Hot fermentation temps. How "off" will it taste

[Saccharomyces]

OK here's my temp control.

Ambient room temp is 73. With the wet T-shirt and fan it is steady at 65 without the ice. With a few pounds of ice swapped twice a day it has been holding at 62.

Trash can: $11 at H.D.
Box fan: $12 at Wally World
Ice: free
Perfect fermentation temps: priceless

 

[strohs]

I have had Notty take off on me twice and ferment out in the mid to upper 70s and I have never had any bad off flavors

 

[Dr Vorlauf]

I am testing some warm fermented Nottingham vs US 05 right now. Left a glass carboy in the garage @ 80 F with the Nottingham and the US 05 portion is in the basement at 70F.

The Nottingham batch fermented out in 1 day. US 05 still working.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

OK here's my temp control.
Trash can: $11 at H.D.
Box fan: $12 at Wally World
Ice: free
Perfect fermentation temps: priceless

Can I just point out to people, you don't really need a fan that big.
Also, Ice has a cost, but minor.
Swamp coolers really work, but can be a pain to swap out ice everyday.
The real key is to keep the yeast in their "happy" zone, it makes such a difference in the beer. I don't know too many people who want to drop 30 to 40 dollars on a batch, and then ruin it by having it ferment at very high temps and ending up with something unexpected.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Can I just point out to people, you don't really need a fan that big.

I stole it from BierMuncher's foam control.

Also, Ice has a cost, but minor.

I'm reusing the gel ice packs, they are about $2 each and last forever. Or you can use 20oz plastic soda bottles filled with water to 1" from the top. I have both, depending on how much I want to drop the temp.

 

[SilverKing]

+1 to the cooler idea. Here's my setup:

Igloo cooler keeps things cold easily. I have it at a rock steady 60degrees with minimal effort. Twice a day I stir the water a bit and toss in a ice bottle or two. I have 20oz and 8oz depending on what it needs. Once I get the water cold on brew day it's easy to keep there. My apartment hovers around 74 during the summer.

The orange strap keeps the bucket in place. It likes to float around when the cooler is full of water.

I can take this down to the mid 50's without an issue, but it takes an extra bottle each time. This is a nice setup because my Keezer only holds 3 cornies or 1 fermenter.

Plus the cooler can stand a cornie up and get filled with ice if I need it, or just drag along to the beach.

 

[jaytee]

Son of A Fermentation Chiller works very well in Georgia!

It was cheap and works like a charm in my 90+ degree garage here near Atlanta.

http://knoxhomebrewer.com/images/stories/chiller plans.pdf

 

[weirdboy]

+1 to the cooler idea. Here's my setup:

Igloo cooler keeps things cold easily. I have it at a rock steady 60degrees with minimal effort. Twice a day I stir the water a bit and toss in a ice bottle or two. I have 20oz and 8oz depending on what it needs. Once I get the water cold on brew day it's easy to keep there. My apartment hovers around 74 during the summer.

The orange strap keeps the bucket in place. It likes to float around when the cooler is full of water.

I can take this down to the mid 50's without an issue, but it takes an extra bottle each time. This is a nice setup because my Keezer only holds 3 cornies or 1 fermenter.

Plus the cooler can stand a cornie up and get filled with ice if I need it, or just drag along to the beach.

Holy crap that looks almost exactly like my setup. I mean, that picture could have been taken at my house. Except, my cooler also doubles as my MLT so it's got a spigot in one side (that you wouldn't see in the photo).

Also, as an experiment a few weeks ago, I got mine down to below 40 and maintained it there with liberal usage of ice for the initial cooling phase, and swapping out a bottle or two of ice to maintain temps once or twice a day thereafter. I did it to cold crash a batch, but I imagine I could lager in that cooler pretty easily.

 

[Revvy]

It's alive, It's alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy year old thread bumping batman!



(I'm always amazed, and pleased, to see when new members mangage to find an re-susitate old threads, while other people complain if we suggest they search to find an answer we post almost daily on here.) So good on you!!!

I'll play...

Besides the pics I posted before, this is another person's solution...just imagine it full of ice.

 

[zman]

These are all awesome ideas. I went the converted mini fridge route (since it was on clearance and I had a gift card). I am totally going to try out one of these ideas for the batch I need to get done for a wedding SWMBO and I are going to in August..

Never under estimate the power of the human spirit and ingenuity. Especially when Beer is involved.

 

[Oscbert]

I am testing some warm fermented Nottingham vs US 05 right now. Left a glass carboy in the garage @ 80 F with the Nottingham and the US 05 portion is in the basement at 70F.

The Nottingham batch fermented out in 1 day. US 05 still working.

What are the results? Taste, aroma?

 

[Acoma]

Sorry to bring this back to life but I didnt want to start a whole new thread. I have two batches in secondaries and it got pretty hot here in AZ and I got home today to check my temps and they were at ~74º. I put them both in a large rubbermaid tub with cool water and ice and they dropped down to the 60's again. I'm not sure how long they were above 70. Maybe a few days I'm guessing.

Has this happened to anyone else? If so did the beer come out estery or with hot alcohol flavors? Or was it fine in time?

 

[Revvy]

Sorry to bring this back to life but I didnt want to start a whole new thread. I have two batches in secondaries and it got pretty hot here in AZ and I got home today to check my temps and they were at ~74º. I put them both in a large rubbermaid tub with cool water and ice and they dropped down to the 60's again. I'm not sure how long they were above 70. Maybe a few days I'm guessing.

Has this happened to anyone else? If so did the beer come out estery or with hot alcohol flavors? Or was it fine in time?

Read my story in here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

 

[Acoma]

Read my story in here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

Thanks Revvy. I reread your post and feel more assured. Theres no way in hell I'd dump it either way. I'm going to keep it in the 60s for the rest of fermentation and I will post up my results for others to see.

 

[plannerjohn]

I'm currently brewing an IPA with Wyeast 1056 American Ale and experienced a temperature spike of around 80 degrees towards the second day of fermentation. Biggest surprise I've had in a while. Was going to dump it out, but now after reading this thread I'll give it some extended conditioning and see what happens. My anger turned to cautious hope. I'm also curious to experience the famed fusels and bubble gum flavors firsthand, so either way I win. =)

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Well it was a hot all day today, and when I got home from work tonight I went to see how it was doing, and the temp was all the way up to 78. So the question is, how "off" do you think the flavors will be? A little bit of fruity esters I don't think would hurt this beer too much, but obviously I don't want them overpowering it.

Ooompa Loompa without knowing if 78F was the temp of the fermenting beer taken by sticking a probe into the liquid or if the air temp was 78F it could be possible that the beer hit 80-82F. Actively fermenting beer can be 3-5 degrees higher than the ambient air.

The increase in temp wasn't for that long so although it caused the yeast to 'sweat' some diacetyl into your beer, that it may not be able to re-absorb, I don't think it will be that noticeable.