Pitching temp. too high?

[Rick Crane]

Hello all,

I brewed a Bell's Two Hearted Ale all grain kit from from Bell's General store. I think the temperature I pitched the yeast at is a little high.

I am wondering how that may effect the final product.

I logged temperatures with a probe taped to my glass carboy and made a graph. The temp. probe for the temperature controller is also taped to the carboy.

I pitched at 84 degrees and within 2 hours the temp cooled to 70 degrees F. The beer is happily bubbling away with a consistent temp around 68 degrees.

The instructions on the yeast pack say refrigerate until it's time to pitch. So the packet came out to the fringe, into the sanitizer, and into the carboy. I aerated the beer for 10 minutes with a fish tank aerator before pitching.

Thanks

 

[PCABrewing]

Well 84 from a probe taped to the side probably means a few degrees higher in the middle.

But if you didn't kill the yeast and it's fermenting well and after two hours is down to seventy I would guess you will be OK.
Personally I doubt there was really enough activity in the first two hours to develop much off flavors.
Others may disagree.

 

[MaxStout]

I've done similar a few times, usually in summer when my IC only gets the wort to within 10 or so degrees of target ferm temps. The ferm chamber got the beer down to temp within a couple hours. The beers turned out OK with no off-flavors. But this is only anecdotal. Others may have had other outcomes.

I seem to recall a Brulosophy exbeeriment where they split a batch, pitching one warm and the other at ferm temp. There was no discernible difference in the 2 final beers.

 

[odie]

I usually pitch on the warm side. By the time the yeast activate and start doing their thing, the wort has dropped to target temps anyway.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Did you pitch high intentionally? If your chiller doesn't get you cool enough, there's no harm in leaving it in your fermentation chamber for few hours before pitching.

However, if your yeast is happily fermenting, it's probably no harm/no foul.

 

[palmtrees]

With pitching that high and rapidly cooling to 70, you're more likely to confuse your yeast and possibly have a bit of a stall at the beginning, rather than produce any off flavors, which I think are unlikely with that short of a time in the 80s. In my experience, Bells yeast is a workhorse, and obviously yours is fermenting fine, so seems like no harm. I'd be careful about those temp drops with a more temperamental yeast, though. No harm in popping your fermenter in the fridge for a few hours to cool down before you pitch. Just make sure it's sanitized and sealed.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I am wondering how that may effect the final product.

I have wondered about this. Since I got a fermentation chamber, I have often chilled my wort down to around 80F during the summer and then let it chill for a few hours in my chamber before pitching my yeast. I have seen some recommendation from respected sources 1) to pitch the yeast warm to get it active and 2) to always chill the wort and pitch into warming wort to avoid stressing the yeast.

Recently I started using a submersible pump so I can circulate ice water through my immersion chiller to get down to pitching temps without the long wait.

 

[lumpher]

You'll be fine. The yeast spend the first hours multiplying. They don't start developing "character" till later. No harm done.

 

[Rick Crane]

Did you pitch high intentionally? If your chiller doesn't get you cool enough, there's no harm in leaving it in your fermentation chamber for few hours before pitching.

However, if your yeast is happily fermenting, it's probably no harm/no foul.

No, I did not intentionally pitch the yeast at a high temp. My immersion chiller can only bring the temp down to about that far. I put a lid on it for 40 minutes after taking out the chiller while i cleaned up a little. I think I had had enough of brew day, and got sloppy. I also drank a few Two hearted Ales as I was brewing along. I could have sat the carboy of brew in the temperature controlled freezer for ah hour before pitching. After 40 minutes at room temp i pumped air in for about 5 minutes. Then pitched. Fermentation seems normal so far. day 4 and it my be done, I need to watch the airlock for more than 2 minutes.

 

[Rick Crane]

You'll be fine. The yeast spend the first hours multiplying. They don't start developing "character" till later. No harm done.

Thanks!

 

[Rick Crane]

Here's a report from the temperature logger, that's about 24 hours. It shows how the temp changes over time. I can see where the temp controller kicks in and the temp drops, and then slowly rises. The temp is logged ever 2 minutes. It's interesting where it gets choppy, i wonder if the yeast are most active at that temp. The temp probe from the logger is taped to the side of the glass carboy. The temp controller probe is also taped to the side.