Pitched US-05 Over 80 F

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FensterBos

FensterBos

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I was running out of time and had to pitch before the wort cooled down. I think I pitched around 86 F, but the beer will ferment (eventually) in the 64 to 66 F range.
Should I be concerned about any fermentation or off-taste problems?
 
In short, yes.

Yeast go crazy at warm temperatures, and I bet fermentation will be started within an hour or two. By the time you get to 65 degrees (it takes a LONG time to lower the temperature of an active fermentation from 85 degrees to 65 degrees, unless you actively cool it), the vast majority of fermentation will be over and you will have some fruity flavors from the high temperature fermentation.
 
I never pitched any of it that hot, but I did have a batch get a little warm during fermentation once. It threw a bit of cloves.
 
I recently pitched White Labs WLP001 at about the same temperature and the beer turned out great. I left it on the yeast cake for a good 5-6 weeks, so hopefully all this talk about the yeast "cleaning up after itself" is not just hype.

I'm sure it also helped that it was an IPA verging on a DIPA and the hops helped mask any off-flavors.
 
Yea, I agree with yoop, if you have your beer sitting at room temp it might take off and get estery. You'll still like it, I bet, but it would be better if you cooled it first then added yeast. If you underpitched yeast, then you're probably OK (heh, first time I thought underpitching was OK).

If you have a chest freezer or other cooling chamber, don't worry. It should chill in a few hours.
 
I did the same thing once; never again. It ended up with an alcohol / apple taste that got better with time.....but it was never what I expected.

Give it time and see what happens.
 
Quick update: As expected the beer is already fermenting away. Usually when I brew and get the wort down to the 70 range I won't see any airlock action until the next morning. But sure enough, when I got home about six hours later I saw a very active airlock. ...and, hopefully this is a good thing, the recent temp. is 76 F; so at least I'm 1 degree away from the fermentation temp (i.e. 59 to 75 F).
I wanted to have it sit longer, but my main concern was contamination or other problems resulting from the wort being cooled slowly.
In general, what is the longest time you want a 5 gallon batch to get from boiling to pitch temp? ...and yes, I know it is suppose to be "asap", but what is the longest that is acceptable?
 
Take the whole pot and put it in an ice bath in a sink or tub, and get the wort cooled to 100* or so.....then poor it in the bucket. This way the temp is much closer to pitching temp sooner. WHen I do this I can usually pitch right away.

You could cover it and lt it ccol I suppose, but most try to cool it off as quickly as they can.

I bet the batch will be fine.....:mug:
 
living in florida i often pitch US-05 at or near 80. when tap water is running that warm its hard to get it much colder. as long as you are brewing a style that a little fruitiness will be ok you'll be fine (ie pale ale). its considered bad practice but it happens. I will say, however, that your risk of off-flavors depends on the O.G. High alcohol plus high temp is never good. I brew a lot of 1040-1050 beers and get away with a warm ferment but that is something that you cant do with a higher alcohol brew (unless you go belgian and you're looking for it).

you're batch will be fine but try to avoid doing it again if you want to follow better brewing practices.
 
FensterBos said:
Quick update: As expected the beer is already fermenting away. Usually when I brew and get the wort down to the 70 range I won't see any airlock action until the next morning. But sure enough, when I got home about six hours later I saw a very active airlock. ...and, hopefully this is a good thing, the recent temp. is 76 F; so at least I'm 1 degree away from the fermentation temp (i.e. 59 to 75 F).
I wanted to have it sit longer, but my main concern was contamination or other problems resulting from the wort being cooled slowly.
In general, what is the longest time you want a 5 gallon batch to get from boiling to pitch temp? ...and yes, I know it is suppose to be "asap", but what is the longest that is acceptable?
Click to expand...
Relax, some people cover there wort and pitch the next day. As far as 86df, You should pitch within the ideal temps, but I have pitched 05 around the same temp and the batch turned out fine.
 
andrewp said:
living in florida i often pitch US-05 at or near 80. when tap water is running that warm its hard to get it much colder. as long as you are brewing a style that a little fruitiness will be ok you'll be fine (ie pale ale). its considered bad practice but it happens. I will say, however, that your risk of off-flavors depends on the O.G. High alcohol plus high temp is never good. I brew a lot of 1040-1050 beers and get away with a warm ferment but that is something that you cant do with a higher alcohol brew (unless you go belgian and you're looking for it).

you're batch will be fine but try to avoid doing it again if you want to follow better brewing practices.
Click to expand...

Its a mix between the Dogfish 60 & 90 minute; measured OG was 1.076, approximate IBU at 56. After a night, the fermenter is at 68 F and the airlock is still bubbling along.
This is the first time I've pitched at such a high temp; from what I read this style of IPA needs a lot of fermenting time so that might help with any off flavors I'll get. And hopefully the secondary/dry hopping will help as well.
 
Would I be able to smell any sour or off smells from pitching the yeast at too high of a temp? I took a quick whiff and it just smells like regular old beer.
 
i pitched at 82 with my first ale and after three weeks of botteling it has a stronger fruity smell or taste cant figure which one but it makes it not taste like a beer i also used more willamette hops than i should have probably which are known for fruity characters,from now on im pitching at room temp. but i was trying to figure where this taste is coming from.anybody know if it can be from priming with dextrose straight in the bottle?. think im gonna boil and cool the sugar from now on. im getting this same taste in my wheat beer with different hops but its only been bottled a week.think im going to bottle condition longer than 3 weeks from now on also
 
andrewp said:
living in florida i often pitch US-05 at or near 80.
Click to expand...

I'm in central louisiana and do the same thing. I pitched at 88 degrees for my most recent brew and its my 6th batch. I suspect it will be just fine.

The catch is that I cooled the wort down to 88, pitched, and then packed ice around the primary fermentor. I got the temp down to the mid 60s well before primary fermentation kicked off.
 
So how long can you take to cool the wort to around 65 ? I just did a batch and it took me 25 min to get it to 69 degrees. Is that to much time ?
 
Quick update: I checked the primary this morning and I still have good action going in my airlock. I was really worried that majority of the fermentation was going to complete within the first 36 hours, but I am still seeing strong action about 72 hours later (pitched Saturday afternoon).
 
a couple weeks ago I pitched safale s-33 at around 81-83* and seemed like peak fermentation was over in 3 days. I brewed on the 4th and it kicked off with in 2 hours. It is still in the primary. I still see a little bubbly action in the airlock and it still has a thin krausen on it. I am hoping it will turn out ok. I think I am going to keep it in the primary for 3 weeks and then put it in the secondary for 2 and bottles for atleast 3 weeks before drinking.
 
Patience is king; I'm going to leave the IPA in the primary for the longest amount of time that I've left beer in their. I'm always too quick to start bottling.
 
If the beer was just sitting and cooling naturally then you might get off-flavors with that brew. I usually pitch around 80 degrees, but my fermenters go directly into a swamp cooler at that point so they chill down before fermentation starts. I wouldn't worry too much about the flavors, you might not even notice them.
 
I often pitch in the 80's due to high tap water temps as well, and I haven't ever had any attenuation issues. The fruitiness referred to can be detectable, but I haven't found it to be a problem. I'd bet that if that is your only problem.....and your recipe is good.....then you'll have a great beer on your hands.
 
my beer is a chocolate cherry stout, so I think it is going to be ok. It's been a week.5 in the primary and I am going to try to give it another week.5 and then into the secondary.
 
cenla said:
I'm in central louisiana and do the same thing. I pitched at 88 degrees for my most recent brew and its my 6th batch. I suspect it will be just fine.

The catch is that I cooled the wort down to 88, pitched, and then packed ice around the primary fermentor. I got the temp down to the mid 60s well before primary fermentation kicked off.
Click to expand...

I kinda like that idea it skips the making the starter step.Hopfully it dosnt shock the yeast,probably just jump starts it.:eek:
 

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