Warm Fermentation for Dunkelweizen

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dangus_kahn

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Hello all,

Brewing my first batch here in Texas and the beer of choice is dunkelweizen which should be nice during hunting season.

I've got the brew fermenting in a bucket fermenter sitting in my bath tub which is cooler than the rest of the house. The problem is that the air conditioning went out in our house yesterday and the stupid repair guys can't fix it until tomorrow. Meanwhile, Texas summers are HOT and the wall thermometer is reading up to 85 degrees during the heat of the day and a nice 76 degrees at night.

Are these high temperatures and fluctuations going to kill the beer, give it an estery banana flavor, or what? Anybody had a similar problem before? I've wrapped a wet towel around the bucket and I have a box fan aimed at it on full blast. Hopefully that will cool things down a bit.

Any input or advice? How will the beer be?
 
Sad, my AC is out right now too.. for the they replaced the capacitor on Monday, then the compressor Monday night and today they tell me they are unsure of the issue and have to come out tomorrow morning. They are cutting into my beer funds!

As far as your real question, you should be OK with the fan I would think. When did you pitch the yeast? I have seen a few say, once you get passed the majority of the fermentation (the real active fermentation) then you are OK to get a little bit warmer.
 
SisterThelonious said:
That is such a bummer...85 degrees huh...could give some off flavors.
Click to expand...

That's 85 degrees AIR temperature.

Dangus, you didn't say explicitly, but there is water surrounding your fermentation bucket as it sits in the bathtub, correct? I'm assuming the answer is yes, but just in case, make sure there is (just don't let the water level rise above the level of the liquid in the bucket). That will give excellent protection against temperature swings and buy you a lot of time. Don't hesitate to take a thermometer reading of the fermenting beer, or if that makes you nervous, the temperature of the water. They will match almost perfectly and should give you an idea of the true temperature of your fermentation.

Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pitch a few frozen bottles of water into the tub, just to keep the temperature down. A true ferm temp of 85 would be way too high, but my guess is you're below that if you've got it sitting in water.
 
hopvine said:
That's 85 degrees AIR temperature.

Dangus, you didn't say explicitly, but there is water surrounding your fermentation bucket as it sits in the bathtub, correct? I'm assuming the answer is yes, but just in case, make sure there is (just don't let the water level rise above the level of the liquid in the bucket). That will give excellent protection against temperature swings and buy you a lot of time. Don't hesitate to take a thermometer reading of the fermenting beer, or if that makes you nervous, the temperature of the water. They will match almost perfectly and should give you an idea of the true temperature of your fermentation.

Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pitch a few frozen bottles of water into the tub, just to keep the temperature down. A true ferm temp of 85 would be way too high, but my guess is you're below that if you've got it sitting in water.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... Nope I'm not that smart. I will fill the tub with water now. Also, today is day seven of fermentation and the a/c didn't shut off until day 4 or 5. Todat I was planning to transfer to bottle conditioning. Thoughts?
 
dangus_kahn said:
Hmmm... Nope I'm not that smart. I will fill the tub with water now. Also, today is day seven of fermentation and the a/c didn't shut off until day 4 or 5. Todat I was planning to transfer to bottle conditioning. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you're on day 7, you might not want to bottle yet. With a hot fermentation, you may want to give the yeast enough time to "clean up" what they can. I'd try my best to keep the temperature stable, but since it's about done fermenting it's a bit late for that.
 

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