Too hot??

[Robanov]

Hi guys,

I've recently moved to Australia from the UK and have just bought a basic Coopers homebrewing kit. I have gone for the pale ale which is sold on tap in pubs around here as it's one of the nicer beers in Oz. My question relates to the temperature at which I added the yeast to the wort. In England is was very easy to get the temperature down into the low 21-28 degrees celcius but when I attempted it earlier today I could only get it down to about 30ish as the cold water in my building builds up heat during the day as the tank is on the roof. Back at home I would usually get a huge amount of froth building up fairly quickly and this would let me know that the yeast was doing its job. As things stand there are small patches of foam on the surface and a hell of a load of sediment on the bottom of my fermenting bucket. I am wondering if it is worth buying some more yeast to put in as I know the stuff that comes with kits isn't great. Either that or should I maybe give it another stir just to get the sediment mixed up as maybe the yeast isnt getting to the sugars? I am concerned as I made a coopers ale at home a few years back and never got a reaction from the yeast and ended up having to chuck it after a few weeks. Any help would be welcome and feel free to chastise me if I'm being impatient and should give it a bit of time before doing anything.

 

[jester5120]

temperature you pitched at looks to be a little on the warm side but still ok. give it another day or so and see if there is any sort of activity. If not then check the gravity and if that's still the same then buy more yeast. if its that warm out and your lhbs doesn't have the yeast stored properly they might be old and dead

 

[Darkness]

You could try whisking the brew to get some air into the mix. Also check to see if your yeast is a top or bottom fermenter makes a difference in the look on top. Most yeast can Handel a little warmer temp than 75-80 deg ferinhight (sorry American) so that should be ok but new yeast wouldn't hurt. I freaked a few months ago and tossed a yeast bed that I thought wasn't working very good turns out it was a lagering yeast and bottom fermenter. Felt stupid after that

 

[aiptasia]

IMHO, it sounds like it was pitched too warm. Ice baths are the way I like to cool down my wort.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

IMHO, it sounds like it was pitched too warm. Ice baths are the way I like to cool down my wort.

yeah, you want to pitch and ferment your ales in the 60's F. preferably below 65-66 degrees. after cooling my wort to pitch temps in an ice bath, this is how i maintain temps during fermentation.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,sounds like you def need a swamp cooler & some frozen water bottles. Even getting it down to 66-68F would help a lot.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Yeah,sounds like you def need a swamp cooler & some frozen water bottles. Even getting it down to 66-68F would help a lot.

fer sher!

anything below 70-72 isn't even that bad, although even that may be a tad on the warm side. definitely look into some sort of temp control.

 

[unionrdr]

In my latest experiment,which I decided on due to an oopsie while chilling the wort,I found that the cooper's ale yeast (a fresh large 15g packet from Midwest),that when they say the minimum optimal temp of 62F,they're not even kidding. It was re-hydrtated too. I forgot I had the FV's spigot in a mug of starsan on the FV stand,& had to deal with all that sanitation stuff.
By then,the wort had chilled down to 55.4F (13C). It took until the wort temp got up to 16C (60.8F) ti pin the airlock center piece against the cap,meaning reproductive phase finally started visually. That was 8:54pm on 1/22. So it took till about 63F before it started making krausen.
So with cooper's ale yeast,you should pitch 14g-15g's if you're gunna start ferment cold,but 62F is def minimum for normal fermentation start on this one. And 66-68 I would say is maximum temp. I still got some fruity esters,but...idk if this makes sence to y'all...but that nondescript fruitiness is fresher/brighter. The balance between the malts used & the Ahtanum/Stirling hops is way better this time. It was my Sunset Gold APA recipe with the hops changed to those just mentioned. Hope this treatice helps some...

 

[Realidad]

Yeah a little on the warm side but coopers Yeast should be fine as long as it dosent go above the 34 degrees mark. This is when the yeast becomes dormant due to the high temps. Perhaps using ventilation, a fan or some water cooling would do the trick.

 

[dcp27]

the heat wouldnt have been too much to kill the yeast if thats teh worry, but you should never pitch that high. 30C (86F) is way too hot, so id cool it to at least 20C (68F), preferably 18C, in the future before adding any. for this one, adding more yeast wouldnt hurt unless you're still that hot, but it sounds like its beginning to krausen so not sure its necessary

 

[unionrdr]

Nah,no need to re-pitch. I did that the first time or two following cooper's instructions about mixing in the FV,etc. 30-32C,oopsie. But I figured out how to "fix it". Basically what we're advising now. It'll likely just finish initial fermentation faster,mine did. It'll then slowly ferment without many bubbles or none at all,down to FG. And give it a week after that to clean up those unwanted by products of fermentation & while it settles out clear or slightly misty at the same time.

 

[Robanov]

Ok thanks guys, it seems like the yeast has woken up, I've managed to get the temp down to the recommended level now. I definitely wont be pitching that hot next time though. I'm going to leave it as it is for a few weeks now as after reading through a few of the other topics it would appear that it is not really necessary to go for a secondary fermentation in a new vessel.