is 84*F too warm for trappist yeast 3787?

hi guys...is it too warm for it or will it be ok to stay at that temperature till it finishes?

the first two days it was at 76-78*F and slowly dropped to 68-70* and stayed there for 3 days. I put a heating belt around the better bottle carboy to bring the temperature up to the 80*F range because i read that it can give more fruity esters and bubblegum esters. So yesterday afternoon I attached the heating belt and it slowly increased the temp from 68-70 to 80-84*F when I checked the thermometer sticker this morning. Not really sure where the temp is at cause 80, 82 and 84 on the sticker had some colors. I'm away right now and i just left it on. The temperature shouldn't go any higher since the heating belt is only supposed to increase the ambient room temp about 10*F. My house is usually within the 65-68*F range.

What do you guys think? I'll be gone until sunday night...will it be ok to keep it at that temperature? If not, I can have someone unplug it, but at night, man the temp will drop to like 60*F since there's nobody home and the house heater will be off.

please let me know guys, so if it needs to be shut off, i'll have my wife unplug it before she meets me here on saturday morning. Otherwise we'll leave it until we get home sunday night.

thanks!

i usually let most of the belgian yeasts i use get up to about 80 degrees or so, but i start low and work my way up, letting sit at 80 only for about 2 days to finish up the ferment. if it gets too warm too fast you're going to get a lot of high fusel alcohols with this yeast, which means a pretty powerful alcoholic taste in the finished product. its a real pain trying to do belgians this time of year because most peoples' houses get too cool. imo i would try to find a way to lower the temperature. just my two cents.

thelastdandy said:

i usually let most of the belgian yeasts i use get up to about 80 degrees or so, but i start low and work my way up, letting sit at 80 only for about 2 days to finish up the ferment. if it gets too warm too fast you're going to get a lot of high fusel alcohols with this yeast, which means a pretty powerful alcoholic taste in the finished product. its a real pain trying to do belgians this time of year because most peoples' houses get too cool. imo i would try to find a way to lower the temperature. just my two cents.

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hmmm...ok, maybe i'll let it stick until i get back and then i'll lower the temp on it. That would give it 3.5 days at around that temp and i'll maintain it at around 78-80*F when I get back sunday night and leave it there for the rest of the 4 weeks of its life in the primary.

anybody else have suggestions or insight?

anyone else got input on this? thanks

I think you started of a little high. Going to get a lot of yeast flavors in it; probably what you were going for anyway. Since most of the fermentation was done before raising the temp that high, you will be OK, and not develop too much fusel alcohols.

NOTE: For your own future education/reference, if you end up with really bad hangovers or just with headaches after only drinking a few of these, then you fermented too high and need to ensure you ferment lower next time. That's the risk you are taking.

Once fermention is done, there is no need to keep the temp up. Mid 60s will do for bulk conditioning.

What about doing a secondary, adding a bit of energizer as a booster and give it another go with a California ale yeast like WLP810 or Wyeast 2112? I look at it this way, the mixed yeasts might ferment some of the sugars that the trappist alone cant do with good results at that high temperature. Let it come down to the room's temperature (60s) and then repitch with the ale yeast after you add the nutrient. It may not be a true "trappist" but at least it wont end badly in the fermentation temps and allows the room temperature to dictate the yeast activity (No heat belt needed). You could also do a witbier yeast. Just boil the nutrient, cool it, add it to the fermenting beer, add the dry yeast and see what happens.

Calder said:

I think you started of a little high. Going to get a lot of yeast flavors in it; probably what you were going for anyway. Since most of the fermentation was done before raising the temp that high, you will be OK, and not develop too much fusel alcohols.

NOTE: For your own future education/reference, if you end up with really bad hangovers or just with headaches after only drinking a few of these, then you fermented too high and need to ensure you ferment lower next time. That's the risk you are taking.

Once fermention is done, there is no need to keep the temp up. Mid 60s will do for bulk conditioning.

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thanks for the info...that's what I as worried about when thelastdandy said I might get a lot of fusel alcohols in the finished product. I said to myself, "damnit, I could've just left it alone"

ok, its good to hear that may not be the case. Ill keep in mind hangovers and headaches thing when the time comes to drink this. This is my first quad/strong dark ale i'm making so we'll see how it goes. Still learning so i'm not feeling too bad. It'll be a while though, gonna age this one a long time...

thanks for the input.

If you do get a lot of fusels, there is a way to deal with it. You can search the forums for the technique, but it involves basically heating the beer up to a temp that evaporates the fusels and leaves ethanol. It will ruin some of the characteristics of your beer by driving off volatiles, but on the bright side, it's not illegal as long as you don't try to collect the vapor.

Well, after listening to Jamil's old shows, I understand that that yeast should start at around 64* and ramp up to 70* over a week's time. He also recommends cold storing the carboy around 40-50* for a month or so to get rid of the fusel alcohols. However, that yeast was used in a Belgian Tripel.

Mind telling us what style you brewed?

Braufguss said:

Well, after listening to Jamil's old shows, I understand that that yeast should start at around 64* and ramp up to 70* over a week's time. He also recommends cold storing the carboy around 40-50* for a month or so to get rid of the fusel alcohols. However, that yeast was used in a Belgian Tripel.

Mind telling us what style you brewed?

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belgian quad/strong dark ale

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