Question on temp

[Firebeeman]

This morning I saw my IPA is at 74F in the fermenting bucket. It's on day 4 now. Should I cool it down or is it to late? I can put it in the fridge and get it down to 65 or so. My question is should I chill or let it ride? It's a honey wheat IPA.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[jfk69]

I'd cool it down ASAP.

 

[WhamFish]

If your fermentation is mostly over you might as well just leave it at 74, your not getting much yeast character at this point and whatever is there is there now.

If you find that you would like a cleaner yeast profile you might pitch at 64-66 and try to hold it around that next time, the first 3 days is where all those flavors are made though.

 

[WhamFish]

cooling it down will not hurt, but if your method is to just put it in the fridge be sure you dont cool it too much you'll drop your yeast out prematurely and endup with a sweet beer. If you have no way to maintain the cooler temps I'd just move it to the coolest part of your house and let it finish

 

[Firebeeman]

I pitch it at 60F and I know my closet was around 68-70 for the first day or 2. The bad part is I won't be home until the morning to do anything.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[WhamFish]

I've had batches ferment out in the low 70s. You'll probably notice a difference in the taste but its not going to be awful beer or anything.

 

[JimRausch]

I agree with the rest. The most important time for temperature control is the 1st 48 hours. If you have a high temp. then, you are more likely to get off-flavors and a very fast fermentation. Pitch on the cool side, and leave it cool for the 1st 2 days. Then it's much more acceptable to let the temp rise naturally. In fact, it's beneficial to give a temp. boost to the higher end of your yeast strain in the last 25% of visible fermentation. It keeps the yeast active so they will finish up completely.
In other words: Start cool, Finish warm = a cleaner, more completely fermented beer.

 

[BigFloyd]

Four days into it the undesirable effects of the higher temp (about 10*F too warm) have pretty much been done. If you try to cool it now, your yeast may drop out early and not finish the ferment.

Extended bottle conditioning can help mellow some of the off-flavors, but will also cause the hop character of the IPA to fade.