Effect of high temp during fermentation

[brewsaurus]

Hi all,

I'm brewing a saison with WLP670 farmhouse with brett. The receipe calls for the first 2 weeks at 80 degrees, then a secondary at 68. I took a small space heater and turned it on at the lowest heat setting and put it in a closet. I checked the ambient temp over the course of 3 hours and it stayed right at 80! Wow, I thought, how lucky was that!!

So, pitched at 70, put the carboy in the closet with the heater on and went to bed. Next morning the ambient temp was at 90!!! Fermentation was vigorous but not crazy. If the blowoff tube burping is to be believed as a good indicator of fermentation activity, it stopped after 4 days.

So a few issues...is the 90 temp going to ruin my beer with fusels and other nasty astringents? If the FG is not reached, how can I restart fermentation? Is it worth trying to restart?

 

[eastoak]

i don't know what will happen to your beer but i think the hot ferment for saisons is a bad idea. the high end for that yeast is 72 degrees so even 80 is too high.

 

[aiptasia]

High heat stresses the yeast and produces off flavors in your beer. Fusel alcohols are common and there's not really anything you can do about it. The beer might develop a slick taste to it and fusels will probably give you a headache.

 

[m1batt1]

I'm not familiar with brett but true saisons and the Belgian yeasts they come with a lot of times actually recommends higher temps. For instance I just bought a saison kit and in reading the instructions it says 80-90 degrees. I was concerned about this so I did some looking. Sure enough that's common for saison yeasts.

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[eastoak]

I'm not familiar with brett but true saisons and the Belgian yeasts they come with a lot of times actually recommends higher temps. For instance I just bought a saison kit and in reading the instructions it says 80-90 degrees. I was concerned about this so I did some looking. Sure enough that's common for saison yeasts.

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it is true that some yeasts have a higher temperature range; wyeast 3724 can go to 95 degrees, WLP568 80 degrees. the other saison offerings from those companies top out in the mid 70s. i'd rather keep the temps in the mid range and let it work longer than heating it up, the flavors are more to my tastes.

 

[westchesterBrewer]

I have a saison going right now @89 degrees using the 3724 wyeast. Just tried it tonight with a gravity reading and it is spot on for flavor. And it's been going slowly for two weeks in primary. It is a stubborn yeast sometimes. High temps bring on the funk! The good kind of funk :rockin:

 

[m1batt1]

Just googled the strain he's using and the site says 68-72 is optimum. Chock this up to kit instructions being less than accurate and informative I guess. Lumping all saison yeasts into the saison "norm".

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[dcp27]

alot of those optimum temperature ranges are garbage. i've never done it personally, but 670 should be fairly safe that high. only one way to find out tho

 

[m1batt1]

I'm pretty sure after doing a little reading last night the saison yeasts tend to produce different flavor profiles depending on the temp range without necessarily producing the bad off flavors. For instance I read several reviews of the yeast in my saison kit and people report good results from the mid 60's up through 90. It seems this yeast goes more fruity and citrus by at the lower temp and more pepper, clove, and spicy at the higher range.

If it turns out well and you think of making the same thing again I might suggest playing with the temp throughout fermentation and see how it changes the flavors.

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[brewsaurus]

Thanks everyone for yoru thoughts. Quite the range of possibilities Here is what I know so far. Final gravity was 1.004 for attenuation in the 90% range. Tasting a tiny drop or two, got a nice banana/mango smell/taste. Bigger sip seemed to be much more spicy...maybe too much so. This one will stay in the secondary for 4-6 months...probably 6 to allow for mellowing of the harshness (hopefully) and brett development. I'll update the thread at that time. Thanks again!