homebrewdad
Well-Known Member
So, I'm a completely green newbie (thus my posting in this forum), with two brewed batches under my belt - but nothing bottled (much less, consumed) yet.
Batch #1 is my Yorkshire brown ale, just over three weeks old. It spent fifteen days in primary, and is now on day eight in the secondary.
Due to my joys with batch #2 (near explosive fermentation just over 12 hours after pitching), I've learned the hard way that ambient temps of 65-68 are not the same as fermenting at 65-68. My current batch is sitting at ambient 62, but my thermometer (I don't have a stick on, so I've taped my cooking thermometer to the side of the carboy... better than nothing, right?) reads 72.
This tells me that my first batch surely fermented above 70 degrees, probably at 75 or so. It wasn't an explosive fermentation, but it was plenty vigorous, and took about ten days to stop bubbling altogether.
So I'm guessing that I'll get some off flavors due to the temp (thought it didn't taste bad at all when I transferred... some alcohol warmth, but I didn't really detect other issues at the time). I'm thinking that I'll leave it in the basement in the secondary for another couple of weeks before I bottle.
Should I expect to need to let this one age to mellow out the faults? Or should I just not worry so much about my very first effort, and just try to learn from it? Both?
Thanks.
Batch #1 is my Yorkshire brown ale, just over three weeks old. It spent fifteen days in primary, and is now on day eight in the secondary.
Due to my joys with batch #2 (near explosive fermentation just over 12 hours after pitching), I've learned the hard way that ambient temps of 65-68 are not the same as fermenting at 65-68. My current batch is sitting at ambient 62, but my thermometer (I don't have a stick on, so I've taped my cooking thermometer to the side of the carboy... better than nothing, right?) reads 72.
This tells me that my first batch surely fermented above 70 degrees, probably at 75 or so. It wasn't an explosive fermentation, but it was plenty vigorous, and took about ten days to stop bubbling altogether.
So I'm guessing that I'll get some off flavors due to the temp (thought it didn't taste bad at all when I transferred... some alcohol warmth, but I didn't really detect other issues at the time). I'm thinking that I'll leave it in the basement in the secondary for another couple of weeks before I bottle.
Should I expect to need to let this one age to mellow out the faults? Or should I just not worry so much about my very first effort, and just try to learn from it? Both?
Thanks.