My first brew. How hot is to hot?

[tbskinner]

My wife and parents got me a brew kit for an early birthday present. I when to brew up my first extract batch and started looking into information on how to do it. I live in a hot area and my house is swamp cooled. I was originally worried about the house being to hot for brewing because the recipe says to store under 75 and don't let it get under 60. Well my house has never yet got over 75 degrees so I went room to room with my meat thermometer for the coolest place in the house. I found a closet that never got over 73. So I brewed up my batch put it in the bucket and put it in the closet. What I didn't realize is that when it started to ferment the temp was going to rise. The thermometer on the side of the bucket says its now at 81. Now Im getting worried. I put it in a larger bucket of water and put a wet tee shirt over it with a fan. Its not getting much cooler probably because my house is already to humid. My question is how bad will it taste and how hot is to hot? If it does cool back down will that spike in temperature have very ill effects?

Thanks for any help or info.
T

 

[nukebrewer]

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. When I was staying in Navy housing in Hawaii they wouldn't let me put the AC below 72 because they paid the electric bill. Consequently, the temperature was usually somewhere around 74-76 and I never had a beer go bad on me. Hope this helps ease your concerns.

-AJ

 

[kh54s10]

Throw some ice in the bucket. Frozen soda bottles work good. Keep an eye on the temperature and soon you will know how often you have to change them to keep the temperature down and stable.

 

[duboman]

IMO you should look into a "swamp cooler" set up, a large toy tub or rubbermaid container filled with water. Place the primary in the water and add frozen water bottles in to lower the temperature. In addition you can place a wet t-shirt over the primary and add a fan to keep cool. The bottles need to be rotated once a day and you can maintain temps in the low to mid 60's easy. You really only need to do this during active fermentation or the first week basically. Depending on the style most ales like the mid 60's and while you can certainly ferment higher you may develop off flavors that you do not like.

Edit: Doh! Missed that you are already doing this, add more ice bottles and the temp should drop more

 

[twistr25]

+1 to your already setup swamp cooler. My house stays around 76 because I'm cheap...But I was switching out frozen water bottles about 4 times a day or so, whenever I saw they had melted. Kept it in the high 60s perfectly, didn't even use a towel or anything over it. All in all you should be fine if you got the temp back down.

 

[pfgonzo]

I'm in the middle of a re-read of Chris White's (of White Labs) Yeast book, and this post triggered a memory of one of the sections I read last night. They ran an experiment fermenting with WLP001, the standard CA Ale yeast, at 68 and 75. There were minimal increases in fusel alcohols at the higher temps, but the big-big difference was the creation of acetaldehyde.

I don't recall the precise numbers, but with a perception threshold of approximately 10 ppm, and the batch fermented at 68 only generated 7 ppm acetaldehyde. The batch that fermented at 75 had 150ppm which is a significant increase. IF you're getting unwanted apple flavor/aroma in your beer, lower the temp! If you don't notice the apple, then don't worry

NOTE: I believe acetaldehyde production only occurs during the first few days of ale fermentations, so if your temp rose on day 2.5 or 3, you're ok.

 

[tbskinner]

Thanks for the quick reply. This is about 30 hours after adding my yeast. We had a storm early today so the humidity of the air spiked and the temp got up quick. Not sure apple flavor would be a bad addition to this beer so I'm not to worried if that's all it will be. I have been adding ice and the temp is slowly dropping. Thanks for the frozen water bottle idea I'll definitely do that. I will let you all know how it turns out in about 25 days.

T

 

[tbskinner]

So it was bubbling earlier and then I put it in the water to cool off. Now it seemes to have stopped bubbling out the air lock. Do you think it is the rapid change in temp, or maybe its just the seal on the bucket I have? Do I need to stir it?

Thanks again, I really don't want this beer to turn out bad and I'm probably worrying about it to much
T

 

[BigSally]

Don't stir it

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I live in AZ just outside Phoenix and my house stays around 80f. My first batch fermented at an ambient of 75f and the apple flavor was strong and unpleasant for 2 months. Definitely keep up with the ice and check the seal on your bucket. Sometimes temp change can slow the yeast, but don't stir. Wait a few weeks, then start checking gravity with your hydrometer to see if it's ready to package. Start planning the next brew to hold you over!

 

[ShinyBuddha]

Don't stir it

Agreed. Bubbling is not a sign of fermentation. Give it two weeks then take a hydrometer sample. Once you check it, measure it again in three days. If the hydrometer sample is steady, you're fine.

 

[duboman]

+1 to not stirring!

The change in temperature probably slowed the yeast down, additionally, fermentation is probably slowing down at this point anyways and lack of bubbling in the airlock is normal, don't worry about it. Eventually you will have no activity in the airlock but that doe not mean fermentation is complete. Give it some additional time and begin taking a gravity at the 10day to 2 week mark to verify final gravity.

 

[tbskinner]

I have been able to keep my bucket temp down to constant 70 with the frozen water bottles. I took the small fan of because I didn't feel that it was doing much and it was really noisy. I left the shirt on it because I felt it couldn't hurt.

So the seal on the bucket is not sealed. When I pull the wet shirt back that I put over the bucket to evaporate cool it I can smell the beer. My direction state that I should keep in the primary for 5-7 days then transfer to the secondary (glass carboy) for 5-7 days then bottle. I had originally thought I would just keep in the primary for 14 days because of all the things I have read on why you shouldn't transfer to secondary. However now that I know that the bucket doesn't have a good seal I'm considering it. Should I? How critical is the air lock, does it have to be perfect?

I'm thinking about making some wine out of concentrated juice, sugar and champagne yeast. I figure its a cheap way to perfect my process without messing up another batch of expensive beer. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for all the advice.
T

 

[FATC1TY]

Not sure if the wine will help you with much. I'd find a cheap pale ale, or wheat extract recipe to try next. Or better yet, a Saison or something. Those can ferment at higher temps with no real ill issues, they have that funky flavor anyways.

I'd transfer it over if you are worried about the seal. So long as nothing is getting IN, then there isn't an issue with the seal not being perfect. My bucket doesn't seal real good anymore, but I still get airlock activity.

Keep using the swamp cooler, it's easy with some ice or water bottles.. If you can control fermentation temps, you've hurdled one of the biggest mistakes for off flavors in home brewing right there.

 

[twistr25]

Your risks are probably greater trying to move it to a secondary than just leaving it in your primary. Even without a complete seal, the bucket is "closed". During an after fermentation you should develop a layer of CO2 on top of the beer that will help fight off anything trying to get into it. And if you are smelling beer coming out, mostly means nothing is going in. I'd say just let it ride out in the primary.

 

[tbskinner]

That's kinda what I was thinking. I'll just leave it. Thanks. I'm ordering a gamma seal Lid next week for my next brew.