11 replies to this topic

[simonsez]

Hello,New member here and semi-newby at brewing Ok, my question is regarding my first brew (by myself) that i started on saturday. It is a cream ale kit that came with the brew kit that i got from costco (i plan on expanding my equipment but its a good start). anyways i brewed without thinking of the fact that the average room temp is about 80 deg. F and that my yeast may be overactive at this temp and (reading my brew book) may make the beer more fruityish (higher esters).Should i continue with this and bottle by the end of the week or should i transfer to a secondary for 2 weeks? Should i try a brew that utlizes a higher temp loving yeast (saisson) ?The timeline for my brewing and subsequent observations are as follows:1.saturday a. Commenced brewing at approx 3pm b.completed the boiling of the wort at approx. 6pm i. OG = 1.072 1.Concerns that temp was ~90+ deg F 2.Maybe not mixed well to get accurate reading c.ice bath for approx 3 hrs d.refridgerator for 3 hrs2.Sunday a.pitched yeast at 12 am b.noticed vigourous bubbling at 10am i.replaced sudsy sanit. Solution with water in afternoon ii.opened lid to let out pressure3.Monday a.Still bubbling at 6 am b.Wife reported later in day (~4hrs) that bubbling stopped c.No bubbling at 6pm, yet fermenter is under pressure (bubbles released upon pushing down on lid)4.Tuesday a.Still no bubbling at 6 am b.In afternoon Swirled bucket to agitate contents but alas no bubbles (bubbles released upon pushing down on lid) c. Color has turned into a nice honey gold color and a krausen ring (?) is visible on inside.5. wednesday a.Still no bubbling at 6 amThanks

[ncbeerbrewer]

Welcome to the Board and welcome to homebrewing. My first question would be what yeast did you use do you know? You are correct in that 78-80 degrees is pretty high for most yeasts except Belgian yeasts. My thought is that if its only been three days and you seem to see no activity you could be done fermenting. Yeast will ferment faster at a higher temperature. Don't guage fermentation by the airlock activity you need to use your hydrometer and check the gravity. If you are say 1.010-1.018 you could very well be complete with fermentation. I would suggest checking the gravity 2 times over the course of 2-3 days and see if it does not change or changes very little then you done fermenting. This is your first beer and even if your temp was high I don't see why you should dump or get rid of it. After fermentation is complete yeast will clean up and improve your beer so letting it sit as it is till the weekend is probably not a bad idea either. I like to secondary so I would suggest transfer then let it sit 1-2 weeks whatever you like and then bottle it up and enjoy in a months time. A suggestion for future beers is get an ice bath going and trying to keep your temperature below 70 degrees for the duration. Someone here can give advice on a good suggestion. I say bucket with ice and carboy in that. You can also wrap the carboy in a wet shirt within the ice bath and let evaporation help cool the carboy too or keep it cool. Hope this helps and don't worry you will have beer from what you just described. Its your first batch and always something to learn. Again Welcome to the board this is a great site and hope you enjoy it as well!!Mike

[simonsez]

Welcome to the Board and welcome to homebrewing. My first question would be what yeast did you use do you know? You are correct in that 78-80 degrees is pretty high for most yeasts except Belgian yeasts. My thought is that if its only been three days and you seem to see no activity you could be done fermenting. Yeast will ferment faster at a higher temperature. Don't guage fermentation by the airlock activity you need to use your hydrometer and check the gravity. If you are say 1.010-1.018 you could very well be complete with fermentation. I would suggest checking the gravity 2 times over the course of 2-3 days and see if it does not change or changes very little then you done fermenting. This is your first beer and even if your temp was high I don't see why you should dump or get rid of it. After fermentation is complete yeast will clean up and improve your beer so letting it sit as it is till the weekend is probably not a bad idea either. I like to secondary so I would suggest transfer then let it sit 1-2 weeks whatever you like and then bottle it up and enjoy in a months time. A suggestion for future beers is get an ice bath going and trying to keep your temperature below 70 degrees for the duration. Someone here can give advice on a good suggestion. I say bucket with ice and carboy in that. You can also wrap the carboy in a wet shirt within the ice bath and let evaporation help cool the carboy too or keep it cool. Hope this helps and don't worry you will have beer from what you just described. Its your first batch and always something to learn. Again Welcome to the board this is a great site and hope you enjoy it as well!!Mike

Thanks, i used a dry pale ale yeast ( it came from brewcraft usa and i just sprinkled without rehydrating) and unfortunately the bag was thrown out.Do you have any brew recipees using the saisson yeast (extract or all grain) that you recommend?

[Deerslyr]

I had a nice long message when my puter decided to jump to my home page. Long story short..Check out John Palmers "How to Brew" website. It's great for newbies.Do a few extract batches before you attempt AG. Helps to get your process down for boil through bottling without having to worry about crush, efficiencies, sparging, etc.I use a water and ice bottle bath in one of those $6 tubs (with rope handles) from Lowes or Wal Mart... and I use a plastic bucket for fermentation. If you have a glass carboy, fine, but you can do the bath with plastic ferementers too. Really helps.There are no dumb questions from newbies around here, but you would do well to check out the FAQ section or utilize the Search function. Most questions have been asked and answered. You will likely find some great info out there.Welcome to the hobby obsession!

[simonsez]

I had a nice long message when my puter decided to jump to my home page. Long story short..Check out John Palmers "How to Brew" website. It's great for newbies.Do a few extract batches before you attempt AG. Helps to get your process down for boil through bottling without having to worry about crush, efficiencies, sparging, etc.I use a water and ice bottle bath in one of those $6 tubs (with rope handles) from Lowes or Wal Mart... and I use a plastic bucket for fermentation. If you have a glass carboy, fine, but you can do the bath with plastic ferementers too. Really helps.There are no dumb questions from newbies around here, but you would do well to check out the FAQ section or utilize the Search function. Most questions have been asked and answered. You will likely find some great info out there.Welcome to the hobby obsession!

thanks, i actually have his book. I have done 2 AG brews and 1 extract brew before so i am a little familiar with the sparging .thinking about making one of the those igloo conversions.

[weave]

Your results at that temp will vary widely with yeast strain. Belgian strains do well at that temp, most (but not all) other yeasts will produce off flavors and/or fusels when you get that warm.Just a month ago I made an English bitter that fermented at about 75F ambient temp with Nottingham dry yeast. Much to my delight, it did not turn out overly estery.Let us know how yours finishes.

[RommelMagic]

My question to you is was the ambient temperature around 80, or was that the fermentation temp? If it was ambient, your fermentation temp may have been in the 90s

[Deerslyr]

thanks, i actually have his book. I have done 2 AG brews and 1 extract brew before so i am a little familiar with the sparging .thinking about making one of the those igloo conversions.

I've got a Coleman 48 qt. rectangular that I converted. I created a cpvc manifold and sparge system. My hot liquor is pumped to the sparge and the pump is connected to a float switch so I don't have to worry about it. Before that, I batch sparged. My efficiencies have been the same. Lot's of different systems out there... just have to find the one that fits your style and what you expect to do (both in terms of types of beers and how involved you want to be).My suggestion still stands to do a few extract batches to get some processes down pat. I probably had about 8 extract batches, and was co-pilot on about 5 AG batches before I built my own AG system.

[japh]

Well, at this point the best thing to do would be to take a sample for the hydrometer/tasting. That will tell you more then guessing about temps.

[MolBasser]

At that temp wort is fermented out in 2 days or so.BrewBasser

[passlaku]

Welcome aboard. I fight with hot fermentation temps too. Here is what I have done:I use two frozen 20 oz bottles of water to keep the ambient temp at around 64F. I have also slapped together bubble wrap and grocery store bags as insulation for the plastic cover. I have another igloo where I took off the top and just use towels over the top to keep the cool air in.

[simonsez]

well i took a sample and got an approx FG of 1.01 (the tall glass i used wasnt enough or i needed more sample but i didnt want to do thru another sanitzation/cleaning of the siphon. so based on my OG of 1.077 (corrected for temp) its looking at 7.5-7.8 abv.nice aroma but has the chill haze as expected.I think i will do a few more extracts this year and then make an igloo conversion at the end of the year.thanks for the advice!