Noob temperature advice

[buzd]

So I've had my first extract batch (APA) in primary for about 9 days. Everything seems to be going well - got some nice activity after a couple of days, and now the krausen is settling down. I pitched at about 66 and I've kept temps pretty steady at 68 via a swamp cooler set up (wash tub of water with a tshirt over the carboy, and a little ice early on).

I'm going out of town this weekend, and my thought is to move the carboy to the kitchen counter (where I will rack and bottle) either before I leave or after I get back, and bottle the following weekend. The house is at steady 74 ambient (I can also log in remotely and adjust the A/C without the wife knowing ). From what I've read here, as long as fermentation is pretty much finished, a raise in temp will help the yeast "finish up".

Any thoughts on how long I can leave it at 72-75 degrees before bottling? Is one option better than the other? TIA for any advice.

 

[didinho]

you can leave the beer at 75 for the weekend. yeast activity will be low, just to finish fermentation if there are 1-2 gravity points to eat. so you will not get off flavors in 2-3 days

 

[TurnipGreen]

I'm new to controlling fermentation tempatures also, but I've read and it seems to hold true, that for the most part those first couple of days are the most important. The active fermentation is where different flavors are produced out of the yeast.

I'd say you'll be fine leaving it on the counter.

 

[RM-MN]

So I've had my first extract batch (APA) in primary for about 9 days. Everything seems to be going well - got some nice activity after a couple of days, and now the krausen is settling down. I pitched at about 66 and I've kept temps pretty steady at 68 via a swamp cooler set up (wash tub of water with a tshirt over the carboy, and a little ice early on).

I'm going out of town this weekend, and my thought is to move the carboy to the kitchen counter (where I will rack and bottle) either before I leave or after I get back, and bottle the following weekend. The house is at steady 74 ambient (I can also log in remotely and adjust the A/C without the wife knowing ). From what I've read here, as long as fermentation is pretty much finished, a raise in temp will help the yeast "finish up".

Any thoughts on how long I can leave it at 72-75 degrees before bottling? Is one option better than the other? TIA for any advice.

I don't think I would leave it too long at that temp before bottling. I'd suggest you limit it to 2 to 4 months.

It really won't hurt to leave your beer at that temp for quite a while. It lets the yeast finish up and then settle out. Even leaving it there for 3 months you will still have enough yeast suspended to carbonate it. From my experiences, longer is better than too short.

 

[h22lude]

^^^+1 to that. Once active fermentation starts to slow down you can definitely let the temp rise without worrying about off flavors. In a lot of cases it can actually help clean up any off flavors. There are a good amount of people on HBT that purposely raise the temp for this reason.

 

[buzd]

Ok, thanks y'all. It looks like I will move it to the counter before I leave town. That will give it about 9 days to settle at 74, and I won't have to move it again before I bottle it.