How does heat effect flavor?

[idiosyncronaut]

I think I probably messed up on my first brew attempt last night. I ran out of ice when chilling the wort so my ice bath was very ineffectual. (I'll be buying one of those cheap wort chillers for my next batch.)

I was very impatient in waiting for the temperature to fall so I could pitch the yeast, and when the wort had cooled off to about 100 degrees, I thought it would be a great idea to dump the hot wort into the 2 gallons of room-temperature water I had in the fermentor to speed up the process... And then, I fell asleep. Woke up 4 hours later and realized I had not pitched the yeast.

So I threw the yeast into the fermentor and sealed it up.

So two things I have questions on:

1) I aerated 5 hours before the yeast went in. While I was sleeping, did the effects of the aeration wear off? Was there enough oxygen in the wort for the yeast to catch a hold of, or did the lag time before pitching allow the wort to settle and the air to bubble up to the surface, thereby killing my brew?

2) I have since read around a bit, and realized that aeration before the wort drops to 80 degrees is actually really bad for the beer. So what exactly did I just do to my beer by aerating above proper temperatures? Will it really taste like wet cardboard?

 

[AmandaK]

1) I would be less worried about the O2 content in your beer and more worried about pitching rate.

2) Hot Side Aeration (HSA) can occur above 86* per John Palmer. At worst, it'll be oxidized or oxidize quickly in the bottle.

3) Don't buy one of those "cheap wort chillers". You'll end up buying another, better, one soon. Only rich people can afford to buy cheap things.

 

[idiosyncronaut]

1) I would be less worried about the O2 content in your beer and more worried about pitching rate.

2) Hot Side Aeration (HSA) can occur above 86* per John Palmer. At worst, it'll be oxidized or oxidize quickly in the bottle.

3) Don't buy one of those "cheap wort chillers". You'll end up buying another, better, one soon. Only rich people can afford to buy cheap things.

1) I used a wyeast 1056 package with what I think was 1 billion cells?

2) Okay, gotcha. Hopefully that won't kill the flavor too much.

3) What I should have said and what I meant to say, is that I'm going to purchase a simple immersion wort chiller as that seems like a pretty good bang for your buck beginner solution. Or is there something else I should consider?

Thanks a lot for the reply! Appreciated.

 

[BrutalBrew]

Was the wort covered for the 4 hours? Don't know if you should worry about infection?

 

[homebrewdad]

An immersion wort chiller is an amazing thing.

Aeration effects were not lost. You dissovled oxygen into the liquid; it didn't go anywhere.


Next time, consider making a starter for your liquid yeast (Wyest or White Labs). Starters are stupidly easy to do - boil 1/2 a cup of DME in 4 cups of water for ten minutes. Cool, then pitch the yeast.

Lots of guys get the expensive glass flasks for starters (I want one). I use sanitized sweet tea jugs.

Shake the starter when you walk by. A day or so later, you have way more yeast than you did when you started. Pitch the starter instead of the smack pack/vial.

Enjoy better beer that ferments quicker.

 

[idiosyncronaut]

Yah, the wort was covered... but as it was my first attempt, I'd not be shocked if there was an infection. I started out very disciplined with the sanitation, but got a little lose as the hours wore on...

 

[Reno_eNVy]

1) I used a wyeast 1056 package with what I think was 1 billion cells?

2) Okay, gotcha. Hopefully that won't kill the flavor too much.

3) What I should have said and what I meant to say, is that I'm going to purchase a simple immersion wort chiller as that seems like a pretty good bang for your buck beginner solution. Or is there something else I should consider?

Thanks a lot for the reply! Appreciated.

The immersion chiller will work just fine, considering your tap water is decent cold. My tap is ~45*F year round so chilling is super easy for me with just 25' of 3/8" copper tubing. You may need to make a prechiller or a recirculating immersion chiller if your tap isn't very cold.

And as far as the pack of 1056, they actually say it has 100 Billion yeast cells.... but that's only under perfect conditions. Viability of the yeast is not always going to be 100%. Not only that, but just using the pack is still underpitching (for most styles) unless you're making a session beer. Even average-strength 5 gallon batches need closer to 200 billion cells. Making a starter works wonders.

 

[idiosyncronaut]

Just to update: Fermentation is going strong. Heavy bubbling when I got home from work. I pitched at about 5am. Not sure when it started but lets say fermentation happened at least within 13 hours.

One thing I was wondering: when can I get a feel for the flavor of the beer? Obviously it seems that beers evolve taste over time, but I'd like to get a general sense of the character... Figure out if I've got a batch of gold or a batch of.. Something else.

 

[homebrewdad]

Just to update: Fermentation is going strong. Heavy bubbling when I got home from work. I pitched at about 5am. Not sure when it started but lets say fermentation happened at least within 13 hours.

One thing I was wondering: when can I get a feel for the flavor of the beer? Obviously it seems that beers evolve taste over time, but I'd like to get a general sense of the character... Figure out if I've got a batch of gold or a batch of.. Something else.

Some will tell you to sample every week. Honestly, you won't have an idea until fermentation is done... and even then, the beer can DRASTICALLY change during carbonation. To me, drinking samples every week is wasting good beer, since it doesn't really taste at all like the finished beer.

My two cents.

 

[barneygumble]

Just to update: Fermentation is going strong. Heavy bubbling when I got home from work. I pitched at about 5am. Not sure when it started but lets say fermentation happened at least within 13 hours.

One thing I was wondering: when can I get a feel for the flavor of the beer? Obviously it seems that beers evolve taste over time, but I'd like to get a general sense of the character... Figure out if I've got a batch of gold or a batch of.. Something else.

I wouldn't sweat the oxidation too much. Hot side aeration has been drastically overhyped and all but dismissed on homebrewer levels. At marginal temps, you did not experience it anyway considering the size of the batch.

What was the anticipated OG of the batch? That will answer your pitch rate questions. NO problem at 1.040 or less. Not a major factor at 1.048 or less.

Infection may be a possibility, but at this point whatcha gonna do? Relax, dont worry and have a craft brew.

Its good the yeasties kicked off well. Watch for blowoffs.

Now, find a place on the coolest part of your yeast strain range, keep the temp there and fuggetaboutit for at least two weeks." Walk away. Just. Walk away. Your patience will be rewarded." Then take a sample and check for specific gravity and see how it compares to anticipated. Taste it then. From your sample. Do that again the next day. If it hasn't moved do it a third time on the third day. If they are all the same, then your beer is done. Give it 3 or 4 days to clean up then bottle. If not, walk away for another week. Repeat.

After bottling, walk away again. Forget the beer for a month. 2-3 weeks are what the directions say, but give it a month. Then cool one in the fridge for a couple of days and taste it.

Yeah, you wont be drinking this beer before the 4th of July prolly. People can and do turn beers around a lot faster than this. But this is your first batch. The more time you give it, the better it will be.

 

[jonmohno]

2 months is a great time to drink a bottled beer,sometimes sooner maybe with ipa's.If your bottleing my experience is roughly 2 mo.start to finish and you will love your beer.Longer fridge time= even bettter.Beers evolve and its curious how one batch will taste different with time.