fermentation temp question

[peavis]

i brewed a beiken clone out of the beer captured book on sunday and it been fermenting for probably 26 or so hours. i did'nt realize until a little while ago that the thermometer on the carboy is right at 80 degrees. my question is should i move it somewhere cooler or just leave it alone? im pretty sure i read somewhere that you dont want the beer to change temperature while its fermenting but i dont know if its gonna develop off flavors at 80 degrees. the og is supposed to be 1.084 and i used the white labs saison yeast. thnx for any advice.

[BrewDog]

I'd move it. 80 is high. You will get harsh tasting fusel alcohols.
Drape a wet towel or t-shirt or something over it to help cool it down.

[fretlessman71]

If you can't find a cool enough place for it, I've read where people will find a plastic washtub - I think they found theirs at Wal-Fart - big enough to place the carboy in, fill it with water, and THEN place a t shirt around it so the water will wick up the shirt and help to cool off the brew. You can add a few ice cubes if it's still not cold enough, and after that if it's STILL not cold enough, try adding a few more ice cubes and a fair amount of salt. But I'd act quickly; temps over 72° are pretty dangerous for homebrew...

[fuji6100]

I have the exact tub you speak of fret, and it works like a charm. The perfect size for a 6.5 gallon carboy or fermentation bucket and it was very cheap ($7-10 price range IIRC).

If I turn a standard fan on it, in addition to the t-shirt, water, and occational ice, I can keep the carboy temp around 70-72 even when the room is 76-78 (wife is from Florida and doesn't like it too cold.)

[fretlessman71]

Originally posted by fuji6100
(wife is from Florida and doesn't like it too cold.) I feel your pain, brother... :D

My wife grew up in Homestead, and was born in Honduras... I'll never forget the time I first heard her say, "Oh, man... it's only going to be 60° today!" Us Coloradoans recognize that temp as a possible high any day of the year, winter or summer!

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by peavis
i brewed a beiken clone out of the beer captured book on sunday and it been fermenting for probably 26 or so hours. i did'nt realize until a little while ago that the thermometer on the carboy is right at 80 degrees. my question is should i move it somewhere cooler or just leave it alone? im pretty sure i read somewhere that you dont want the beer to change temperature while its fermenting but i dont know if its gonna develop off flavors at 80 degrees. the og is supposed to be 1.084 and i used the white labs saison yeast. thnx for any advice.

80 is WAY to warm and will not only produce off flavors that will be tough to coniditon out, if they do at all, you will also produce fusel oils (higher alcohols) that will make the beer quite harsh and require extended time to condition out. Since you are already high gravity you will be dealing with the higher alcohols, no sense in making the job tougher.

If you are in KC as in Kansas City did you buy your yeast from Bacchus & Barkeycorn?

[Orange]

I began blissfully brewing recently. Living in central Florida the terperature in my house is generally in the upper 70's. My first few batches were good although I did notice some strange tastes that I have now determined were because of the high temps. I began seriously reading about brewing and appropriate fermentation temperatures as I was fermenting an ale at about 80 degrees. Yikes, this one tastes bad! I did some more research and I've rigged a simple setup using some ice, a cooler and a digital temperature gauge. I've been maintaining a temperature of about 67 degrees for this batch and I'm very excited. I'm expecting much better results.

[peavis]

cool thnx for all the replies. i knew i should of moved it somewhere colder or did the t-shirt trick but i thought that if the temperature changed too much that it would also produce off flavors. guess i was screwed either way. man i sure hope i did'nt just ruin the batch. thnx again everyone


hey brewmonkey, i bought the yeast at the homebrew pro shoppe in lees summit. coming from the parkville area its more of a drive but the guy at the pro shoppe is more then helpful and a very cool guy.

[Bradfrd12]

i also have a temp related question but didn't want to start another thread...so I am again..piggy backing.

Ok...I brewed an APA about 2 and a half weeks ago and pitched the yeast while the wort of still too warm in my opinion...stupid I know. Well, it took off very very fast...as expected and then stopped after about 12 or 15 hours.....also as expected :( Then nothing. After not doing anything for about 5 days...and I literally mean nothing....I switched it to the carboy thinking to agitate the yeast a bit and maybe reactivate it. Nothing...then today...after being in the carboy for about 9 days...foam at the top and bubbling away contently...."hmmmmmmm", I said, "What's goin on?". Then I thought...the temp! The temp has gone up a lot in the past 2 weeks...daily average now at like 78 or 80....

am I correct in thinking the raising temp has kicked the yeast into action? or has an infection finally got hold and taken off? I've smelled the gas being expelled and it smells fine....no off flavors really....

Any info would be awesome. Thanks.

Bradford

[toneyc]

It may just be that the increase in temperature has caused some dissolved co2 to come out of solution. Your hydrometer readings should tell you if the beer is finished fermenting or not.

:)
Toney.