Hey guys, I am new to the art of brewing infact it's my first time ever. I have a batch of Mr Beer's northwest pale ale brewing and it's into it's 8th day of fermentation. Since i live in India the temperature is quite warm and I'm worried about the fluctuations in the temperature. It's averaging about 75°f on the fermenter's thermometer. So i wrapped a wet towel around it and the temperature dropped to 68°f. Will this affect the flavour of the beer? Thanks.
Recommend you post this in the "homebrew" forum as this is the general "beer talk" forum. But, to answer your question, the flavors yeast imparts to the beer (good or bad) will be more pronounced at higher temps...fusels, esters, diacetyl. For a hefeweizen, 75 degrees might be just what you want. For a pale ale, I'm usually at 65. Since it is day 8, most of the fermentation is probably complete, so I wouldn't worry about it. When you finally drink the beer is when you'll be able to tell how it all worked out.
By the 8th day. I would not be worried so much about temp. It is in the first couple days of your pitching them where temperature is the biggest contributor to how your yeast behaves with what you give them. Whatever it is they did. They did in about the first two days of your pitching them into the environment you pitched them into. If that temp was 75ºf. You will have fusels because they worked about 5ºf higher than that. If it was 68ºf or under. You should be clear.
What yeast? Was it SA-05 or something else? Some are more tolerant of warm temperatures than others. May have to try matching beer styles with your conditions or just using a different yeast. There are some effective ways of bringing the temperature down without a lot of investment. You want the lower temperature early in the process, the yeast will also increase temperature through its own processes. So if you pitch yeast at 75 it may rise up to 78/80 which will give some off flavors.
I'm not too sure what yeast it was. It came with the kit and it had nothing written on the packet. But thanks anyway i learnt something very important. Will pay more attention next time!
MrB is rumored to use Coopers 'All Weather' yeast Temperature range: 58 - 80°F Not too awful at the low end of the range. Delightful at the top end if you crave the flava-flav of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum.
As mentioned, if there was damage done by the temperature, it’s already done. Your beer will still be drinkable, probably even good, just not AS good as it could be. Take notes, tweak it next time, and enjoy!
