I brewed my first batch of all-grain beer yesterday. It's the Big Ben Pale Ale kit. I pitched the yeast at about 80 F and within 3 hours I started to see bubbles from the airlock. It's now at about 74-75 F and there is a distinct fruity/banana smell coming from the airlock. Is this a problem? I read that there will be a fruity flavor to the beer. Will this mellow out in the secondary and in the bottles? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks
Fermentation Temperature Problem?
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boo boo
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Bit warm to be pitching your yeast. Usually i pitch at 62f for ales and ferment at 62 - 64f.
dirtybear7
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High temps will generally increase fruity fermentation flavors. Some yeasts are more fruity than others. The flavor will likely mellow a little over time. It is only a problem if you don't like those flavors in your beer.
Your temps are much, much too high. Fermentation is an exothermic process and the beer temp could be as much as 10 degrees higher than the room temperature. Higher temps result in more ester production, which give fruity flavors. Some esters are good depending on the beer, but excessive esters are rarely desirable.
Not much can be done now for this beer, but for future beers you should try to figure out a way to keep the fermentation temps down in the mid60s.
Not much can be done now for this beer, but for future beers you should try to figure out a way to keep the fermentation temps down in the mid60s.
It's been about 40 hours since I pitched the yeast and there are absolutely no bubbles from the airlock. It was bubbling once every few seconds after a couple hours of pitching up until 25-30 hours. I opened it up and I see some residue on the sides of the fermenter but nothing at all on top. Is this a bad thing?
HerbieHowells
Well-Known Member
What you have seen is completely normal and not a bad thing. The residue is from the krausen, which has settled. You could probably take a final gravity reading today, and another in a few days, and find that your gravity has settled, and that fermentation is done. That said, it would be better to let the beer sit in the fermenter for at least two weeks from your brew day, if not longer. That will give the yeast time to clean up after fermentation.
HerbieHowells
Well-Known Member
I don't secondary, so someone else may want to answer that. I think you at least want to wait a week so that the yeast can settle fully, but you could wait for someone else or use the search function to get a better answer.
HerbieHowells said:
There's some debate over this, but I am in the camp that will tell you not to bother with the secondary unless you have a good reason to use it. The beer will be fine sitting in the primary vessel for quite some time. For most beers 3-4 weeks in primary then bottle. I only use a secondary vessel if I am bulk aging for months or adding fruit or oak. Some will dry hop in secondary too, but more and more folks are dry hopping right in primary as well.
There was, at one point, the idea that letting your beer sit on the primary yeast cake for too long would result in off-flavors from the dying and decaying yeast. This lead people to advocate for moving the beer into a secondary vessel as soon as possible after fermentation was done. I suppose this may have been a real problem with old not-so-great yeast, but with the yeast we have today this is not a problem and your beer can sit in the primary for many weeks with no problems.
In addition to there not being any problem with leaving the beer on the yeast, it actually has a huge benefit. Even though fermentation may be done, the yeast continue to metabolize many of the by products they produced during fermentation, which can result in a cleaner, better-tasting beer. Moving the beer away from the bulk of the yeast can limit this "clean-up". Also, the yeast will settle out just fine whether in primary or secondary - it just takes time.
to clean up those high temp esters, you may want to just leave it on the yeast cake for a month or so. i'd skip secondary unless you plan to add something post fermentation, and with that hot a ferment, i'd leave it on the yeast for as long as you can (within reason) before transferring to secondary if you go that route.
Ok I guess I'll leave it in the primary for 3-4 weeks then go straight to bottles. When I took a reading I had a little taste today and it smells and tastes like peaches. I was thinking about dumping this batch out and starting over but if you think some of the high temp esters that caused the fruity flavor will die down, then I will keep it.
i wouldn't personally think about dumping a batch until i was sure it wasn't good. that means riding it through fermentation, and bottle conditioning, AND a long aging period in bottles if it needed that. sometimes a beer with off flavors can take a really long time to turn the corner and become drinkable.
i brewed an english IPA last spring that got really warm for the first day, like high 70's warm.... it was AWFUL going into bottles, hot booze, loaded with esters. after 4 weeks in bottles, it was worse. i shelved it and forgot about it until about a month ago. chilled a few off, cracked one, and while the hops had faded, the beer had really turned around. it's by no means the best beer i've made, but it's a serviceable beer that i don't mind drinking.
long story a bit longer, don't dump beer unless you KNOW there's no hope.... and any beer in the fermenter has hope, if you ask me.
good luck.
i wouldn't personally think about dumping a batch until i was sure it wasn't good. that means riding it through fermentation, and bottle conditioning, AND a long aging period in bottles if it needed that. sometimes a beer with off flavors can take a really long time to turn the corner and become drinkable.
i brewed an english IPA last spring that got really warm for the first day, like high 70's warm.... it was AWFUL going into bottles, hot booze, loaded with esters. after 4 weeks in bottles, it was worse. i shelved it and forgot about it until about a month ago. chilled a few off, cracked one, and while the hops had faded, the beer had really turned around. it's by no means the best beer i've made, but it's a serviceable beer that i don't mind drinking.
long story a bit longer, don't dump beer unless you KNOW there's no hope.... and any beer in the fermenter has hope, if you ask me.
good luck.
Agreed...time can do wonders for some beers. You never know, so don't dump now. Besides, warm, flat beer tastes completely different from chilled, fully carbonated beer. You never want to judge your beer based on samples straight out of the fermenter - it's young and not ready yet.
Just wanted to update the thread. I finally bottled this morning after 4 1/2 weeks in the primary. The beer still smells like fruit and I am pretty sure it won't be enjoyable at all. The abv is approx 2%. I am guessing this is because the airlock showed no action after 24 hours. Maybe the yeast stopped working do to high temps?
Frodo
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The yeast don't stop working because of heat (well, unless you kill them at over 100F), they generally ferment the sugars REALLY QUICKLY when in the mid 70s, then they are done REALLY QUICKLY. That said, what was the OG and FG? 2% ABV is really low for a Pale Ale.
Darwin18
Well-Known Member
An investment in temperature control equipment would greatly improve the quality and consistency of your brews. It sucks spending $40 on a kit only to have it turn out undrinkable. If you can pickup a chest freezer or a used refrigerator and hook it up to a temperature controller, you will not be disapointed.
How did you calculate that ABV?
My guess is that he's looking at the "Potential alcohol" scale, which would put him ~1.015
you can even go cheaper than a freezer or fridge, although you can pick those up cheaply and they work well. give this a look. actually, this was one of the threads that popped up right after the holidays that prompted me to write that blog entry. hope it helps out.
You are at 4.2% ABV. That alcohol % reading is potential alcohol remaining assuming your wort fermented down to 1.000
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