From 76 Degrees Down to 66 Degrees, your Opinion Please...

[RLinNH]

I Pitched a 10 Gallon Batch (was shooting for an 11 Gallon Batch but I boiled to hard) last night of my Left Over Brown Ale recipe. I am using US-05 that was in a 1 pint Starter for 2 days. I did this for each of the bags of Yeast. I knew whan I pitched that the basement was to warm, but I guess I forgot about the temperature rise from the Active Primary Fermentation. So, this morning I was at 76 degrees, with a shat load of activity in the Blow Off Jug in both Carboys. I tried, on 5 attempts, to do the almost freezing T-Shirt gig, to no avail. I did not drop any temps what so ever. So, I went drastic. I have a 150 quart cooler that I keep my Grains in in the basement. I took the grains out, filled the cooler with 46 degree Well Water, and I dunked both Carboys into the Cold Water. I went from 76 degrees to 66 degrees in a matter of 10 minutes. Questions are these...

1-Think I aquired any off flavors from the 18 hours of high temperature Primary fermentation?

2- How much stress did I put on the yeast by dropping the temp so severely in such a short amount of time? I still have a the same amount, if not more, Activity in my Blow off Jugs.

And, as always, thatnks for the input my fellow Brewahhhzzzz!!!

[mr x]

I don't think you'll have too many problems with off flavours from 18 hours, considering there would be a bit of lag time there before fermentation started, and I am assuming you pitched a bit cooler.

[Mylo]

I disagree with Mr. X. It sounds like the "acclaimation phase" was already complete and fermentation started. Both Jamil and Doc (and perhaps others) have said on the BN that the very first part of fermentation is critical, and if too warm - a lot of yeast derived "off" flavors and by-products could be thrown off. If it is extreme amount, then the yeast will not be able to re-process these during the conditioning process. That is the basis for their "pitch cold" belief.

Bottom line, what you did was not ideal. Perhaps you caught it early enough and the beer will be just fine. Crashing it down as fast as you did might mean that some of the yeast will have already flocculated out. As long as you get good attenuation from the remaining yeast that didn't - you'll be fine.

I wouldn't worry about it. The beer will probably be fine - maybe not excellent. At least you will know what you have to do differently next time.


Mylo

[ColdBraue]

Yeah you may have gotten a tad more hot alcohol than you would have desired, but bring your beer up to around 75 again for a few days near the end of fermentation, and a little bit of those alcohols should esterify. Not many, but it may help clean up strange flavors from that hot initial fermentation.
Cheers!

[mr x]

I don't see a lot of hot alcohol potential here. There may be more of an ester issue. It depends on pitch temperature and how long the beer spent at 76 degrees. From start, 18 hours into fermentation is not a major percentage of the fermentation time to develop fusels, and if the beer rose to that temperature from a much lower start temperature, I think your beer will taste fine. I've done this myself - not the best scenario, but the beer was still excellent.