Bad Brew night, is my beer hurt?

[PHXCobra]

Brewed the Lemon-Lime Hef last night and was having major issues. Ran out of propane as I was heating up to boil. Stalled at 200 when I ran out. Got it refilled after they normally stopped filling (the only good thing of the night). Got home and it had cooled to ~180 and got it back heating.

Heated back up relatively quickly then the wind started. The fire was staying lit but it was stuck at 209 degrees. Would occasionally jump up and start a boil then stop as soon as the wind gusted again. This went on for about an hour before I gave up and moved inside onto the electric stove. 2 minutes after it hits the stove we have a boil.

Pitched the White Lab's Hef IV at 85 degrees instead of the 75 degree recommendation. It was past midnight and 5am alarms come earlier and earlier it seems.

Is my beer hurt by the extended heat time and/or the somewhat higher pitch temp. It was down to temp this morning but it hasn't started vigourous fermentation yet but it is early.

 

[hunter_le five]

Extended heat time isn't much of an issue, but the pitching yeast at 85 degrees might be. Even 75 would've been too warm IMHO. What temp did it get down to this morning?

 

[Einherjar]

I had almost the exact same scenario happen to me the last time I was brewing a hefe; propane ran out about halfway through the boil and it sat at 180+ for about a half hour with the lid on before I got the propane hooked up again. After fermenting out, kegigng, and carbing, it did have a slight but noticeable corn flavor. I attributed this to some DMS formation caused by it sitting at such a high temp without boiling, and then the subsequent boil not being sufficient to drive off the flavor. I just brewed the same recipe, sans the interrupted boil, so I'm trying to confirm that this was actually the cause of the flavor. Be interested to see if you get a similar off flavor.

 

[PHXCobra]

Extended heat time isn't much of an issue, but the pitching yeast at 85 degrees might be. Even 75 would've been too warm IMHO. What temp did it get down to this morning?

The vial called for a 75 degree pitch temp so I was going off of that. It was 76 this morning as that is the temp the AC in my house is set at.

 

[Scubadude918]

I've read that some yeast companies prefer you pitch at a warmer temperature (mid 70's to 80ish) to speed the reproduction period. But, the thermal shock, if the yeast wasn't near the 85 degrees of the wort, might've killed off some of the yeast.

Having said that, you'd want to have gotten the fermenter down into the yeast's desirable temp range within a couple hours to avoid an over abundance of esters and other off flavors once the fermentation does start.




____________________________
Primary: Cider
Secondary: Killer Kölsch

 

[hunter_le five]

The vial called for a 75 degree pitch temp so I was going off of that. It was 76 this morning as that is the temp the AC in my house is set at.

Optimum fermentation temp for that strain is 66-70*F. You are likely to get off flavors fermenting that warm.

I prefer to pitch yeast towards the bottom of my desired temp range, if not lower.

Pitching warm gets the yeast off to a quick start, but at the risk of introducing off-flavors. When they tell you to pitch warm, they are also assuming that you will chill the entire thing to within the yeast's specified ideal temp range soon after, not leave it at that temp.

 

[Braufessor]

As noted - do your best to chill wort down into mid 60's and also maintain a fermentation temperature (beer temperature, not room temperature) of mid 60's-70 ish. Some beers you want temps warmer than that - but not most.

I simply do not understand why kit instructions still persist in perpetuating the idea of pitching at 75-80 degrees.

The problem is that if you pitch yeast at 70-80 degrees, the actual fermentation temperature (yeast generate heat) can easily climb another 5-8 degrees (or more). These high temps throw off flavors and hot alcohol flavors.

Going forward, one of the best things you can do for your brewing, after good sanitation practices, is to control your fermentation temperatures..... starting them on the lower end of ranges and allowing them to gradually rise to upper end of ranges toward the end of fermentation. The majority of my ales are fermented between 62-68. Maybe touching 70 toward the very end.

Unfortunately, there are a number of outdated things told to beginners that simply are not best practice. I know the motive - "keep it simple" "relax don't worry have a homebrew"......... but this is some of the instruction that you should ignore.

A wheat beer can maybe handle some of that temp. better than other beers, so you may be ok in the end.

 

[b-boy]

I pitched too warm once (~85), and the results were not good. It was a dumper.

I'd let it ride and see what happens though. You never know. Hefes usually ferment a little high anyway, so you might get lucky.

 

[PHXCobra]

Houston... I think I have a problem. Had a hint of krausen that has since dissipated and next to zero pressure pushing on the airlock. Temp of the water bath this is in is 67 so it should be close to optimum temp.

Pitched on Wednesday, any ideas.


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[Barley_Bob]

Houston... I think I have a problem. Had a hint of krausen that has since dissipated and next to zero pressure pushing on the airlock. Temp of the water bath this is in is 67 so it should be close to optimum temp.

Pitched on Wednesday, any ideas.


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It isn't totally clear from your recounting, but it looks like you didn't use a starter?

 

[Braufessor]

This is a new batch - correct? Or is this the original batch that you pitched at 85 degrees???

What is the beer - what gravity?

What is the yeast you used? Did you make a starter? Did you check the date on the yeast package as far as how old it was?

 

[Hello]

Based on what you've written and my assumption, it looks like you under pitched. Under pitching and then pitching warm means you could have killed some yeast cells making the job that much harder. You needed more than that one vial, most likely.

Give it some time though.

I find that pitching warm is introducing your beer to an uphill battle. As fermentation begins the temperature of the wort increases. Even if your stick-on thermometer reads 66F, you're likely sitting closer to 70F during the most active fermentation. If you pitched at 85F and put into a swamp cooler, your beer will chill slower because it is battling that fermentation. So always pitch on the low end of the YEAST's recommended temperature range. Ignore all other advice written anywhere…pitch based on what the yeast says as it is solid info.

Let this ride or go get another vial and pitch that. Do not pitch the vial straight from a fridge though or you'll shock your yeast.

 

[PHXCobra]

Same batch, no starter used. I used Hef IV as the recipe suggested. I had some activity about 12 hours after pitch but it has since stopped. Would repitching be ok at this point?


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[Braufessor]

Take a hydrometer reading before repitching. Pitching a wheat beer yeast at a warm temperature..... it could be done, or on its way to being done. I would confirm that first.

If it is indeed still high gravity, I would maybe just pitch some dry yeast - a lot more yeast, a lot quicker turn around. At this point, I don't know that simply throwing a second vial of liquid yeast in is really going to do much for you without making it into a starter first.

 

[Barley_Bob]

+1

I've only made one batch batch of homebrew, and it was from pitching a single vial into a higher gravity wort. It also was the last time I did that. You still might get a decent beer out of this, but compounding the 85* pitch with simply using a vial is going to hurt you. Sometimes things just go wrong, but using a starter is one thing you can get right every time with very little effort. Live and learn, I suppose.