First Time All Grain - Oktoberfest Question

[RichD_830]

Hi, I am about to start my very first All Grain batch and really want to give an Oktoberfest a try. I dont have any means of lagering so I found Ed Worts recipe for an Oktoberfest Ale. I am also using Beersmith for the first time and think I have the recipe mostly understood up to the primary fermentation. I am mostly concerned about temperature. Ed Wort mentioned in his recipe that he fermented at 65 degrees. I live in NC and its pretty hot here. My house is generally about 74 degrees. I am hoping to have this started soon to have available for October. Am i making a mistake by starting and fermenting at such a high temp or will it not have much of an impact. Happy to add any more detail needed to get to a conclusion.

this is the recipe in case anyone is interested: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=38880

thanks
Rich

 

[giraffe]

Its not ideal for fermenting a clean ale. if ambient is 74, the beer temp is likely to be 78 or so due to the heat of fermentation.

Look into making a swamp cooler (search for it) for the first 3 days of fermentation. Also the kolsch yeast isnt going to like being over 70. And while its a worse yeast for the style, using us-05/cal ale/wlp001/1056 etc, may be better, as its more tolerant of fermenting in the 70s.