Strong enough initial fermentation?

[saintjondoe]

A few days ago I tried brewing my first batch of beer ever. I read John Palmer's "How to Brew" from cover to cover, so for the most part I likely did everything the "right" way. However, one thing has been nagging at me, and that is that I'm not sure whether or not I was able to get a strong initial fermentation or not. I'll describe what I did/saw below...

Three days ago, evening, prior to creating the wort I boiled 10 liters of water and poured it into a (sanitized) 22 liter fermenter and closed the lid. 3~4 hours later, after I was nearly finished cooling the wort, I tried aerating the water in the fermenter by rocking it on my knees. However, the water was still very hot--I had to take the fermenter off my knees every 6 or so seconds as the temperature would make me uncomfortable. I'm not sure what the specific water temperature was, but the temperature gauge stuck to the side of the fermenter was 'off the charts' so to speak.

It was getting really late, I was tired and just wanted to be done with it all, so I poured the cooled wort into the fermenter and pitched my yeast starter (at room temperature, with the yeast visibly active). I carried the fermenter up to an air-conditioned room (20 degrees Celsius), checked the temperature again (still off the charts), and left it there overnight.

The following morning, about 10 hours after pitching the yeast, the fermenter temperature was around 28-29 degrees Celsius, obviously very high. I couldn't really look inside the fermenter to gauge the activity, it being made of mostly opaque plastic, but from it outside it didn't appear that anything was happening.

The morning after, about 1 ½ days after pitching the yeast, I checked the fermenter again, which had stabilized at 20~22 degrees Celsius. This time I could detect a layer of foam, about half an inch, at the top of the wort. I didn't see any bubbling in the airlock. In the evening, about 2 days after pitching the yeast, there was approximately 2 inches of foam at the top of the wort, no activity at the airlock.

This morning, about 2 ½ days after pitching the yeast, I checked the fermenter again and the foam had subsided to about 1 inch, with no activity in the airlock.

So obviously I pitched my yeast into a very hot wort, which was not a good thing. Given the description of events/observations above, do you think that I got a strong enough initial fermentation? Do you think that my beer is in trouble?

 

[Brew_4iT]

Does the airlock "chirp" at all? Since you already had krausen I don't think you have too much to worry about. You could do an SG reading to see how far along it is. Did you take an OG?

 

[Dennisusa]

You might be ok, but at these fermentation temps you might be disappointed with the outcome. (IMO you should get a cheap cfc asap - temp control is kinda up there in importance).

 

[TopherM]

Yeast are OK health-wise in temps up to about 120 degrees F, where they start to debilitate, but whole colonies don't start dying off until about 150 degrees F. If you pitched anywhere close to these temps, you could have killed off yeast.

Otherwise, at higher temps you would actually expect a more vigorous and abbreviated fermentation (along with lots of byproduct off-flavors), which doesn't seem to be the case here, so you may be in trouble.

You can save this batch. Go down to your local home brew store and buy another packet of yeast and pitch it. You may not end up with optimum results, but you'll make beer. Plan on bottle conditioning it for an extra 3-4 weeks to condition out the off flavors.

In the future, you HAVE to pitch at closer to room temp (70-80 degrees F). Most people just starting out will take their wort straight from the boil to an ice bath. About 20-30 lbs of ice (around the boil kettle, not in it!) will cool 5-10 gallons to 70-80 F in about 20-40 minutes.

 

[unionrdr]

I agree,it'll take some extra time in primary for it to clean up the off flavors after FG is reached. Then some 4 weeks in the bottles to clean it up further.

 

[cheezydemon3]

krausen = OK yeast, but hot yeast = banannas.

 

[unionrdr]

...or fusel alcohols,cidery taste,etc. Gotta keep the temps down. & give it time to clean up & settle out more before bottling.

 

[saintjondoe]

> Does the airlock "chirp" at all? Since you already had krausen I don't think you have too much to worry about. You could do an SG reading to see how far along it is. Did you take an OG?

The fermenter is in a kind of out of the way area, so I've only been checking it once or twice a day for about a few minutes each time. I haven't seen any activity from the airlock at all.

Bah, I didn't take an OG reading. On brew day I had the hydrometer out there right in front of me, but I was tired and grouchy and decided to skip it. *sigh*


> Yeast are OK health-wise in temps up to about 120 degrees F, where they start to debilitate, but whole colonies don't start dying off until about 150 degrees F. If you pitched anywhere close to these temps, you could have killed off yeast.
> Otherwise, at higher temps you would actually expect a more vigorous and abbreviated fermentation (along with lots of byproduct off-flavors), which doesn't seem to be the case here, so you may be in trouble.

That's what I feared.

> You can save this batch. Go down to your local home brew store and buy another packet of yeast and pitch it. You may not end up with optimum results, but you'll make beer. Plan on bottle conditioning it for an extra 3-4 weeks to condition out the off flavors.

I'm afraid there is no home brew store in my area, I ordered all my ingredients and eqiupment via mail. Palmer's book recommended that you always have extra yeast on hand. I read and understoud the point then, but I forgot when I made the order.


> In the future, you HAVE to pitch at closer to room temp (70-80 degrees F). Most people just starting out will take their wort straight from the boil to an ice bath. About 20-30 lbs of ice (around the boil kettle, not in it!) will cool 5-10 gallons to 70-80 F in about 20-40 minutes.

I did take the wort straight to an ice bath to cool it down quickly, The problem was with the water I boiled and placed in the fermentor prior to making the wort. Even after 4 or so hours it was still super hot, which is not something I was really expecting, but given the large amount of water I suppose I should have.

So does everybody else boil water in the morning, wait half a day, then do the brew in the evening? Or is there some other technique that I am missing?

 

[Brew_4iT]

Usually I can get a pre-boiled 5 gallon batch of wort cooled down to 70 deg f in under 30 minutes. I fill the sink with cold water as high as possible, add the ice after (easier with bucket already in) and then stir the ice water every few minutes. I find that the water will be layered if you don't the top half of the water will be warm and the lower half cold.

Many people don't recommend it because of sanitation practices but I have also strained the wort over ice without ill effects.

 

[TopherM]

So does everybody else boil water in the morning, wait half a day, then do the brew in the evening? Or is there some other technique that I am missing?

Ah, so your top-off water was what was hot. I guess you boiled tap water to get out the nasties and evaperate the clorine? A few ways you can avoid this in the future:

1) Use purified water from the grocery store as your water. Here in the states, you can usually get purified water at the grocery store for $0.59-0.99 a gallon, so $3-5 for 5 gallons. You don't need to boil the water if it's good water in the first place.

2) Get a few emty jugs that will fit your top off water. Boil it the night before and stick it in the fridge for brew day.

3) If your pot will fit your full volume, don't top off at all, put the full volume of water in from the start. For a typical 5 gallon batch, you'll need a little over 6 gallons to account for boil-off, so as long as you have a 7+ gallon pot, you would be good.

 

[unionrdr]

I get spring water at Giant Eagle for about 79c. I'm thinking of adapting a fridge filter to something I can put on the faucet to clean it up that way. Like the one a member made to fill his MLT/HLT with. Cool idea I'm thinking of adapting to kitchen use for those of us stuck with brewing on the stove. Using PVC pipe & RV hose. I love things that make the job quicker & easier.

 

[puter]

I'm thinking of adapting a fridge filter to something I can put on the faucet to clean it up that way.

Been using one of these for years. Turn it on when I need it, otherwise it is off. Since I am a stoner, any water I drink is filtered.

PUR Water Filter

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,I know about those. But I was thinking of adapting this;

 

[saintjondoe]

An update on this batch: a week after brew day I took a gravity reading, which turned out to be 1.030 (down from my estimated initial gravity of 1.055). The beer didn't taste bad at all, so I thought that I was in good shape.

Fast forward to today, bottling day. The beer gravity measured in at 1.015, which was lighter than my estimated final gravity. I was thinking that this was all good because I was afraid that the hot wort would impair the yeast or something and that I wouldn't get a good fermentation. Then I tasted the beer. It was kinda sour in a lambic sort of way (by the way, the style of beer I'm making is a pale ale). I'm not really a fan of lambics.

Do you think that the hot fermentation contributed to the sour undertones, or is there something else at play? Also, will the sour notes decrease with age? Also, why didn't I taste any sour flavors a week after brew day? (NOTE: In order to bottle the beer I had to transfer the fermenter to different room, which kinda shook it up a bit. Is this an okay thing to do, or will this kick up sediment that contributes to off flavors? For the record, I started bottling an hour after I moved the bucket.)