Fermenting temperatures

[WildGingerBrewing]

I have an Amber Ale and an ESB in primary now. They were both brewed last weekend, Sat and Sun respectively. I used Safale 04 English Ale yeast in the Amber and Safale US 05 in the ESB. I put a small amount of beer from each in my hydrometer flask and took gravity readings today and everything seemed fine. Then I took the temp of the beer in the flask and it registered about 90 degrees! I thought my thermometer was off, but it is new and it's digital and I tried a couple of other beverages just to see and it seems ok and it's never had a problem before. Maybe it's just extra hot in my closet today. So, my question is, WHAT THE HELL?????? Is this going to hurt my fermentation or is it just going to take longer? I tasted the beer from each and they seem good. I typically keep it in primary 7-9 days then rack to secondary, but I'm just not sure what to do after this. I guess I should just relax and have another homebrew! Any help is appreciated.

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Check the calibration on your thermometer (Boiling water is 212 degrees, and ice water is 32 degrees.)

If your house is at 80 degrees, then it's entirely possible that an active fermentation is up around 90. US05 will tastes like fusel alcohols and S04 tastes like cloves and fusel alcohols at that temperature, plus I really wouldn't expect a fermentation that active almost a week after pitching, so the thermometer is more likely to be wrong (or you left the hydrometer test tube near a heat source for a couple of minutes, something like that.)

If your beer tastes good right now, it's good. As long as you stay under 100 or so, higher temperatures aren't really going to affect anything after primary fermentation.

 

[DavidHawman]

I'd check calibration too. I was using a thermometer yesterday that while I had a full rolling boil only read about 190F.

To calibrate fill a glass with ice and then with water. Stir for 30 seconds and read with your thermometer. Should read 32F exactly.

Then bring some water to boil and as long as you aren't at a high altitude it will read close to 212F.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Thanks I'll give calibration a try. However, I have one, probably very stupid, question. When measuring a boil, what is considered boiling? When the small bubbles start or a rolling boil? How can I calibrate using a boil, if I don't know exactly when 212 should occur?

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

If you're using a small pot, those small bubbles will appear on the bottom of the pan at roughly 200. When the top of the water is dancing, all of the water in the pot will be at 212. If you aren't sure, go for a harder boil. There's no way you can get the water to be above 212.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I checked my digital thermometer against my regular old thermometer. At high temps, 200-212, the were both dead on. At lower temps, they did not match. It appears that my digital one does not go as low as my regular one. It stops around 60 degrees! I guess I should have paid more attention when I bought it. I took another gravity reading today and took the temp with my regular therm and it was 68. Perfect. Beats me!

whatisitgoodfor...you can't get water above 212? I did not know that. I swear I have had water rise above 212. Maybe that therm was bad as well???

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Yep, at atmospheric pressure, water won't heat above 212* (if you're in death valley it will go a little higher since you're below sea level, and if you're in Denver it won't make it all the way to 212 since you're so high.)

You can use a pressure cooker to get it above that, but in an open metal pot water will never be above its boiling point. If your thermometer is sensitive enough you might see the temperature jump around a little bit depending on how many steam bubbles are touching the probe, but the liquid temperature should be right at 212 anywhere in Texas.

(As a purely technical note, if you have Distilled water in a perfectly smooth container you can get it a few degrees higher, but as soon as you stick the thermometer in, it will essentially explode.)

 

[fredthecat]

i was looking for an s-04 temperature thread and found this one.

after several batches with s-04 that were quite harsh, i did one using the best temperature control i could. pitched at 65-70, kept it between 65 and 75 and its okay, but still tastes boozy and harsh... probably going to give up entirely on s-04 from now on

 

[Yooper]

i was looking for an s-04 temperature thread and found this one.

after several batches with s-04 that were quite harsh, i did one using the best temperature control i could. pitched at 65-70, kept it between 65 and 75 and its okay, but still tastes boozy and harsh... probably going to give up entirely on s-04 from now on

I ferment S04 at 62-64 degrees, and it's great. Any higher and I don't like it.