Temperature

mr.oiseau

Hi All,

First brew kit last night. Temperature was about 31 degrees when i added the yeast - will this be okay?

DVD said most important thing is add yeast asap no matter the temp so I did but reading here looks like thats wrong? Also didnt tell me to stir it but reading here i should?

Foamed up overnight and took reading of 1038 or so after adding (but not stirring) yeast last night

Any advice would be great - just to know i'm on right track

BeerNut

mr.oiseau wrote: »

Temperature was about 31 degrees when i added the yeast - will this be okay?

That's on the high side. I've got away with it in the past, your luck may vary. If you get weird funky flavours in the beer, that's probably why.

mr.oiseau wrote: »

Any advice would be great

Leave it alone and don't worry. If you have done anything wrong it's too late to fix it. Just let the yeast do its thing and don't touch anything for about a week when you should take an interim gravity reading.

mr.oiseau

Thanks - will let ye know if its turns out okay.

Last question is; got the brew heating belt too - am i better to leave temp drop down to 20 degrees or should i keep it high cos i started high? Even as i write it sounds like a stupid question Just have a blanket wrapped around it for now - no belt

BeerNut

To be honest I wouldn't bother about any of that. 18C is ideal fermenting temperature, and yeast will generate some of its own heat. It's better to err on the cool side.

mr.oiseau

Spot on - thanks again

Sky King

BeerNut wrote: »

don't touch anything for about a week when you should take an interim gravity reading.

Do you return the contents of the reading glass to the fermenter or discard?

Assuming everything is carefully sanitised of course.

BeerNut

Return, except for the last 10mls or so, which are sent for quality control analysis (I drink them).

Once something is over about 2% ABV the infection risk is much less.

DeadSkin

mr.oiseau wrote: »

Hi All,

First brew kit last night. Temperature was about 31 degrees when i added the yeast - will this be okay?

DVD said most important thing is add yeast asap no matter the temp so I did but reading here looks like thats wrong? Also didnt tell me to stir it but reading here i should?

Foamed up overnight and took reading of 1038 or so after adding (but not stirring) yeast last night

Any advice would be great - just to know i'm on right track

From your post I see you also have the Coopers kit :pac:. I don't know if matters, for what it's worth I didn't stir it in. From here he stirs it in.
I have bottled mine & now looking into a second brew.

wet-paint

BeerNut wrote: »

Return, except for the last 10mls or so, which are sent for quality control analysis (I drink them).

Once something is over about 2% ABV the infection risk is much less.

This might be a stupid question, but how do you return it to the fermenter? I thought it's important to keep oxygen out of the brew, so how do you pour in the sample without exposing hte beer to the air?

BeerNut

I just pour it in. Exposing the beer to air isn't a problem: there's a protective layer of CO2 on top and more CO2 being pushed out all the time. The danger is with splashing, where air gets mixed in. The splash caused by pouring 10mls of beer into a 20L bucket is minimal.

wet-paint

Regarding the temp, the room I've now the bucket in is quite cold, it ferments at around fifteen degrees without the brew belt plugged in, and around 22 with it on.

Which temp is closer to ideal - should I leave it plugged in or out?

BeerNut

I'd be inclined to go without and just give it more time.

wet-paint

Cool, cheers.

Ronan cork

Personally I would never bother putting the sample back in as I think it's an unnecessary risk for such small quantities but as a beginner myself I'm kind of nervous about messing it up to say the least!

BeerNut

Ronan cork wrote: »

Personally I would never bother putting the sample back in as I think it's an unnecessary risk for such small quantities but as a beginner myself I'm kind of nervous about messing it up to say the least!

It's like raising children, isn't it? The more of them you have the more you can just let them sort themselves out

By the time you're taking the first hydrometer reading fermentation is usually more or less finished and the beer has enough alcohol in it to kill lots of bugs. The big danger period for infection is between the wort cooling and the yeast taking hold and colonising it. After that, the risk decreases.

willabur

wet-paint wrote: »

Regarding the temp, the room I've now the bucket in is quite cold, it ferments at around fifteen degrees without the brew belt plugged in, and around 22 with it on.

Which temp is closer to ideal - should I leave it plugged in or out?

try moving the belt further up the fermenter to get an intermediate temperature

Sky King

OR try putting a small bit of insulation (like a scarf or something) between the belt and the fermentation bucket to dampen the belt's heating effect a bit.

wet-paint

Left it where it was, wrapped a blanket around it, and it's now hovering at nineteen. Happy out.

leggit

I'm not much of a temperature watcher except for at the very beginning as I like to pitch the yeast at around 22-23 degrees so it would be a balancing act with hot and cold water as I filled up the ferementor.

Once that's done though I leave it alone an fermentation keeps the temp up around 18-19 degrees for the first 4-5 days or until fermentation finishes, then it slowly drops down to where it is now at around 14 degrees after 19 days (dropped down to 12 over winter) but I always leave it for 3 weeks before bottling and the brew always turns out great.

I pretty much leave the thing alone for a solid 3 weeks, no hydrometer readings, no lifting the lid for a sniff!!