What will this give me in the end...?

Ok, this is only my third batch of beer.

I made a spiced pumpkin ale and pitch a White Labs Yeast (WLP002). Problem is I pitched it kind of hot, around 80 to 81 degrees F I think (my thermometer may not be working properly).

Anyway, I know it is ok because it is fermenting like it is suppose to and starting to go heavy at about the 24 hour mark. The temp on the carboy still reads 72 degrees however. So my question is what will fermenting at this high of temperature do to the beer if anything? Will it be an ale or something different?

My first batch was a porter and an amber that fermented at a steady 68 degrees the whole time.

First off, it was an english ale yeast you used, so yes, it will be an ale, regardless of fermenting temperature.

Pitching the yeast at 80F or higher can cause excessive fermentation, which can produce excessive by products like diacetyl, fusel alcohols and esters.
These can effect the final flavour of the beer and even ruin it, producing things like buttery, green apple, banana or bubble gum flavours.

Don't worry, you'll still have drinkable beer.

I'd see how this one turns out and then focus more on temp control next time. I didn't attempt controlling my fermentation temperatures my first 6 months brewing and ended up with good tasting beers. Thats not to say that some didn't have off flavors, mainly hot alcohols every once in a while.

Keep at it man! Hopefully it turns out good!

Pitching a little high isn't a problem, as long as the temperature is down into the fermentation range by the time it starts.

Well it was only at about 78 when it started to ferment significantly. It then dropped to about 72 but then spiked back up to 76 when the fermentation began hot and heavy.

Since then I have put it in a bath of cold water and the temp has dropped to about 67 in a few hours but it is still fermenting pretty good (based on the blow off tube bucket bubble activity).

Hopefully this will assist in correcting this issue.

I plan to rack this to a secondary next week sometime anyway to gain some clarity. I hope there are no funny flavors though as the sample going into the fermentor tasted great!

I just read this post and had almost the exact same experience. Brewing a pumpkin ale, second batch, pitched Cooper Ale yeast in wort at about 80 degrees monday morning. Went through a very vigorous and immediate fermentation, had blowoff through my airlock. It's still bubbling at day three, 68 degrees, and I'm planning on racking it this weekend where I can sample it. It smells like beer, with no off odors or anything - hoping it will taste good too. I was already advised to age this about 2 months in the bottle due to the high amount of fermentable sugars. I'll post back with the results as i rack and bottle. Would be interested to hear what happens with yours.

Well after a hot fermentation (heavy and at about 70 degrees F) for about 5 days I am going to rack this to secondary tomorrow or Saturday. I figure I will let it sit there for 2 to 3 weeks then bottle it. Here is a picture of the amount of trub left in the bottom of the carboy after just 5 days.

That big ol' yeast cake sitting at the bottom of your pic may help to clear up off flavors... if it were me i'd leave it in primary for maybe 3 or 4 weeks, then give it an additional week in secondary to clear. 5 days seems pretty quick. However, to each his own



Are you at FG already?

Chugger said:

Well it was only at about 78 when it started to ferment significantly. It then dropped to about 72 but then spiked back up to 76 when the fermentation began hot and heavy.

Since then I have put it in a bath of cold water and the temp has dropped to about 67 in a few hours but it is still fermenting pretty good (based on the blow off tube bucket bubble activity).

Hopefully this will assist in correcting this issue.

I plan to rack this to a secondary next week sometime anyway to gain some clarity. I hope there are no funny flavors though as the sample going into the fermentor tasted great!

Click to expand...

You are going to be fine, I did a beer on Mothers day and I had to hurry things up at then end and I was pitching onto a yeast cake so I had to get the wort out of the kettle into the fermentor before I left the house but the wort was still at 90 . It was over 80 for the first 24 hours and probably hit terminal gravity within those 24 hours. I got it down to the optimal temps and let the yeast clean up after themselves for 3 weeks and turned out to be a great beer. But yeah, it went from 1.062 to 1.008 on a yeast cake of US-05.

Ok, so I was going to transfer this from primary to secondary tonight or tomorrow to help it clear. However, do you think I should let it sit in primary for another week to let the yeast work a bit more or will it be fine to go to secondary? I have no idea what the SG is at at the moment, I plan to take a sample when I transfer it.

So how long should I leave it in the primary and how long in the secondary?

I usually leave it in the primary for at least two weeks if not longer. I've tried two weeks primary and two weeks secondary, three weeks primary and one week secondary, and four weeks primary with no secondary. They all turned out pretty much the same.

In my experience, my ales like having more time in the primary. Originally I followed the brew sheets that came with the recipe (said 4-7 day primary)... but I quickly learned that I was much happier with an ale that got at least 3 weeks in the primary...

To me, off flavors from trub were much less of a problem than the off flavors from the fermentation time itself, which the yeast will clean up if given the chance. Moving to secondary can rob them of that chance if done too soon. They will still probably clean things up once in the bottle, but it will take much longer via bottle conditioning in my experience.

The secondary is really quite optional as far as the process is concerned, you really only need to do it if you:
a) want to free up the primary for another batch
b) dryhop or add spices prior to bottling
c) can't bottle for a while and want to minize oxidation by moving it to a glass carboy with little head space. the catch 22 here is that oxidation can happen via the transfer to the secondary, just be careful and don't splash it when siphoning.

So far for me, the hardest part of brewing has been learning to let things take the time to be awesome... but it's always worth it.

Well I switched out the blow tube for a 3pc airlock tonight and checked the S.G. and taste of this brew. It is very very strong in the cinnamon flavor. The S.G. however read 1.014 and my O.G. was around 1.070. Now understand that this is still fermenting well as the airlock is bubbling about once every 45 seconds or so still. Could my S.G. really be at 1.014 already? The recipe called for a F.G. of 1.015 so I'm low already. Does this mean anything or just that it is going to be a strong beer?

The heat may have sped up things a little bit, but then again ales can go pretty quick by nature. It could definately could be down to 1.014 by now. Based off the attenuation info from White Labs' website for WLP002, your recipe sheet seems a little off. I'd say your FG would be more in the 1.010 - 1.015 range given that:
OG of 1.070 and FG of 1.014 = 64% real attenuation
and
WLP002 attenuation range = 63% - 70%
However, the WLP002 only has medium alchohol tolerance and this is batch is getting pretty strong, it may be nearing it's threshold in that reguard. Bottom line is that when you get a consistent hydrometer reading for a few days, you'll know. The airlock isn't really a good gauge of fermentation, I've had times where my beer was fermenting with no airlock activity, and other times when I noticed a bit of airlock ativity, but didn't really get any change in hydrometer reading. If you are at FG, giving your ale some extra time on the yeast cake in your primary could help to clean up off flavors. Otherwise, the cinnamon could mask it, or a little extra bottle conditioning time is also good. Sounds like you wound up with a good brew =)

Well just an update to this Pumpkin Spice Ale I brewed. (not sure this thread still belongs in this forum)

I just wanted to check the SG again tonight to see how the fermentation was going. Last time I checked it was 3 nights ago.

Here are a couple of pictures of the hydrometer sample and the reading.





Still has a strong cinnamon flavor, although it has subsided a bit from the 1st sample. It definately needs more time to settle out but so far I'm pleased with this.

So what is the popular opinion, should I rack it to a secondary or leave it as is for a week or 2 more?

Quick question and plea for opinions.

I'm a bit worried that my Spiced Pumpkin Ale will not be hoppy enough for me in the end. So I'm thinking about dry hopping. There are 2 problems with that however.

1) I've never dry hopped before so am not exactly sure how to do that.
2) I don't have any idea what type of hops to use for this should I actually do it.

The recipe I used is shown below...

1lb Crystal 60L
1/2lb Biscuit
7lbs of Light DME
58oz Canned Pumpkin
Spice Mixture (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger)
1/2tsp Brown Sugar
1/4tsp Irish Moss
1oz Goldings 4.5% AA @ 60min
White Labs (WLP002)

What I'm wondering is if anyone can give me some advice on how to dry hop if it is truly more involved than just pitching them into the fermentor and what type and the amount of hops to use for dry hopping this type of beer.

Of course if you think I shouldn't dry hop this at all then I would like to hear that as well.

Thanks in advance for any comments.