pitched yeast in a ale around 78 degrees

[mattsmitty]

Hey guys, did my first every brew this past sunday. it was a brown ale extract kit. Everything went extremely well all through out the brew process and i was shocked how well my homemade immersion chiller worked. Dropped from 200 down to 85 really quick. probly about 15 minutes or so but then i couldn't get it to drop much more. Left the water going through the chiller for probly another 15 to 20 minutes and only got it down to around 78-79 degrees. After trying to get it down to atleast 75 with no success it decided to just go ahead and transfer to the carboy and pitch the yeast. My question is, is this going to make a big difference in the taste or quality of the beer? did i screw up by pitching the yeast at to warm a temp?? I have the carboy fermenting now in a tub of cold water in the closet, last time i checked it the water temp was mid 60's.

 

[Darwin18]

A best practice is to pitch the yeast at fermentation temps which for your beer is in the mid-60's to prevent any off-flavors from fermenting too high to develop. You're likely fine as it's your first ever brew, but in the future you may want to try pitching at fermentation temps. A brown ale is a style that will help hide minor off-flavors.

 

[TriggerFingers]

With the ice bath you should be ok, and it should keep temps cool. More than likely you won't have any "off" flavors, but if you do, just give it some time in the bottle after you prime (a few extra weeks) and most subtle flavors (if any) will subside. I WOULDN'T dump it.

In the future, pitch cooler if you can. The yeasties really make the beer. Just try to give them the best environment you can and let them work.

 

[aiptasia]

It's not going to matter a hill of beans if you pitched at 78f unless your yeast was +/- 10 degrees from that. Then, you might temperature shock your yeast a little bit. A little bit of warmth is actually just fine while the yeast is in it's aerobic reproductive phase for the first 24-36 hours.

What is going to matter is when the yeast burn up all of that oxygen and begin their anoxic alcohol producing phase. If the wort is too warm at this stage, you are going to get a lot of interesting esters and phenols produced by the yeast (some strains more than others, your mileage may vary). This is when it's important to control the fermentation temperature to prevent those clove, banana and funky off flavors the Belgians are loved for.

For example, I let my lagers sit at room temperature for a day or so after pitching because the warmth encourages rapid yeast cell growth during it's aerobic phase. There isn't much if any alcohol being produced at this time so there's little risk for potential off flavors in the final beer. However, after that time, my lagers go into my drop freezer where I can specifically control the temperature in the low 50's where the beer ferments for 4-6 weeks.

 

[kh54s10]

I would say that since you cooled it further and quickly you should have no off flavor issues.

I have a home made immersion cooler that is two coils. I put one in the wort and the other in a bucket of water. After it has cooled as low as it will with just water I add ice to the bucket. This allows cooling lower than the house water temperature.