Noobie Alert(brewing Temp)

[butters73]

G'day guys, just put a brew in the fermenter and after I topped up to 23 litres the temp was showing 28 degrees(next time I'll check the temp before its full so I can adjust with chilled water), my question is can I put on the lid and airlock and wait a day or so untill the the temp comes down to say 22 then stir and add the yeast or do I have to add the yeast now. Cheers ,Kingo.

 

[mckenry]

G'day guys, just put a brew in the fermenter and after I topped up to 23 litres the temp was showing 28 degrees(next time I'll check the temp before its full so I can adjust with chilled water), my question is can I put on the lid and airlock and wait a day or so untill the the temp comes down to say 22 then stir and add the yeast or do I have to add the yeast now. Cheers ,Kingo.

You can do that, just fine. If youre using the yeast that came under the lid, it'll be pretty robust, with a high tolerance for temperature range. So, you wont have to wait until its 22, although this is probably optimum temp for those yeasts. In practice, steady ferment temp is best.

 

[pint of lager]

Yeast are very robust, I suspect they would quite happily ferment in temperatures up to and maybe over 35 degrees. They will work very fast, but will also produce lots of unwanted by-products, causing your beer to be fruity and full of harsh fusel alcohols. Fusels give the beer a paint thinner or acetone aroma and also help give you a nasty hangover.

When yeast ferment, they produce a small amount of heat, this, combined withy the hot start, mean that it can be hard to drag an already fermenting brew back to the correct range.

If you have pitched that yeast, work hard to get the temperature back to 20.

A good strategy in future, is to freeze water in some clean takeaway containers. These can be used as giant iceblocks and also work well for cheap temperature control.

So long as your airlock grommet seals well, you can pop an iceblock on top and also drape a sheet around your fermenter. The cold melted water will wick down helping to cool the fermenter. Point a fan at it and it will help even more.

One way to drag the temperature back down, is to put the fermenter in a water bath, (yes, the bath tub or laundry tub work well.) Put some cool water in and change it every so often. Extra ice at this stage will help too. Make sure you sanitise the tap afterwards.