Fermentation Temperature

[Menacingcheese]

I just put my first batch into the primary yesterday. Its an American pale ale using Wyeast 1056. After the first couple of hours I had good activity but noticed it was running a little warm so I draped a wet towel around the carboy and set up a box fan to cool it off. Its now staying pretty consistently at around 67-68 degrees (according to the fermometer on the side). I read on another site that you really only need to keep the temps low during the first 3 days of fermentation and then you can let it come to room temp to allow the yeast to clean up and flocculate. Any thoughts on this from the experts here?

 

[deepcdan99]

Typically you do not want them to warm up at all from my experience. Ale yeast should stay within its recommended temp ranges. Toward the end of fermentation you can drop the temp a couple of days to "cold crash" it. Helps to drop out anything still in suspension and clear up your brew.

 

[Calder]

Correct, but you might want to maintain the temperature for about a week. Allowing the temperature to rise at thge end does 2 things; 1) Lets the yeast clean up and reduces diecetyl (butter/butterscotch flavors), and 2) helps the yeast finish off the last bits of fermentable sugars. It is actually a good thing to let the temperature rise a few degrees at the end of fermentation.

...... Now if you are in a desert somewhere with 100 F temperatures, I might not agree with letting it come to room temp.

 

[veritas524]

The first few days are the most critical, after a week or so though I wouldn't have any qualms about letting it warm up. My term chamber can only hold one carboy and I like to brew every other week so I keep my brews for two weeks controlled and two weeks at garage temp. (70+)