Fermenting at 73-75 degrees

[afreitag]

I have a American Wheat fermenting right now. The temp in the house is 70 but the temp on the primary is 73-75 degrees. I am using Danstar Nottingham yeast. Is this going to affect the taste???

 

[eastoak]

the upper limit for this yeast is 70 so i'd say you have a good chance of flavors other than those intended showing up.

 

[afreitag]

Ok thats what I was afraid of. Thank you!

 

[boydster]

Notty is great if you can keep the fermentation temp steady somewhere between 55 and 65. As it gets higher, it gets estery and not in a good way. I really like it for clean ales at about 60.

 

[afreitag]

I ended up getting it down to 70 degrees. It was at 75 degrees for about 12 hours. Do you think it let off any flavors in that time??

 

[boydster]

Yes, and if you only got it down to 70, I suspect it will continue to throw off flavors. Above 68 or so, all bets are off with Nottingham. I've used it as low as 58 with good results, others have used it even lower (I saw here on HBT that people use it at 55 and it works fine). This is a great strain to run at low temps.

After the lag phase, there is a 2-3 day period that is crucial in terms of the production of yeast driven flavor compounds. That is when temperature control is the most important, because it also happens to be when the yeast is most active and generating a good deal of heat.

 

[afreitag]

Will bottle condition take care of any of the off flavors?? I am fairly new to homebrewing so I am sorry for all the questions.

 

[boydster]

Ester flavors might fade a little over time. I don't want to give you the impression that this batch is a total loss, it will just have some flavors that the recipe didn't intend.

If you can get the temp down to 65, I think it would help. If you can't, try switching to a different yeast for your next batch that works for the temperatures you can maintain (saison yeasts might be a good option, if you like the style). Also, you might consider getting a rope tote from Walmart and putting your fermenter in it. You can add water to the tote and use frozen 2L bottles of water to control temperature surprisingly well.