First Solo Brew - Question on Fermentation Temps

Hi Everyone,

I brewed 4 beers 2 summers ago with a buddy of mine so I have a little bit of experience brewing but I just started again and trying to relearn some things after not doing it for 2 years. I also am new to a blow off tube, only used stopper and airlock before. But below is some background and the question...

I brewed an American Wheat Beer (extract kit) on Monday and everything went well on brew day. I nailed the OG right on at 1.054. The yeast I used was WLP300 HEFEWEIZEN ALE YEAST as per the guy at the homebrew shop's recommendation that the dry yeast in the kit doesn't usually work as well. I set up a blow off tube because I found a crack in the side of my airlock, but was able to hook the tube and make it work. I have the tube going into a gallon milk jug filled about halfway with sanitized water. It's been about 3 days now since I put it into the fermenter and I haven't seen too much activity, in fact maybe not any as of this morning. Yesterday I was able to see/hear a bubble in the milk jug maybe about every 20-30 seconds. I know from reading some other posts that the CO2 bubbles don't really tell you anything and you need to take the gravity reading to really tell how your fermentation is going. The ambient temperature around the fermentation bucket seems to be around 74-76 degrees F. I know that's on the high side... is it too high? After 3 days of fermenting, will putting it in a cold water bath (or swamp cooler) increase my chances of getting a good result? Is it too late? I just didn't know if trying to cool the temperature after a few days would be a good thing. Any advice would be appreciated.

Your temp is definitely too high, the recommended range is 68-72 F for that yeast. It's important to control your fermentation temps especially the first several days when the yeast activity is throwing off heat too. If ambient temps are 76, then when yeast is cranking, that means your wort is maybe 80 or higher! As to what the effect it will have on the beer, that I am not sure of. Maybe a more "hot" alcohol taste? I would cool it down ASAP!

You also want to make sure you pitch enough yeast. Did you use just one vial? You want to use a yeast pitching calculator like mrmalty.com or brewersfriend.com. A 1.054 OG ale at 5 gallons with yeast "born" on 3/1 (and date on White Labs vials are "use by" so you have to go back four months) needed 2.6 vials per MrMalty if no starter or stir plate was used. Or course older the yeast, the more you need. So you probably underpitched too, which explains the lack of activity. You can just let it go and check the gravity and if after a few days there is no change, pitch some more yeast. If gravity is going down slow, just let it keep going.

Hmmmm..... underpitching a hefe at a high temp. I predict bananas! It will be alright. It might have to sit for awhile before its any good. Take a sample and see what its like.

Yes, I used just one vial and did not do a starter, so it sounds like I definitely under-pitched. Unfortunately I won't be able to get more yeast until the weekend. However, the kit came with a packet of dry yeast that I didn't use because the guy at the shop recommended I use liquid yeast. So the packet of dry yeast is still sitting around. Should I pitch the dry yeast and cool the fermenter down immediately? Will mixing a liquid and a dry yeast cause any problems? Will the different yeasts just provide different flavors? Obviously at this point I'm not expecting a great beer, but I'd like to salvage something drinkable.

Just get it cool. More yeast at this point won't do anything as they have already reproduced enough to ferment the beer (this usually happens in 12-24 hours). Temperature control is the single most important factor in brewing good beer.

The stressing of the yeast is most likely already done. I'm not sure what the dry yeast is. Probably WB-06? They are similar yeasts. It wouldn't hurt that much but, its not really recommended. I bet its still going to be extreme

Okay, I'll get the thing cooled down and pass on adding additional yeast. I appreciate the help all of you!

While I have you guys... if I were to do another extract kit (which I will), would you agree that fresher liquid yeast from a homebrew shop is better than the packet of dry yeast the kit would provide?

Lessons Learned: Temperature control is critical and 1 vial of yeast is not pre-measured to just pour into a 5 gallon batch without using a starter. I will definitely use one next batch and will take a deeper look at brewersfriend.com.

Sometimes 1 vial is enough. It depends on the strain and freshness. Dry yeast is just fine. However, there are many more strains of liquid yeast. There are many threads on here debating the two. Most people can't tell the difference between dry and liquid versions of the same yeast strain.

You should look into starters and stir plates.

rmw1822 said:

While I have you guys... if I were to do another extract kit (which I will), would you agree that fresher liquid yeast from a homebrew shop is better than the packet of dry yeast the kit would provide?

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Nothing at all wrong with using dry yeast. It stays "fresh" for a lot longer than liquid, losing only 4% of it's viability each year if kept in the fridge. You can brew some darn tasty beers with it and many brewers do. Also, just one 11g pack of dry yeast, rehydrated, is plenty of cells to do a 5.25g batch of wort up to 1.060 (according to Mr. Malty).

Of course, there aren't nearly as many style-specific strains available compared to liquid. But, unless I were doing a beer for which there is no appropriate dry variety, I'd much rather pitch a rehydrated packet of dry yeast than to underpitch using a single vial or smackpack of liquid yeast (no starter).

rmw1822 said:

Lessons Learned: Temperature control is critical

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That's a valuable lesson to learn. Good control of your pitching/ferment temps is key to producing good brew. A solid practice is to pitch a bit below where you want to ferment. Ferment for the first week on the low end of the yeast's optimal temp range, then slowly bring it up to the middle of that range until it's finished. Personally, I like having a fermenter chamber (upright freezer) controlled by an STC-1000 to do all that with precision.

If you can't or won't make starters (you can) then the dry yeast is preferable. The cell count in a 15g packet is way higher than a vial or smack pack of liquid yeast, so you're much less likely to be underpitching, which you almost certainly are with one pack of liquid yeast.