Stone IPA and fermentation temps . .

[GLoBaLReBeL]

So, I've been fermenting my Stone IPA clone for the past week and I have kept it at around 66-68F for the entire fermentation. Now, I have read time and time again that leaving the beer in the primary for a little bit longer before going to secondary to dry hop would be a good idea to help clean up the beer. I have also read that to do this you want to bring the beer up to around 70-73F and let it sit for a week or so.

My questions are. .

1) Do I want to bring the beer up to 70F once it has finished fermenting or do I want to do it now when it is at the tail end of fermentation?

2) How long do I want to leave it at 70F?

3) When I rack the beer to the secondary after the intital 70F week or so, do I want to keep the secondary in the same range of 70F, or do I want to take it back down to 66F for the dry hopping?

4) How long do I leave the beer in the secondary? I have read that 6 - 10 days is normal for this type of beer.


Your help, as always, is greatly appreciated?

 

[ksbrain]

I would probably dry hop it for ten days. But I'd just leave it in primary around 68 to do that. I don't think upping the temp to 70 at this point would hurt anything.

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

I am going to wash the yeast from this batch, so I'm going to pull it over to a secondary for the dry hopping to spare me the trouble of washing out all the hops.

So, what do you think on the raising of the temps to 70F before dry hopping? would this be beneficial? I read that this will help the yeast clean up all the by-products it had created during fermentation. But, I don't know how that is with this kind of a beer. I've never done an IPA before and I've always kept all my wheats at 70-73F so I never had to bring the temps back up for them to clean themselves up.

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

just wondering . . . should i raise to to 70F for a few days to a week and then secondary? Or just leave it at 66F until the 2 week mark/all fermenation is complete, and then secondary and dry hop for 10 days?

 

[SC_Ryan]

If you have the ability to up it to 70 then go for it. The higher temp does help the yeast clean up after fermentation.

 

[carnevoodoo]

just wondering . . . should i raise to to 70F for a few days to a week and then secondary? Or just leave it at 66F until the 2 week mark/all fermenation is complete, and then secondary and dry hop for 10 days?

66 is fine. No need to raise it to 70 at all. Wait until fermentation is complete and then go to secondary.

 

[2bluewagons]

The main fermentation by-product that you would be looking to reduce would be diacetyl, which English yeast strains tend to develop more of than american. What yeast did you use? If WLP002 or WY1968 a "thourough diacetyl rest" is recommended. Raising up to 68-70 at the tail end of fermentation will help convert diacetyl, and also might get you a few more points of attenuation, from which I think an IPA can always benefit.

That said, you can also not worry about it at all, and transfer when fermentation is done. The difference might be minimal.

Dry-hopping can really be done at any temp, but I've heard best in the 68-72 range.

 

[carnevoodoo]

The main fermentation by-product that you would be looking to reduce would be diacetyl, which English yeast strains tend to develop more of than american. What yeast did you use? If WLP002 or WY1968 a "thourough diacetyl rest" is recommended. Raising up to 68-70 at the tail end of fermentation will help convert diacetyl, and also might get you a few more points of attenuation, from which I think an IPA can always benefit.

That said, you can also not worry about it at all, and transfer when fermentation is done. The difference might be minimal.

Dry-hopping can really be done at any temp, but I've heard best in the 68-72 range.

yeah, but diacetyl is even cleaned up well by a beer in the mid-60s. The only reason you do a diacetyl rest on a lager is because the fermentation temperatures are so low and the uptake is less than optimal. If you're looking for additional attenuation, temperature can help, but you shouldn't be concerned with flavors like diacetyl at 62-68.

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

Ok, well the krausen has fallen, and its been about 6 days so I'm going to take a reading and see where the beer stands. If its near the FG that I am expecting, then I'll up the temp to ~70F for a week and then transfer to secondary and dry hop. I will let you know how things turned out. Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

i just tested the gravity and the beer is already at 1.013 and is expected to be around 1.012. So, I think I'm going to up the temp to 70F for a week, then move it to secondary and dry hop for another 10 days. And then, move to the keg and purge the O2 let it sit for about 2 weeks to condition.

Should I condition the keg with the CO2 on it or just purge the O2 from the keg and let it sit at room temp for another 2 weeks and then throw it onto the CO2 for 2 weeks?

 

[SC_Ryan]

You can go ahead and carb it while it's conditioning. You can condition cold if you want to as well.

 

[jjones17]

So, I've been fermenting my Stone IPA clone for the past week and I have kept it at around 66-68F for the entire fermentation. Now, I have read time and time again that leaving the beer in the primary for a little bit longer before going to secondary to dry hop would be a good idea to help clean up the beer. I have also read that to do this you want to bring the beer up to around 70-73F and let it sit for a week or so.

My questions are. .

1) Do I want to bring the beer up to 70F once it has finished fermenting or do I want to do it now when it is at the tail end of fermentation?

2) How long do I want to leave it at 70F?

3) When I rack the beer to the secondary after the intital 70F week or so, do I want to keep the secondary in the same range of 70F, or do I want to take it back down to 66F for the dry hopping?

4) How long do I leave the beer in the secondary? I have read that 6 - 10 days is normal for this type of beer.


Your help, as always, is greatly appreciated?

Great beer clone - I have made it and it was VERY drinkable. I did not worry about a diacetyl rest and it was still awesome. I think that is for lagering.

Anyway, certainly you will enjoy this one regardless of if you do a rest or not.

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

Well, I decided to do the rest for another week at 70-73F. I will be throwing into the secondary on the 1st of June. Then its in there for 10 days, after which I'll rack into the keg, purge the O2, and let sit at room temp for another week and then onto the CO2 for another week at 37-40F. What carbonation level should I put this at?
(just did some searching and it looks like around 2.5 v/v

 

[SC_Ryan]

Yeah, 2.5 is appropriate for an IPA

 

[GLoBaLReBeL]

Sounds good. Will report back.