So I’ll preface with I’m a noobie… this is my first beer with some equipment that a friend who no longer brews gave me. I made the NB Nut Brown and pitched Wyeast 1098 about 72 hours ago. Visible active fermentation started after about 12 hours. The ambient room temp is about 67-69 degrees. Sticker temp on the fermenter has been creeping up and when I checked this morning, it was at about 75 degrees and almost all krausen has settled. Is it normal for 1098 to warm up this much and did it get too hot?
1st off, the beer will be fine. Don’t worry about it. 75 degrees is a little high for fermentation temps, but yes indeed, most yeast will produce enough heat during fermentation to raise the temp 4 or 5 degrees above ambient. Most home brewers will try to keep the fermenting temp below 70 to produce a cleaner beer as yeast will throw off a lot of esters than can provide a bunch of different and not always desirable flavors. The rule of thumb is to generally maintain your fermentation temps in the mid 60’s for at least the first day and a half on ale fermentations. After that, the yeast have gotten through the growth phase and the resultant ester production is far less of a problem. Be patient. Give the yeast time to finish their job. When you think the fermentation is done, take a gravity reading, then check it a day or two later to see if it has changed. If not, you’re good to bottle or keg. Enjoy the hobby, it’s kept me entertained for nearly 30 yrs. We’ll look forward to seeing your posts bigpete. Cheers.
Thanks Alewyfe! Appreciate the feedback and reassurance.
Next time you could try putting the fermenter in a cooler location of your house (if you have one).
Many brewers without a fermentation fridge for temperature control will utilize some other ways to keep their fermenters cooler. You could try putting a cold, wet t-shirt over the fermenter and aiming a fan at it to lower the temps a few degrees. Some even use a “swamp cooler” where they put the fermenter into a big plastic tub filled with water and pre-frozen ice jugs (empty liter bottles frozen) and swap them out when the temps start rising.
Just some things to consider for your next go round. There will be many brewdays ahead for you. So while this batch is conditioning in the bottle, get to brewin’ another!
Thanks brewinhard. I remembered that I have a small wine fridge that has been sitting unused for a few years. Looks like a fermentation chamber will be my next DIY project. :) It has a digital temp controller but it only has a range of 43-58. It’ll require a bit of modification to the controller but I think it will work fine.
If you buy a temp controller for brewing (Ranco, Johnson, and Auber all make good ones), you’ll plug the wine fridge into the controller, then the controller into the wall. This allows the controller to override the built in thermostat on the fridge. Sounds like a fairly affordable option if the fridge still works and is big enough to hold a fermenter. Many are. Temp control of fermentation is paramount to making great beer. Good luck!
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Temp control of fermentation is paramount to making great beer. Good luck!
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No doubt brother!