Temperature question

O.K. Newbie questions here...

brewing a Scotch Ale Wee Heavy from a Brewcraft kit.

it took a lot longer to cool the Wort down to below 80 degrees before pitching the yeast. (close to 2 hours)

placed the glass carboy into a 75 degree garage but the heat in the carboy was above 80 degrees 24 hours later. (I did not take into account the heat from the yeast fermentation)So when I realized this I placed it into an old fridge in the garage and have been alternating the fridge on / and / off to try and maintain a temp around 65 degrees

so question #1
The instructions recommend temps 62-68 and DO NOT exceed 80...will this batch have an off taste since it was probably above 80 the first 24 hours?

question #2
I activated the yeast in distilled water during the boiling process as the instructions in my book stated...yet cooling took 2 hours not 20 minutes. The first 24 hours had the beer bubbling up out the airlock (very active) but since I moved it to the fridge at 65 degrees there seems to be zero activity. Is this normal? Did I mess up the fermentation with the 2 hour wait?

The instructions say that for the best results I should move it to the 5 gallon carboy after 1 week and refrigerate at 42-48 degrees for 4-6 more weeks. With my above mistakes is this still good advice?

Sorry for the newbie questions but I do appreciate the time you take to help!

Answer 1: You may have created some off flavors. Only time will tell.
Answer 2: The longer cooling time has nothing to do with your fermentation in this case. If the airlock was bubbling and you had an active fermentation for the first 24 hours, the yeast was good when you pitched it. What may have happened is that the higher ferm temps caused the fermentation to become more active, and therefore finish sooner. You gotta take a gravity reading to know for sure. If you dont have a hydrometer, try to keep the beer at around 68. Leave it in the primary for three or four more days, then putting it in the secondary and finish as the kit instructions say to.

DFuller said:

question #2
The first 24 hours had the beer bubbling up out the airlock (very active) but since I moved it to the fridge at 65 degrees there seems to be zero activity. Is this normal?

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The cooler temperature will cause the gas to contract which is probably why the activity of the air lock slowed down

Hitting the right temps for your yeast are key to making good beer.Too high or too low and you may have problems.I made the mistake of not knowing as it said below 80,but usually try to hit 70,depending what yeast and your ambient temps, you want to maintain a constant temp if possible.
Why so long to cool? Dont worrry about airlock activity just ferment it for 3 wks assuming under 1.06 ish gravity.

jonmohno said:

Why so long to cool?

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'

Well I had two sets of instructions...the kit and the "how to brew" book I bought. One said to transfer to the carboy and place in an ice bath...I took that advice.

The glass holds heat VERY well. Even after emptying my freezer of all of its ice I had trouble getting the temp down. The glass portion of the carboy that stayed above the water stayed hot for what seemed like an eternity.

For the future brewing ...I will either buy more ice or begin saving ice from my freezer a week in advance. I will also cool the wort in the stainless brew pot. The thin walls of the kettle will cool more quickly than the carboy did and will transfer the temps to the wort more easily. (plus I can stir the pot but not a carboy)

Live and learn right?

jonmohno said:

Dont worrry about airlock activity just ferment it for 3 wks assuming under 1.06 ish gravity.

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Oops missed this in the first response....Original gravity was 1.076 (5 days ago) I won't be taking another reading until I transfer to the secondary on Monday. (unless I delay that with the advice here)

Thanks again for everyone's time you are taking to respond!!

Next time with your ice bath: I always run cool water 3 times, stir your water while cooling until it warms then drain,do this twice then on your last cold water fill add the ice, unless you have enough ice to do this twice.I just use a full bin of ice from my freezer ice maker this way on the third cold water fill in my sink.Although i have only 2 gallons to cool, you may want to use a tub that fits it or something,if i was doing 5 gallon batches i probably would end up getting a wort chiller if it took more than an hour.

Well I moved it to the secondary tonight. Original gravity was 1.076 today was 1.026

Did a taste test with what was used for the gravity test and it was pretty good already. Obviously not very full bodied yet but with another 4 to 6 weeks before bottling I think it will be great. Looks like the one day over temp didn't kill it

Looking forward to the finished product now

You may have created a stall with your yeast. Take measurements and it needed, repitch

It is very important to get that wort down to 70* as quickly as possible. Most people will forego the ice bath, for as you experienced it is hard to move boiling wort to a tub of cold water, and it is one of the most inefficient ways to cool down after flame out. Also with an extended cool down like you experienced you run the risk of wort contamination. I strongly recommend getting either an immersion chiller or a counter flow chiller. Immersion chillers are the easiest to sanitize and clean. They can look kind of pricey, but they are essential in any home brewery.

As far as the temp control of the fermentation and the yeast temp, this too is vital to making award winning beer. The style you chose to make is actually a pretty advanced one. My wife won a BJCP competition with her Scottish wee heavy, but that was after a lot of feedback from other brewers and judges. The Scottish wee heavy yeast strain is designed to ferment at about 60*. That is room temp for Scotland. If the yeast get up in the 70 range they will still flocculate, but they will also create a lot of phenols and fruity esters that are inappropriate in that style.

You mentioned you used distilled water to hydrate your yeast. I would avoid doing this, for distilled water does not have the nutrients needed for viable yeast health. Yeast need zinc, calcium carbonate, and calcium chloride to thrive. The brewing water used in the scottish breweries is what we would call "soft water," and that is a lot of what determines the flavor profile of the beer and the style. Water chemistry can be intimidating to new brewers, so don't fret too much about it now. I would however, do a large yeast starter three days before you brew using tap water boiled with DME for 20 min. That way you know you have some minerals the yeast need, and the water is sterile from the boiling. This will ensure the yeast propagate enough by the time you pitch them to munch all the malty goodness and attenuate down to the 1.010 range.

I know all of this may sound a bit frightening being new to the hobby, but don't worry too much about it. I'm sure you made good drinkable beer. I also recommend the book "How to brew" as a place to start.

Let us know how it turns out.

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@ squirrelly, I would have to disagree on the not using distilled water just to hydrate. When you hydrate you are only awakening the yeast so its cells are not flooded with sugary wort just yet.They get the minerals an nutrition from the wort, not from hydrating for 15 minutes in less than a cup or so of water.
Im not shure if this is misinformation because ive seen this before.

I'm not quite sure if it's misinformation so much as perhaps confusion. I think the problem may arise when talking about yeast vials or smack packs and dry yeast. I personally never have, and never will use dry yeast, but in the case of dry yeast I could see point where this might not be an issue. I was speaking more in the terms of yeast starters. I'm not quite sure distilled water or RO water would be appropriate in the case of a yeast starter without first building one's water.

On a side note, after speaking to a microbiologist at gallo, he informed me that truly distilled water (this being pure H2O with nothing in it that any chemist could find) will actually explode the yeast cells.

Wow,never have or will use dry? Ive only ever used dry but am willing to try liquid even though i hear of more complications with it.So distilled water will explode a dry yeasts cells that is hydrating?Hmm ive ocassionally used distilled but i usually use just filtered and once just my tap water boiled.

I have just stuck with liquid yeast because it's always worked. Plus liquid yeast is more recommended by jamil and the brewing network folks.

I was skeptical when hearing this about distilled water, but this person is the head of the lab at gallo. Of course I stress PURE distilled water with absolutely nothing in it.

squirrelly said:

I have just stuck with liquid yeast because it's always worked. Plus liquid yeast is more recommended by jamil and the brewing network folks.

I was skeptical when hearing this about distilled water, but this person is the head of the lab at gallo. Of course I stress PURE distilled water with absolutely nothing in it.

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Just to clear up the different water types. Distilled is where the water is boiled and the steam condensed. Ro is where the water is filtered thru reverse osmosis filters. DI is de-mineralized and de-ionized water where the water is sent thru ion chambers to remove even free ions in the water. DI water which is pretty much the purest of pure is not even recommended to drink. It can actually give ya the slitz.