Fermenting NB's Black IPA - Temp to Finish Primary?

Yeast & Fermentation
1

Brewed NB’s Black IPA Kit 5/18. Wyeast 1272. 1.8L starter. Pitched at about 75-76 degrees.

Swamp cooler cooled during fermentation with temp reading on “fermametor” averaging 63 degrees and never hitting 66. Fermentation was fairly storong, but not crazy. Did not need blow off tube. Fermenting in 6.5 gal bucket.

Present gravity 1.0244. Krausen still present. Very little air lock activity.

Question:

  1. I would like to dry it out a bit more. Should I just wait it out and try to keep it at 62ish degrees. Or, bring stop putting frozen bottles of water in the swamp cooler so the temp comes up a few degrees?

  2. After keeping the temp at 63ish for most of primary fermentation, can I let the temp come up to basement temp (high temp about 73 degrees) without adversely affecting the tates of the beer?

Thanks all.

2

Extract kit? You’re probably very close to FG. Raise the temp a few degrees and you could shave off a few more points but you won’t be able to dry it out without adding more fermentables, such as sugar, honey or the like.

All of my beers are temperature controlled until about 90% of fermentation is complete. Then I let it free rise to room temp (sometimes in the 80’s) to condition for awhile before cold crashing and kegging. There are no adverse effects to having beer get to room temp as long as you don’t leave it there for a long time. The warmer temps help to get all the fermentable sugars chewed through and flavors meld quicker. I’ve only noticed improvement in my beer since doing this.

3

I brewed the same beer last February (2011). OG 1.078 - FG 1.020. Don’t think you’ll get your FG much lower than it is now with that kit… especially considering the extract.

What you really want to do is pitch your yeast into cooler wort than what you’re doing now. Try to pitch a few degrees cooler than what you want to ferment at. Then after a few days of fermentation (3-5 days), you can raise the temperature a few degrees to help the yeast finish up and maybe drop the FG a little. You don’t really want to be pitching warmer then cooling down.

My standard practice is to cool my wort to a few degrees below where I want to ferment and pitch the yeast. Get the fermentor in my fermentation fridge and keep it set just a few degrees below where I want it to ferment at. I usually set the temp controller 3-5 degrees lower. After a few days (3-7 days depending on the beer) I’ll raise the temp a few degrees and will continue to raise it every day until its up to room temp (only takes 2-3 days) and then I just pull the fermentor out of the fridge and let it sit at room temps for another 1-3 weeks… again depending on style and ABV.