Fermantation Temp Question

[niner_rock]

Got another newbie question. I've read about as much as I can to try answer my questions but every situation is different and I've read myself stupid.

Brewed second batch this past weekend, an autumn amber ale. I've got a lot of things I know I can do better, just having a hard time figuring out what those things may be. I pitched the yeast at 68 degrees and put in a closet with a damp towel. The temp was a 70 when in left for work the next day and had rose to 76 by the time I had gotten home 9-10 hrs later. I was able to get a tub that I couldn't get the first day and filled with water and ice bottles. The water temp has been at 60-65 for the last couple of days.

I know the rise in the temp wasn't a good thing but is it something that will throw off the flavor a lot? Is the temp it's holding at a good one? How long should it stay at that temp? Is there a certain amount of time it can ferment to get rid of any off flavors from the early high temps or will I be stuck with whatever happened already?

First batch had the same issues I think plus many others. But I think this time the temp has been much better regulated and lower with the water tub.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[BigFloyd]

Well, the temp inside the fermenter probably got up above 80*F before you wisely took steps to cool it down. That's hot enough to almost certainly produce off-flavors and possibly some fusels.

Extra time bottle conditioning (both at room temp and later in the fridge) will help to get rid of some or most of the off-flavors. Unfortunately, fusels don't go away.

What yeast did you pitch? If it was Nottingham, it got way too warm.

 

[beertroll]

Early in fermentation is the worst time for a rise that high. How bad it is depends on the yeast strain (my understanding is that saison yeasts actually perform best up in the mid 70s). Some off tastes will fade with age, but not entirely. I had a bock that fermented much too warm, and a year later it still tasted like a wedding centerpiece. Whether or not the beer is ruined will depend on your palate, but it certainly won't be a great brew.

Your swamp cooler will definitely help your subsequent brews quite a bit. 60-65 is a pretty good range that many people have great success with (I prefer temps in the 59-61 range, while I've seen other people on here passionately argue for mid-60s). Ideally, you want to limit temperature swings as well as just keep the temperature cooler; I don't know how big an impact a 5-6 degree swing has, but I can't help but think that a narrower range would give better results.

 

[niner_rock]

I'm not sure the exact strand of yeast. Just know it was a dry yeast pack that came with the kit.

I figured it was too high and probably one of the things wrong with my first batch.

How long does it need to stay at that temp on a fresh batch? A couple if weeks? Or after the first week or so can it be a little higher?

 

[niner_rock]

Another question. Is the water temp a pretty good indicator of the wort temp? And does bottled drinking water work well. I'm not a fan of my tap water

 

[beertroll]

I'm sure somebody else can provide more details, but you typically want to keep it down at a lower temp until the really visible fermentation is finished. That's usually 3-5 days, though it can take quite a bit longer if you didn't use enough healthy yeast. After that, you can let it rise up to about 70 or so. I don't *THINK* you'll have huge problems if it rises higher after that, but I live in VT and have a basement so I've never had a beer do that. Once the major fermentation is done, you only have ambient temperature to contend with; the yeast cells aren't producing huge amounts of heat.

 

[beertroll]

Yeah, water temp is close. The temps at the very center of your wort might be a few degrees higher, but the water is a much more accurate gauge than the ambient air temperature.

Are you talking about water for the beer itself, or the water for your swamp cooler? If it's the latter, it doesn't matter what water you use, since it won't make physical contact with the beer. If it's the former, that's kind of a huge topic that I'm kind of green on. I personally use distilled water with some calcium chloride and calcium sulfate additions, because my tap water is very alkaline and salty from my water softener. If you want to learn more about water, there are some incredibly detailed threads in the brew science forum.