It is a very long story, but I ended up pitching my belgian raspberry wit at around 94 deg. F. I usually pitch such a beer at 64 and if possible let it warm a bit. I wrapped my bucked in ICE and placed it in the basement, after an 1 to 1.5 hours I noted it was not cooling off. I then found a bin in which I could submerge it in water/ice. I had to leave, but I think this worked pretty quickly as I left it on the cellar floor. When I returned 7 hours later it was nice and cool. I have used this strain of yeast before and had it stall on me, so I used two liquid packs this time ( I don’t have gravities because it is full of raspberries and I am not sure how accurate it would be). The question I have for you guys/ladies is how much off flavor should I expect or did I save my beer in time? Either way I think it will be ok, but I was just looking for some insight.
And while I am at it, is there a good way to check gravity with whole fruit in it? Do you just check it before you add the fruit. I should mention that is what I was going to do right before my hydrometer broke.
What strain did you pitch and when (I’m assuming a wit strain) ? Any activity in the airlock ? 94F would likely kill many strains. If you pitched Wyeast 3724 Saison you’re fine, but past that I would be pretty concerned about 1/ dead yeast or 2/ a beer that is incredibly hot and solventy from fusel alcohols (produced by a hot fermentation).
Also, it’s much better to add fruit to a secondary fermenter after primary fermentation is done, because a lot of the fruit aroma/character can get driven out the airlock with the turbulence of primary fermentation, where the secondary fermentation from the fruit only is less intense.
Well, the phenolic character common to the yeast would be greatly exaggerated and, as I mentioned, there likely would be a solventy, ‘hot’ alcohol character from the production of fusel alcohols which form in overly warm fermentations (and can cause headaches). Head retention could suffer as well. I would just wait it out and see what you end up with at this point - if it’s undrinkable, obviously dump it. But while not optimal by a good bit, it might be drinkable. Let us know what happens. Good luck !
OTOH, Belgian strains are often more tolerant of higher fermentation temps than other yeasts and tend to produce less fusels in my experience, but not pitched as hot as you pitched. Please post your results though.
I am hoping for the best . So even if I got the temp down In few hours, it seems like I am already in trouble. I recall this happening toe a few years ago and all was fine, but I am much better now and I wonder if I will notice. Ohh well, guess I will have to try another batch to see what happens
I don’t think 94 degrees is too hot to kill any yeast. You have to be up about 120 for that. I do think it is a really bad idea to pitch that warm but nothing you can really do about it except be thankful it was a belgian.
I will agree to that, Belgians type brews are the only ones I ever want to have those any of these flavors … Yet I sigh at the stupidity that let to me pitching the yeast when I did. Still going to drink and enjoy whatever comes my way.
Wow, that really speaks to the flexibility of some of the things we freak out about. I’m very picky about my yeast. I won’t buy if its more that 30 days old, and I ice it in a cooler and hurry home. Its good to know that I could leave it on the dash in the sun for a couple hours and still be ok. I won’t, but good to know.
I also chill my wort below fermentation temp routinely. Pitch temp, to me, means less than the temp you intend to start fermentation at.
When I originally pitched the yeast, I knew I would not kill it. I just got myself into a time crunch. I had decided to forgo my tried and true wort chilling procedure for a different technique. When it did not work, I had 5 gallons of wort with barely pasteurized raspberries in an open bucket. I was either going to leave it unattended for 7 to 9 hours uncovered with two kids in the house or pitch yeast, cover, and rapidly cool in basement. Which is what I did. Of corse as soon as I did that I regretted it. I had been up all night and just made a bad call. At this point I realized I needed to lean a few things and came to you guys.
Well I kind of winged it based on memory from previous success, but all the recipes I have worked with use fruit right at the beginning. I love what it does to the flavor. It comes off very natural just like a good balance between hops and malt. I don’t like overly flavored fruit beers ie Sam Adams cherry wheat( I really dislike that beer). Anyway the idea is to get the fruit over 160 before chilling and putting into the wort and pitching. Then after about 5 days you strain out the fruit and rack to secondary.
That’s one of those things that gets passed around without any evidence. If that were true then all yeast would die every summer. At least here, where the summer can go over 100F for a month or two straight.
Yeah, I think it’s probably something I picked up from one the sub-par brewing books or articles back in the 90s and it stuck in my head. I guess if it taught me to be extra sure to pitch and ferment cool, it could be worse.
SO … the beer turned out quite well, the swamp cooler must have saved the day? It is getting a lot of attention and being drunk very vast. Three different people have tasted it and stated it tasted like a lighter Frambrose minus the sour. I can only conclude that if there are off flavors, they are covered up well. Yet I must say, given its very smooth finish ( thanks to low hops and 2 lbs of honey), I am surprised I cannot detect any. So this brings me a few points/questions,
Given my risk for off flavor, when would I taste them in this particular beer? When I smell it, at the beginning, throughout, after I swallow etc?
I used honey to create a dry smooth finish and thus one of my biggest fears was that this would get over shadowed by off flavors. Yet what I got was similar to a previous cru ( the base for this raspberry) that I have made, very mild all but unnoticeable esters with a tiny bit of spice to bring it home. But with the cru the fermentation temp never got past 66 and took forever ( two months… I only used one starter ). I know this wit strain is known for low ester with mild spice flavor, but I still feel like I got away with murder. Has anyone has similar experiences with this yeast? Is this what I should have expected?
Here is my Ingredient list:
5 lbs Briess Pilsen light
2 lbs Weyerman pale wheat malt
2 lbs organic wildflower honey ( could care less about organic, but wildflower definitely has a different taste)
1 oz whole Hallertauer hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Hallertauer hops whole flavor
1/2 Hallertauer hops ( aroma)
5 lbs of raspberries held a little over 160 for 20 minutes before being added post boil