Have a weizenbock that I pitched last night at 71°. (Roughly 280 Billion yeast cells - 3068 WYeast). It has climbed all the way up to between 77-79° today. This seems too warm. Should I move the fermenter to the basement to cool it off closer to 70°? I've read undesired esters can occur at these temps. Any advice here? Thanks!
Hot Fermentation?
- Thread starter MWM777
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MKBoitnott
Well-Known Member
If you do have the capability to move it to a cooler area. You should do that immediately. Temperature control for the early stages of fermentation is very important for yeast health. Temps in the upper 70s will most likely lead to some unwanted esters (I believe some bubble gum flavors come from weizen yeast... could be wrong :cross
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Another option:
Move it to the basement, submerge in water (extra bathtub?), freeze some water bottles, throw them in your water. Then put a tshirt over the fermenter, with part of the tshirt in the water. This a terrible explanation, but search for the tshirt cooling method in the forums. Basically, the cold water and the wet tshirt allow for evaporation off the fermenter and will chill it faster.
Im sure my response might prompt some "MY BEER IS RUINED" thoughts, but it WILL, despite your best efforts, turn into beer. And who knows, maybe you will LOVE it. All in all, just remember to RSBHAHB.
.Another option:
Move it to the basement, submerge in water (extra bathtub?), freeze some water bottles, throw them in your water. Then put a tshirt over the fermenter, with part of the tshirt in the water. This a terrible explanation, but search for the tshirt cooling method in the forums. Basically, the cold water and the wet tshirt allow for evaporation off the fermenter and will chill it faster.
Im sure my response might prompt some "MY BEER IS RUINED" thoughts, but it WILL, despite your best efforts, turn into beer. And who knows, maybe you will LOVE it. All in all, just remember to RSBHAHB.
flars
Well-Known Member
It's called a swamp cooler. Try to get your temp down to 66° or less. Drop in temperature may stall the yeast for awhile, but better than the flavors you will get in the high 70°s.
A quick piece of advice for the future: always pitch your yeast cooler than the ideal temp and let them ramp up on their own. The heat released by yeast during fermentation can bring the temperatures close to 10 degrees higher than ambient temperatures in the room. For example, I cooled my wort for a Belgian ale to 65. I pitched the yeast, and let it sit in a room that was 63F. When the fermentation really got going, the wort rose to 73F, which worked out fine, but was 10 degrees hotter than the room it was in.
So unless you have a way of keeping the fermentation vessel in a controlled environment (I have a converted wine fridge for that) then what the above posts suggest is the best way to do it. I would even add a fan blowing against the wet t-shirt on the carboy to encourage the evaporation and further heat transfer.
So unless you have a way of keeping the fermentation vessel in a controlled environment (I have a converted wine fridge for that) then what the above posts suggest is the best way to do it. I would even add a fan blowing against the wet t-shirt on the carboy to encourage the evaporation and further heat transfer.
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