First time home brewing...

[snakesandstuff]

Well, I have a few questions about my first batch of home brew. Please excuse my ignorance if I mess up with any of the info :)

I made my first batch of home brew yesterday evenening, it is an irish stout... All went well, I cooked it outside in a large stainless steel pot, and only had to add about a quart of boiled/cooled water to the wort to get it up to 5 gallons.

I set the primary (6.5 gallon glass carboy) up in my closet. The room temperature is in the low 70's there, and within a few hours it started to bubble.... in 4 hours a nice foamy krausen a few inches thick had formed, and the fermentation lock was bubbling like crazy.

I checked the temperature on it early this morning, and even with the room temp being in the low 70's, the temp of the wort was around 80. I placed a small electric fan in front of the fermenter to cool it off a bit, and it has cooled a few degrees F already (in about 3 hours or so). In this time fermentation has also slowed down, getting a nice bubble about every 3 seconds instead of an almost constant bubbling.

My question is, will this high temperature affect it? I've read that high temperatures will give off fruity flavors etc.... I'm not 100% sure when I read about fermentation temps if they are referring to ambient temperature of the temperature of the wort itself....

Is a bubble every 3 seconds or so pretty normal for something after 18 hours?

All help is greatly appreciated. This is my first batch of home brew, and I'm already enjoying it before I ever even get to have a drink!

Thanks.

[ray m]

Worry not, snakes....I have had numerous brews get into the high 70's for a day or so and I have never detected anything objectionable about the flavor of them. However, I do prefer to have them get to 72* at the most, but sometimes you can't help it. Sounds like your fermentation really took off and finished very quickly---almost too quickly. A bubble every 3 sec. is OK, but I would not expect that rate until after 2.5 to 3 days. Wait another few days (5 to 6) and check your final gravity (or, if you are a bubble watcher, when the bubbles are @ 1 min. apart), then see how you think your brew is doing. I'm sure you'll be fine, just the temp. @ 80* really cranked up the fermentation rate.

[Doug95624]

Another thing to remember is the very act of fermenting generates heat. I find that it's not abnormal to find you fermenting wort running 5 - 10 degrees above ambient (especially for Ale Yeast Strains that ferment in that temp range). So long as your ambient doesn't get too high, you should be fine..

Sounds like you got a solid start.

[Fast_Eddy]

If ambient temp is 70ish you'll be fine.

Also it's worth noting that an irish stout is a strong tasting brew so you won't notice a little extra esters even if they are present. Things like a little extra diacetyl or esters get covered by black patent or roasted barley pretty easily.

I'm very surprised that you had only four hours to a nice krauesen - I see times like this but I usually pitch a very large starter(.5 gallon or so). IMO, if you hit krauesen that quickly and fermentation was vigorous for 18 hours and the OG wasn't excessive (around 1.050) then everything is on course. You'll have a very nice beer.

Did you use liquid or dry yeast? If liquid, did you step it up?

Welcome to your obsession.

[snakesandstuff]

Thanks everyone who has replied so far! I had no clue that I would get responses so fast.

I've spent quite a bit of time reading through the archives on here before and after my posting, and it looks like this is a very active site with lots of helpful people.

As far as the yeast goes, I just used a packet of dry yeast (rehydrated in sanitized container for 15 minutes).

I made a newbie mistake by not checking the OG, so that helpful piece of info is not available. I have a hydrometer and the works, I was just happy to be cooking up some beer and was excited to get it in the fermenter and situated where it could do its work and forgot to check it first.

I guess my next question is when do I rack it to my secondary? I still have some foam etc on top (not near as much, but still there). I've read that this will subside and sink down in 2-6 days, in which that is when to transfer it over to the secondary.... I figured that leaving it in the primary longer than needed would be better off than transferring to the secondary too early.. Just curious what others had experienced.

Thanks a ton again.

[BluesHarp]

Fast Eddy makes a very good point...the darker or "richer" the beer, the less slight flavor variations will be noticed; if you were making a lighter style, you might notice it. I've never brewed a porter or stout that had any objectional flavors, regardless of temperature..so relax, and give in to the force...there is no turning back now...MUWAHAHAAAA!!!! (maniacal laughter, it is almost Halloween! :D )

I would rack into the secondary when the foam falls; it's not real critical, especially for a darker style; too long in the primary can lead to off flavors as the trub breaks down, I used to brew decent beer with only one carboy, but using a secondary will give you a cleaner flavor.

[b3s]

when the krausen falls is a good indicator for racking...also, if the bubbling falls to under 5 per minute is another good indicator...taking a hyrdo reading and seeing appropriate attenuation is probably the best indicator, though (looking for about 80% of your total expected attenuation based on yeast strain, if memory serves), but i hardly ever do it that way.

generally i wait until the krausen falls, but if the beer is still bubbling good (like my honey wheat was...krausen fell, but i was still at about 15 bubbles a minute) i'll let it sit for another day or so. took 10 days for that to happen with the honey wheat (heh, and then after racking, i got yet another krausen, so i racked a 2nd time once bubbling stopped altogether).

but the big thing is...don't worry...it's pretty damn hard to mess up beer :D

[toneyc]

You'll probably get lots of opinions on this point, but here's what I do. I'm a weekend brewer. I usually brew on Saturdays. The following Saturday or Sunday, I rack to secondary, unless there is still a thick blanket of foam on top, in which case it will sit another week before transferring. Then I will let it sit in secondary for a week or two before bottling/kegging.

My house usually sits at about 74 degrees, unless the wife gets at the thermostat.

Here's to great beer, welcome aboard!

:)
Toney.

[GunNut76]

My last batch of amber ale got a little warm too. It went off the scale of the fermometer (it tops out at 80*) and I figure the beer got to about 82-84! When I racked there was no noticeable taste difference (altho I did realize that I didn't have enough bittering hops). FYI I racked after 4 days as there were no bubbles in the air lock (sat and watched it for an hour, 80* fermentation temps get your yeast done with their job very, very quickly). When you rack don't worry about purging your secondary with CO2, you will almost always get a little fermentation from the slight rousing of the yeast during transfer. The best solution would be to get a temp controler (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/equip/fermenters.asp) (14th item down) and a freezer or fridge to use as a fermentation "closet". *Bonus: You can use it to make lagers.

[yonkersbrewer]

Originally posted by toneyc
You'll probably get lots of opinions on this point, but here's what I do. I'm a weekend brewer. I usually brew on Saturdays. The following Saturday or Sunday, I rack to secondary, unless there is still a thick blanket of foam on top, in which case it will sit another week before transferring. Then I will let it sit in secondary for a week or two before bottling/kegging.

My house usually sits at about 74 degrees, unless the wife gets at the thermostat.

Here's to great beer, welcome aboard!

:)
Toney.

Amen to what Toney says. The easiest way not to become crazy when brewing is to take the time that it takes! Remember that great, great, great grand-dad was drinking great beer brewed by someone that took the wort temperature with his finger! You did good, kid! LOL...keep it up!