So My Brew Has Been Fermenting At 26c, A Noob's Tale.

[pokedad]

I am a total newbie to the world of home brew. I used to help my old man bottle when i was a little fella. That was pretty dodgy ( yellow garbage bin as a fermentor, with a towel over the top of it ), but I always understood the basic concept of homebrew.

Other than that I've just been reading the brew book that came with my kit and on the internet.

So I decided to jump in and get on with it, so I bought a couple of kits and away I went.

I read a little on temperature and how important it was to the process, normally I figured I'd be ok and be around the 20-22c range without extra cooling. EXCEPT for the heatwave we've had for the last 4-5 days starting on the day I made my kits.

Ok so I've made two batches and here they are.

Morgans Canadian Light
1kg Dextrose
Hallertau Finishing Hops ( tea bag thing )
The 5g dry yeast that came with the kit.

And

Cascade Mahogany Porter
Morgan's Lager malt
500g Dextrose
Brew seller - Americian Ale Yeast

So why have I made these brews I hear you ask, probably an odd combo for a starting home brewer.

So the first shop I went too, they guy was not interesting in talking to me or giving any advice so I just bought a Porter kit and a "Grolsch Pack" which contained the canadian, the Hallertau, lager malt. I thought that would be alright as someone else had done the flavour comboing and how wrong could I go ? Well, I was following along with my brew book when it told me to pour 1kg of dextrose in I did, then went AWW CRAP ! I was only supposed to put 400g and the lager malt in to make the Grolsch thing, oh well. I moved on and figured on well watery piss USA beer I shall have and got over it.

Now I was left with not enough Dextrose so I took a trip to a different brewing shop. This guy was a bit more chatty and was pretty helpful. This brew shop guy expressed his dismay in my using the Cascade porter kit and told me basically it's total crap and I'm going to end up with borderline undrinkable beer. I explained it's pretty warm where I am brewing did he think it'd be ok? His suggestion to fix it was don't use the kit yeast as he said it's very low quality he then suggested the new yeast and said that'd do fine at my temp's. Also to throw a malt in there to hide the kit flavour and make it slightly more drinkable. Which I did.

So my rambling tale ends with some questions.

Due to factors outside my control neither batch ever got lower than 26c at any point, but they were stable at that temp. how badly is this going to effect the taste of the beer should I bother or just scrap it and control the temp better?

The Canadian started quickly fermenting vigoursly which it's done for 3 days or so then seems to have totally stopped. I plan to check the gravity of it to check if it's stable or not. But if it's stable is three days enough ? If it's not enough what do you suggest ? I guess my biggest fear here is, if it tastes like fair but still has an alcohol content I can live with it, but if this means it's going to have a low ( mid strength ) content, I'll pull the pin on it now.

The porter is still not bubbling the airlock after a couple of days, but when i look in the clear lid, it has a head that looks like a beer head ( white ) and see bubbles slowing forming in that, so I assume that the yeast is doing ok and I am not letting that trouble me just yet. Would you agree?



Feel free to add anything else in you feel relevant, I won't take offense.


I'm glad I've found this site and have done extensive reading here. I am sure my new brewers questions have been covered off before, but I could not find anything covering all my concerns hence my thread. Thanks for your time.

 

[brendo]

Firstly.. welcome to the boards.

Due to factors outside my control neither batch ever got lower than 26c at any point, but they were stable at that temp. how badly is this going to effect the taste of the beer should I bother or just scrap it and control the temp better?

While not ideal, it won't be the end of the world. Higher temperatures tend to promote more fusel alchols and esters, so it could be alright or it could be a bit rough and a hangover inducer. Only one way to find out.

The Canadian started quickly fermenting vigoursly which it's done for 3 days or so then seems to have totally stopped. I plan to check the gravity of it to check if it's stable or not. But if it's stable is three days enough ? If it's not enough what do you suggest ? I guess my biggest fear here is, if it tastes like fair but still has an alcohol content I can live with it, but if this means it's going to have a low ( mid strength ) content, I'll pull the pin on it now.

3 days is pretty quick - I routinely leave mine for between 1.5-2wks, gives it a little bit of conditioning time before bottling. Take consecutive hydro readings over a few days and if it is stable, you should be OK.

The porter is still not bubbling the airlock after a couple of days, but when i look in the clear lid, it has a head that looks like a beer head ( white ) and see bubbles slowing forming in that, so I assume that the yeast is doing ok and I am not letting that trouble me just yet. Would you agree?

Yep... let it do it's thing. Airlocks are f@cking liars, never trust them - all depends on how good your seal is, if gas is escaping, it is not going to worry about the airlock. Krause (the foam on top) and dropping gravity are sure signs that things are well.

Good luck with the new brews.

Brendo

 

[flattop]

I think at those temps your beers will be a bit rough but drinkable. Don't overdo it in one session as you may get a headache.
I don't think the extra dex in kit 1 is too much, in fact it is common in kit brewing.

 

[thunderchild]

Your beers will be drinkable though I am sure in brews to come you will come up with new and creative names yourself for your first brew. Just make them real cold.....



Write it off to experience, use this foum and you will get some great advice.

Best thing you can do is keep excellent records and compare to your future brews. Rake over this forum for ways to control your temp, that fwiw is what will make the biggest initial difference to your brews.

TC

 

[muckey]

Welcome to brewing

wouldn't worry too much, sounds like they have fermented Ok

dont be in too much rush to finish them. give them time to ferment out, check your hydrometer for stable readings over 2-3 days them prime and bottle.

A lot of people brew without complex setup and simply use wet towels, ice, fans, water baths to keep the temps down during extreme weather.

I've had a couple of times where temperature has spike on brews. I don't worry about it, I just try and let them condition longer to allow the yeast a bit of time to do a cleanup.

All in all the result will be Ok but like starting anything new there's always room to improve the technique.

As has been mentioned earlier, server them extra cold

 

[matti]

Welcome to the AHB.
A crowded place but one of the better forum for all round purposes.
Here a link about brewing from Grain and grape with some valuable brewing info for starters.

One step at the time.

One leg to learn about is yeasty beasties and optimum brewing temperatures.
It is a "biggy" but one that will is well worth learning about as it will improve your HB tenfold.

Matti

 

[QIK86]

One other thing, I'd aviod the Brewcellar American Ale yeast in future. I've read of a few bad experiences on here from people using it, myself included. Took something like 6 days to start and by then I think it ended up with a slight infection.

I now stick to Fermentis dry yeasts (Safale US-05 or S-04) and get far more predictable results.

 

[pokedad]

Thanks for all the good info guys, the friendly welcome and the links.

The heat has gone so the temp of my brews has dropped to 22c, but I am assuming the damage is done, as per the previous advice I'll chalk it up to a learning curve, drink my swill and move on to better brews.

 

[boingk]

I had a similar problem with dual brews in a heatwave, which got up to around 25'C. I found that one was undrinkable, although I'd budgeted on keeping it cool and was using a 'lager' yeast which I've had good experiences with from 16-18'C in the past. The other was using US-05 and had no side effects aside from having a very harsh bitterness which faded after 3-4 weeks, leaving a nicely drinkable beer.

See how you go, you should be alright. And as for the Porter kit being crap, one of my nicest brews has been made with it using 1kg morgans chocolate malt and 500g yellowbox honey along with a few [10~20g] hops to your taste. I don't go much on the stock yeast though, the guy was right on that.

Cheers - boingk

 

[QIK86]

See how you go, you should be alright. And as for the Porter kit being crap, one of my nicest brews has been made with it using 1kg morgans chocolate malt and 500g yellowbox honey along with a few [10~20g] hops to your taste. I don't go much on the stock yeast though, the guy was right on that.

Cheers - boingk

Sounds pretty close to what I've got fermenting at the moment. Only difference being I also added 500g of LDME and 15g of Fuggles. Fingers crossed it's a winner too. :beer:

 

[troublebrewing]

I've stopped using kit yeasts entirely, I find them to be way too damn unreliable quality up here in the far north. I've moved onto Safale, and will be able to taste my first one brewed with it in about 3 weeks.

The other thing I've started doing is rehydrating the yeast before pitching. Since I started rehydrating at the same time as I switched to Safale I can't say what made the difference, but both brews I've pitched with rehydrated yeast went absolutely gang-busters within 3 hours of pitching. And that helps me sleep at night.

 

[QIK86]

I haven't bothered with rehydrating yet, but may in future brews. Whats your process?

 

[troublebrewing]

Not particularly scientific.

Sanitise a standard 500ml drinking glass (glass, not plastic!), fill it with tap water, pour yeast on top, wait roughly 1/4 hour, swirl it a bit (as you'll still have dry yeast floating on top), and hopefully all the yeast should dissolve to a slurry at the bottom of the glass. Then just pitch the whole thing.

I'm sure someone else out there's got a better process, or info on how long you should hydrate for, but with both batches I've had very active fermentation from roughly 4 hours in, so yeah.

From posts I've read, it helps because the yeast doesn't have to fight the wort for water to rehydrate the dried out cell membrane before it can start reproducing, and that you can get cleaner flavours out of it as the yeast isn't stressed as much in the initial ferment. YMMV of course...

 

[flattop]

AFAIK you should boil the water first then cool it to room temp before re-hydrating but then the wort is full of unboiled water anyhow
I use basically the same method and it works fine. If you want to go more advanced add a small amount of dex to it as it will start the fermentation, then pitch it.
I usually don't bother with the dex.

 

[Swinging Beef]

I usually don't bother with the dex.

If you are just rehydrating yeast, and not building a starter, then do not ad dex or DME.
During the rehydration process, the yeast do not have control over what passes thru the cell walls, so it needs to be sterile water with nothing added.

If you DO want to further complicate things, you can stup up a starter, by adding some malt to get them to breed.

 

[pint of lager]

If I hydrate yeast, I have always used the manufacturer's directions from their website. The right volume of water (half a cup) at the right temperature (30deg) and the correct time (20-30 minutes). With no additions of malt, sugar or dextrose additions.

Have just been over to the fermentis website and it has been revamped, the old page is no longer there and the new information is different to what we used to follow.

The information is hidden in the Tips and Tricks .pdf file and the rehydration instructions now include sterile wort or sterile water. If you wish to hydrate, the document is well worth the read. Otherwise, follow the KIS method and just sprinkle the yeast on your wort.

Tips and Tricks link

Starters are a different subject. You are trying to build up a small number of yeast cells into enough to pitch to a full sized wort.

 

[stufoster]

What about Safale S04 yeast at about 30 degrees?

I stupidly started a brew off last night without thinking - we've got temp's in the high 30's for the next few days. I stuck it in a bath full of cold water to get the temp down for pitching the yeast. It was stable at about 28 so put the yeast in as that was as low as I was going to get it. After a day in the cupboard in a closed up room it's at about 30 degrees.

Should I really be trying to get the temp down? Or just leave it fermenting longer?

 

[Blackfish]

What about Safale S04 yeast at about 30 degrees?

I stupidly started a brew off last night without thinking - we've got temp's in the high 30's for the next few days. I stuck it in a bath full of cold water to get the temp down for pitching the yeast. It was stable at about 28 so put the yeast in as that was as low as I was going to get it. After a day in the cupboard in a closed up room it's at about 30 degrees.

Should I really be trying to get the temp down? Or just leave it fermenting longer?

Do what you can to get the temp down, I have found that sub 20degs fermentation my results are always so much better than if they are warmer.
Things you can do:

Fridge Time: If you are not at risk of SWMBO's wrath, clear some space, remove some shelves and put it in there for a few hours. Good if you can manage it. <_<
Ice bath: Put it in the tub and dump a couple of icebags in it to form a slurry. While you are at it, throw some stubbies of your favorite commercial beer in the slurry too and reduce their temp as well. Keep everything in there until it reaches the desired temp. This is good if you need to crash cool before pitching. Some Ice cream containers filled with water & frozen can help here.
BEWARE! if those stubbies are megaswill the beer gods will frown upon your fermentation. Don't make them angry! Coopers Longnecks work best and the bottles are excellent for refilling. Good Friday night activity right there. :icon_cheers:

Wet towel & Ice Bricks : Find a dish that goes under a large plant pot. they are usually about 2-3inches deep and will come in a size that will fit a fermentor with a tap attached. Put it under your fermentor and fill with water & maybe a teaspoon of napisan so the tap stays relatively clean. Drape a towel over the top, such that the ends of the towel sit in the water. Wet the towel and it will stay wet for a long time by wicking the water out of the dish. Refill the dish as required. If that doesn't work well enough freeze some soft drink bottles of water & put them on top of the lid under the wet towels. Swap the melted bottles for frozen ones as required

Big Esky: If you have an esky big enough, turn it on its end and put your fermentor inside with a frozen bottle or two. Rotate bottles.

Ghetto Esky: Big Cardboard box, fermentor inside, pack the space around it with scrunched up newspaper or even styrofoam chips, bubblewrap or whatever. Frozen bottles on top, rotate as needed.

This is all a bit desperate, but you can knock 10 degs off ambient easily. Good Luck & Happy Heatwave!

BTW I don't bother rehydrating dry yeast anymore, start times never reduced dramatically for me by this method and it introduces infection risks you don't need to take. There is plenty of yeast cells in a 11g fermentis packet to cope with an average 20l beer. If you feel ready to do starters from liquid yeast or are only starting with a small amount of yeast cells then do that, but IMHO if you have a fresh packet, just sprinkle it on top and don't pricktease the yeast more than you need to :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers:

 

[stufoster]

Thanks Blackfish

I have now got it sitting in a bath of water with a towel, and am adding bottles of frozen water occasionally,which has got it down to mid to low 20's.

Low 20's forecast for next week so should have waited until then. Next time I'll check the weather forecast.

...and the gods would have been happy - a mixture of kit beers and a very nice extract IPA would have been added to the ice.