Pitching

Well started my first batch and this is what happened. Chilled my wort down to 78 then pitched in the dry yeast (danstar) I had the probe in the wort for the chill and then taped the probe to the bucket and it read 88. Fermentation seemed to start right away. After a few hours it started to go fast and furious. This morning it was still going like crazy. The therm reads 90.is this normal.

Yes and no. Depending on how you chilled your wort, it could have stratified and been 78 where you were measuring but been a lot hotter at other places, resulting in an average temp at 88. If you pitched you yeast at 88F and kept it in a warm area, it could easily climb up into the 90s. Hotter temperatures will make the yeast go like gangbusters, and the fermentation will finish very fast. Unfortunately, it also makes them dirty workers, and they will produce a lot of undesirable compounds that you won’t like having in your beer.

Try to cool things off somewhat, though I suspect that what is done is done. For most ales, you get the best flavor profile by keeping the wort temperature in the low 60s. And you should always cool your wort to fermentation temperature or a bit below before pitching your yeast.

Keep going with this one, worst case it will still be beer, but learn from the mistake and know the next one will be better.

well you have made a vary popular newbe mistake, one that will most likely give your beer a off taste that you will not want any one to know about. that being said I used to pitch at mid 70’s and spent 3or 4 months trying to figure out where those off flavors were coming from. you IMO should never pitch above 70 degrees. I pitch at 62-68. don’t follow the instructions on the yeast packs, they work for science not beer.
when you said 90 degrees in the fermenter this makes me think its to late for beer, cool it down slowly and let it ferment out for 3 weeks maybe you can drink it after it ages for a long time.
good luck on your next brew and don’t give up yet.

The room it was in overnight was only 60 so I thought it would cool down. I moved it to my cellar at around 55. If you pitch at 60 what would the bucket temp be during fermentation?

That depends on what is the gravity of the wort and the yeast strain you are using, but in general you would likely see the wort temperature rise 3-5F if you pitched at 60 and kept it in a 60F room. Pretty much ideal for most ales.

Sounds like you have a good plan for the next brew. :cheers:

It’s only about 18 hours into fermentation. You think it would help if I put the fermenter in a cold water bath?

You are in a bit of a quandary. Yes, you want to cool it down, but you don’t want to cool it down so fast that you shock the yeast into stalling out. That’s why grainy suggested you cool it slowly. I also agree with him that most of the damage is likely done by this point. In a normal fermentation, the first 48 hours is the most critical, but by fermenting so hot you’ve accelerated that schedule.

But it won’t hurt to try to cool it slowly as per grainy’s suggestion. If you can chill it down to 70 over the course of a day, that would be ideal. If it isn’t achievable, you know better for next time.

everything seemed to be going to smoothly. I wasn’t going to do a secondary but maybe I will just to free up the primary so I can get another one going

Thank all. I started another post asking about maybe adding something to help the taste