Fluctuation in temperature

[Rhinosaur88]

Hi everyone,

I'm very new to brewing, and this is my first post on this awesome site. I have just finished brewing my first pale ale from scratch which was so much fun! It is currently halfway through day 3 of the fermentation process. Everything so far has, I think, gone according to plan. However there are a couple of things I'm slightly concerned about;

I pitched the yeast (Nottingham Danstar) at 22C which from what I've read online is an ideal temperature. After about 24-36 hours the airlock was bubbling like crazy which I took to be a good thing. I've had a consistent temperature of 22-24C in my kitchen. Last night however my flat mates and I had a few people over for dinner and the kitchen got pretty hot. I noticed that the temperature had risen to 26C. Naturally, I was terrified for my beer and hastily shooed everyone out of the kitchen. After a while the temperature dropped back to 24C and it is now currently sitting at 22C.

I've been going through various threads and a lot of people have been saying that 26C is too hot for an ale. Does anyone have any insight as to whether or not my beer will now taste like crap? I'm hoping that since it only peaked for an hour or so it should be OK but still...

I'm also now concerned that the bubbles are few and far between considering they were going mental about 16 hours ago. Is this is a good thing? My plan was to leave the beer in the primary fermentation bucket for 10 days before switching it to the secondary for 4 days in order to get some dry hopping in.

Any help and insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[k_mcarthur]

A ambient air temperature fluctuation for a few hours won't do any harm. Sometimes it takes a day or so to drop my wort temp in my chamber ten degrees. Also the first couple of days are the most important, after that you could raise the temp some to help finish faster. I don't but some commercial brewers do.

 

[stpug]

I believe your saying that your ambient air temperature in your kitchen is 22C (72F) and it rose to 26C (79F). If you're talking about your ambient air temperature in your kitchen then your beer will likely be 3-10F higher than ambient. IMO, you are fermenting too hot for that yeast. At a minimum you are fermenting at 72F and more likely are in mid- to upper-70s which would be almost 10F too hot for a clean ferment with nottingham.

I love nottingham yeast but I have never let it get above 68F (20C) due to possible "off" esters produced by this yeast above about 70F. At 68F I got a little english fruitiness (very subtle). This particular yeast works wonderfully in cooler temperatures (55F-65F), whereas you can get away with lower 70s using something like US05.

I've read that ester formation takes place early on in the fermentation process (starting in lag phase and extending part/most of the way through active fermentation). Depending on how your beer temperatures were during those phases of fermentation will dictate the ester/fusel characteristics.

Overall, I wouldn't worry too much about what has happened. Ride it out, sample your beer and decide how you'll proceed in the future. If you find no disagreeable characteristics in your beer then you'll know it wasn't that big of a deal; if you find some "offness" you don't like or an alcoholly bite then it might be attributed to the fermentation temperature depending on the characteristics you're not liking. The good thing is that even beer with an off characteristics won't hurt you and still contains alcohol

 

[k_mcarthur]

I agree with stpug about the temp being too high. I've never been any good at Celsius, thanks to the US education system. You will definitely make beer, just might have some funny aftertaste. For your next batch look into a swamp cooler to keep it in the mid 60's.

 

[BigFloyd]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you were about 7-8*C too high on both your pitch and ferment temps using that particular strain of yeast.

14-17*C is the ideal temp at which to pitch and begin the ferment using Nottingham. It's a nice cool temp ale yeast, but is quite intolerant of temps above 20*C (beer temp, not air). I'm afraid that you're going to have significant off-flavors and possibly fusel alcohols.

Next batch, try to cool the wort down more before pitching and take steps to keep the ferment under 17*C for the first 4-5 days. You also may want to switch to US-05 which, as already noted, is a bit more forgiving of slightly higher temps.

 

[Mozart]

RDWHAHB!!

Some weeks ago, I started a batch of BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde with the same yeast, and put it into my fermentation chiller the morning before we headed out of town for the weekend.

When I got back, I checked on my brew, only to discover that I'd somehow forgotten to set my temp controller to the proper temperature, and, gasp!! The temperature was 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29-30 degrees Celsius), and this during the critical first few days of fermentation!

A few weeks later, it tasted great!

Sure, you might get a little more esters than you otherwise would, but it'll be beer, and I suspect, likely quite drinkable.

Cheers!

 

[Rhinosaur88]

Hi everyone,

Thanks very much for the quick replies. I did a bit of snooping around regarding this yeast, and according to the Danstar website the Nottingham yeast is best suited to temperatures between 57-70F (14-21C). I still pitched it at too high a temperature so I'm expecting some knock backs. It had been going suspiciously well for a first brew! I'll post the results on here once it's all bottled up.

Out of curiosity, what are the best yeasts to use for an ale where the temperatures are at a consistent 72-75F (roughly 22-24C)?

Thanks again for all the replies and advice.

 

[stpug]

A chico strain (us05/wy1056/wlp001) is said to be okay up to about 72F but I wouldn't want to push much beyond that. I feel like you could bring your temps down by about 4-5 degrees using a simple swamp cooler setup (i.e. fermenter put in a bucket with cold water poured around the fermenter). Some folks will use a wet towel/shirt around the fermenter in the bucket with a fan to create the evaporative (swamp) cooling, while other will just drop in some frozen water bottle into the water to keep it extra cold for longer. It also helps avoid temperature spikes because it acts as a heatsink wicking the heat away from the fermenter (granted you need to monitor your buckets water temp). Once you bring your beer temps down to about 68F (20C) you have a large window of available yeasts, but sitting in 72-75F you are limited. You can always use some belgian strains but you will get belgian characteristics, which isn't always wanted.

Examples (not mine):

 

[BigFloyd]

A chico strain (us05/wy1056/wlp001) is said to be okay up to about 72F but I wouldn't want to push much beyond that. I feel like you could bring your temps down by about 4-5 degrees using a simple swamp cooler setup (i.e. fermenter put in a bucket with cold water poured around the fermenter). Some folks will use a wet towel/shirt around the fermenter in the bucket with a fan to create the evaporative (swamp) cooling, while other will just drop in some frozen water bottle into the water to keep it extra cold for longer. It also helps avoid temperature spikes because it acts as a heatsink wicking the heat away from the fermenter (granted you need to monitor your buckets water temp). Once you bring your beer temps down to about 68F (20C) you have a large window of available yeasts, but sitting in 72-75F you are limited. You can always use some belgian strains but you will get belgian characteristics, which isn't always wanted.

+1. There are a variety of ways to cool down an ale fermentation (lagers in the 48-50*F range are much tougher).

The important thing is to pick one and do it. It's especially crucial to do so for the first 4-5 days of the fermentation.