Temperature for fermenting. How much does it matter?

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justin22

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So I just brewed my first beer. It was a Belgian Pale Ale. I threw it in the primary fermenting bucket and placed it in a room that is around 90 F. I realized my mistake(2-3 days later) and moved it too a room that was 76 F.

Will I have bubblegum tasting beer? Oh, yes and bubbles stopped coming out of the air lock after 2 days.
 
Probably. Even 76 F is too warm for most ales. You may notice a banana smell/flavor, but more common is a "hot" alcohol taste that comes from production of fusel alcohols.

Most ale yeast strains like the mid 60s, but there are some exceptions, like for Belgians and hefeweisens where certain esters are desirable.
 
Depends on the yeast, but ya 90F is WAY to hot. If I were to guess, I would say there will probably an overpowering bannanna smell/flavor.
 
Okay, so if you (ahem) happened to have your brew in a fridge with a digital temp controller on it, and you (ahem) happened to not quite have mastered the settings of said temp controller, and came home one day and found that your beer had been at 78-80 for nearly 24 hours, all this during the most active portion of the primary fermentation, can any amount of repentance and temperature correction redeem you? Or, more importantly, redeem your beer?
 
kidoduck said:
Okay, so if you (ahem) happened to have your brew in a fridge with a digital temp controller on it, and you (ahem) happened to not quite have mastered the settings of said temp controller, and came home one day and found that your beer had been at 78-80 for nearly 24 hours, all this during the most active portion of the primary fermentation, can any amount of repentance and temperature correction redeem you? Or, more importantly, redeem your beer?
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Umm, I say you are going to definately notice some off flavors, and no subsequent temp. reduction will help what has already happened... though it will keep it from getting worse.
 
justin22 said:
OK, so what kind of beers can I brew at temperatures from 74-68 degrees.
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A lot of brews.

Hefeweizen
Belgium Witbeir
Stouts
Kolsch
California Common
American ale

Pretty much any ale really....that list was to help you get going. Only lagers need fermented under 60. Though some ales may be better in the low 60's.
 
justin22 said:
OK, so what kind of beers can I brew at temperatures from 74-68 degrees.
Click to expand...

Most ale ferments are best below 70F... and some ale yeasts do fine down to 59F.

Hefes and Belgians are good to brew above 70F.
 
justin22 said:
OK, so what kind of beers can I brew at temperatures from 74-68 degrees.
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Well, keep in mind that if the room temperature is 74 degrees, and the fermentation is going on, then the temperature inside the fermenter will likely be over 80 degrees. (Fermentation is exothermic- producing quite a bit of heat). So, if that's the room temperature, you probably want to consider using a water bath or some other way to keep the temperature down a bit.

I have an Igloo cooler. I stick my fermenter in that, and add some water to it. I add a couple of frozen water bottles in the water, and float a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. I also have a stick on thermometer (like for aquariums) on the side of the fermenter, to keep an eye on the beer temperature.

I have a cool basement, and it's cooler on the concrete floor so in the summer I ferment there. It's a real challenge to brew in the summer without a way to control fermentation temperatures, but I think temperature control is the most crucial step in producing drinkable beer.
 
YooperBrew said:
Well, keep in mind that if the room temperature is 74 degrees, and the fermentation is going on, then the temperature inside the fermenter will likely be over 80 degrees. (Fermentation is exothermic- producing quite a bit of heat). So, if that's the room temperature, you probably want to consider using a water bath or some other way to keep the temperature down a bit.

I have an Igloo cooler. I stick my fermenter in that, and add some water to it. I add a couple of frozen water bottles in the water, and float a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. I also have a stick on thermometer (like for aquariums) on the side of the fermenter, to keep an eye on the beer temperature.

I have a cool basement, and it's cooler on the concrete floor so in the summer I ferment there. It's a real challenge to brew in the summer without a way to control fermentation temperatures, but I think temperature control is the most crucial step in producing drinkable beer.
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+1... I generally have to keep my freezer at about 60-62F to keep my fermentor at 66F during the first few days of th ferments.
 
So,considering this will be swims second brew he will probably go the igloo cooler way.(CHEAPER). So if swim goes with the belgian pale ale again and ferments it again in a room that is 74-68 F. What temp should he keep the water? In addition, would the water/air temperature fluctuating create a problem for the taste of beer.
 
The water can just be the temperature that you want the beer to be. What I mean is if you add water and frozen water bottles to keep the temperature in the water bath at 65 degrees, that will be the temperature inside the fermenter as well, give or take a degree or two. I fill the cooler up quite a ways, to the level of the beer in the fermenter.

The water works as a great insulator, so you don't get big temperature swings. If you stop adding the frozen water bottles, the temperature will rise, but gradually. You won't get the temperature fluctuations that you get in a room.
 
justin22 said:
So I just brewed my first beer. It was a Belgian Pale Ale. I threw it in the primary fermenting bucket and placed it in a room that is around 90 F. I realized my mistake(2-3 days later) and moved it too a room that was 76 F.

Will I have bubblegum tasting beer? Oh, yes and bubbles stopped coming out of the air lock after 2 days.
Click to expand...


Why did you leave your bucket in the sauna? :fro:
 
If I liked hefeweizens, I'd consider fermenting that above 70 degrees. For everything else mentioned (stouts, pale ales, etc), I'd stay at 64-68 degrees. For a kolsch or a California common, I'd stay at 60-62 degrees. I think that lower temperatures give the best flavor to an ale. Sometimes too warm temperature create esters- fruity flavors- not out of place in some ales. But I think most ales don't taste very good with banana smell or flavor, or, worse, phenols and fusel alcohol flavors, which can come with a too-high fermentation temperature.
 
I disagree that hefeweizens should be fermented warm, they turn into a phenolic mess even more than most beers when temps get too high. For the best balance of clove and banana most German wheat strains should be kept between 62-64F.

If you are fermenting above 68F I recommend sticking to Belgian ales, but there is a couple English strains that can handle high 60s pretty well.
 
Man, I fermented my Hefe at 70F and it was awesome with the WLP300! MM MM bananas!
 
Yeah, well taste is subjective and if you want a banana-bread/juicyfruit beer that would be the way to make it. Personally I have never liked the results when the temp gets above 65 on a weizen...so I followed Eric Warners advice of pitching cold and fermenting around 64 and have been quite happy since.
 
We're straying off-topic just a bit, but this discussion goes to show the difference just a few degrees can make in the results. I can taste a beer that fermented too hot, and can almost guess at that. I believe that many of what we consider not-quite-perfect flavors in our beers (I wouldn't even go so far to call them off-flavors) are temperature related, or related to underpitching yeast.

Once I got temperature control licked, and pitched the proper amount of yeast at the proper temperature, my beers dramatically improved. I think those two things are by far the most important for any brewer to learn. Ingredients aren't even as important.
 
+1 on temp control being the most critical.
You'll still have beer. But it will be MUCH better beer when you are very very careful about fermentation temps.
 
justin22 said:
So I just brewed my first beer. It was a Belgian Pale Ale. I threw it in the primary fermenting bucket and placed it in a room that is around 90 F. I realized my mistake(2-3 days later) and moved it too a room that was 76 F.

Will I have bubblegum tasting beer? Oh, yes and bubbles stopped coming out of the air lock after 2 days.
Click to expand...

What yeast did you use? I've found that this makes a huge difference. Some yeasts are very forgiving.

My first summer brewing, I had been doing no boil extract batches. My fourth batch I decided to do something more challenging. I made a Westmalle clone, using Trappist Ale yeast. I didn't think the temperature made much difference, since my other batches came out ok and they were all at higher then recommended temperatures. So I let the Trappist yeast go to work at 85-90F and it came out tasting like bubble gum flavored nail polish remover. This isn't some subtle off flavor that can be detected by a highly trained beer snob. There was nothing subtle about it. It was bubble gum.

I've found that if you don't have good temperature control, use a more forgiving yeast. I've found that Cooper's ale yeast is pretty forgiving. It has a large temperature range and can handle high temperatures well.
 
YooperBrew said:
We're straying off-topic just a bit, but this discussion goes to show the difference just a few degrees can make in the results. I can taste a beer that fermented too hot, and can almost guess at that. I believe that many of what we consider not-quite-perfect flavors in our beers (I wouldn't even go so far to call them off-flavors) are temperature related, or related to underpitching yeast.

Once I got temperature control licked, and pitched the proper amount of yeast at the proper temperature, my beers dramatically improved. I think those two things are by far the most important for any brewer to learn. Ingredients aren't even as important.
Click to expand...



!!!! AMEN !!!!
 

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