave it in there, is it a problem if I move the fermenter around twice a day. I can leave it in there now, but when I have to use the shower, is it okay to remove it and then put it back in the tub?

fbones24 said:

Unfortunately I cannot run out tonight. If I fill the bathtub with cold water and leave it in there, is it a problem if I move the fermenter around twice a day. I can leave it in there now, but when I have to use the shower, is it okay to remove it and then put it back in the tub?

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Hey, sometimes you need to sacrifice for your art. Last summer I didn't turn my air on for three days, letting my apartment stay around 88 degrees and sitting in front of two fans in my bedroom, just so I could keep it hot enough to get some great esters out of my saison yeast.

Skip showering for a few days for your beer.

It's probably not a great idea to keep moving your fermenter around. Is there any place in your apartment that is naturally cooler than where it is now? Like against an outside wall?

You don't have any kind of container that you could put your fermenter in and add some water too it? Anything? A washtub?

Do you have basement storage in your building which might be cooler and you cans stash it in there?

Ughh..

If the Jet game wasn't on I would be out now looking for something. I will run to the Supermarket shortly and try to find something. If not, I will move it to the wall closest to my balcony and leave the door slightly open. That should help a little bit.

fbones24 said:

Ughh..

If the Jet game wasn't on I would be out now looking for something. I will run to the Supermarket shortly and try to find something. If not, I will move it to the wall closest to my balcony and leave the door slightly open. That should help a little bit.

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First showers, now football is more important than homebrewing???? Geez the young people today....

Any type of container will do, a plastic garbage can can hold a bucket or a carboy with room for ice...speaking of get a bag of ice or two while you are at it, and throw some plastic pop bottles with water in the freezer.

Jets are up by 10 at this point with 3:45 to go. I'm off to target to get a tub and some soda bottles. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Too late to stop you now ...

But 72 F is nothing to worry about. If you said you were at 80 F then turn off the football game and get your swamp cooler going. But for a first batch I'd say 72 is about near as optimal as you'd hope to get.

-BigCask

Hey Revvy,

At what temperature is it bad for the batch? I've never brought the temp of my brew down after fermentation begins. I see it go up to like 78 degrees, but after the yeast stabilizes and starts to go back into hibernation it comes back down. I know temperature is a big deal, but I thought anything under 80 was going to be ok.

What are your thoughts?

BigCask said:

Too late to stop you now ...

But 72 F is nothing to worry about. If you said you were at 80 F then turn off the football game and get your swamp cooler going. But for a first batch I'd say 72 is about near as optimal as you'd hope to get.

-BigCask

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Meh, I try to keep my beers below 70. I prefer to ferment in the 60's. Especially since fermentation tends to be a few degrees higher that ambient during it's peak. Fermentation is exothermic. SO more than likely his beer is closer to 75

put a wifebeater on the dang thing! and have a wet t-shirt contest. coldest one wins.
(and by that i mean sitting on a plate of water for heat evaporation)

Okay, Jets won and I ran out to Target to get a tub. All is good. I placed the primary in cold water and the temp is down to 66 - 68. I assume this is better than 72 so I am going to just leave it in cool water for now to keep it around 68.

fbones24 said:

Okay, Jets won and I ran out to Target to get a tub. All is good. I placed the primary in cold water and the temp is down to 66 - 68. I assume this is better than 72 so I am going to just leave it in cool water for now to keep it around 68.

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God job!!!

Of course you could have just showered WITH the fermenter.

mikebiewer said:

Hey Revvy,

At what temperature is it bad for the batch? I've never brought the temp of my brew down after fermentation begins. I see it go up to like 78 degrees, but after the yeast stabilizes and starts to go back into hibernation it comes back down. I know temperature is a big deal, but I thought anything under 80 was going to be ok.

What are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

In my opinion, it depends on the yeast strain but most ale yeast taste better at 72 degrees or under. SO5 is ok up to about 72, but Nottingham is really foul above 70 degrees. I have two beers fermenting now- one with SO5 at 64 degrees, and one with Denny's Favorite at 62 degrees.

If my temperature was creeping up to 68, I would try to make sure it didn't get any higher. You really can taste the difference in the finished product.

Do you have a balcony or private patio? If its not getting too cold overnight, you could put it outside with a blanket around it. That might keep it in the low 60's. I would rather err on the side of colder than warmer. I had a porter get up to about 75 by accident and it had a mild solvent taste and odor to it. That was with S-05 yeast.

As Revvy suggested, I put my primary in an 18 gallon tub I purchased from Target filled with about 8" of cold water. It brought the temp down to 64 degrees. This morning it was up to 67. I put a frozen one liter in the water to try to keep the temp down. So far so good keeping it around 65.

You might want to take a look at a Son of a Fermentation Chiller / Mother of a Fermentation chiller. I learned a lot of thing doing this with a friend of mine, had a lot of fun, and well... I can go for about 48 hours without changing ice (36 hours when the fermentation is vigorous, 48-50 when it's looking calm... maybe more, but I like to switch often before forgetting to do so).

Interesting.

This has been a pretty informational post. I think I may try to do the whole under 70 degree thing next time and see what happens.

I've got a brew that isn't tasting the same as the style would indicate it to taste like and I'm wondering if temp is part of the issue.

Things to consider I guess.

Thanks