So I did a quick Premium Bitter today and realized I don’t have a way to ferment it right @ 67*.
I have a faux pilsner going in my ferm fridge set at 60*. The ambient temp in there also happens to be 60*. The pils is in the midst of high krausen (US-05) and is bubbling pretty regularly. I checked the gravity, and it had only dropped from 1.058 to 1.045 (if it was further through fermentation I would have moved up to the first floor of my place with a pretty regular ambient temp of 65).
My question is, is it better to ferment my premium bitter (1L starter of Nottingham) at an ambient temp of 60* in my fermentation fridge, 58* in my basement, or 65* on my first floor? I want some ester production, but I feel like if I have it @ 65 degrees ambient, the ferment could take it up north of 70*, and I don’t want fusels. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Leave it upstairs until fermentation starts to take off and warm up, then bring it downstairs. If you can wrap it in something to slow the rate it cools. When it starts to cool down as fermentation winds down, bring it back up. You should be able to crudely control the temperature more or less wherever you want it just by timing when you move it back and forth. Little bit of a pain in the butt, but the most crucial phase of fermentation only lasts a handful of days.
so basically, a higher pitch temp, then try to wrassle it down as it gets going. I think that will bump up diacetyl production, but your suggestion to bring it back up essentially as a diacetyl rest is a good one. Thanks, I’ll post back results.
I’ve used more or less that method in my house (I have a similar upstairs vs downstairs temperature situation) with results i’ve been happy with. Hopefully it works out for you too.
I know it’s too late, but I would have done the faux pils at 58° in the basement. I pitched US-05 at 50° last week, left it at 55° ambient for 2 days then brought it up to 60° ambient for 6 days, just moved it to 70° today and it’s still chugging along nicely.
I’ve never purposely tried to introduce esters into a beer through fermenting temperature, I mostly brew American style ales though. If it were me I’d put it in the fermentation fridge at 60° then move it to the warmer spot after you get a good active fermentation going.
I’d go with the cooler temp for a day or two then move it upstairs to get it to finish as much as possible. This is exactly what I did with my ESB fermented with S04. Its sitting in the kitchen right now.
[quote=“Glug Master”]I know it’s too late, but I would have done the faux pils at 58° in the basement. I pitched US-05 at 50° last week, left it at 55° ambient for 2 days then brought it up to 60° ambient for 6 days, just moved it to 70° today and it’s still chugging along nicely.
I’ve never purposely tried to introduce esters into a beer through fermenting temperature, I mostly brew American style ales though. If it were me I’d put it in the fermentation fridge at 60° then move it to the warmer spot after you get a good active fermentation going.[/quote]
Not too late! This is actually what I ended up doing. Pulled the faux pils out of the fridge and set it in the basement, with an ambient temp of 60 or so, fermenter temp climbed to around 64, so I put it in front of our dehumifier fan with a wet towel to try to keep it cool. Will probably bring it upstairs in a day or so when the happy-brewer-bubbles start to slow.
Stuck the bitter in the ferm fridge set @ 67, and it a good thing its in there, it was cranking away about 10 hours after pitching (as was the fridge’s compressor). I’m not sure ambient temps would have kept it below 69-70.
Also re: starters, I should have specified, the Notty was top cropped from a sweet stout, so I wanted to make sure there were enough viable cells and that they were somewhat active. I probably borderline overpitched, but I figured it was better to err on the side of caution.
Wow. Came home for lunch and saw the faux pils had climbed to 66-67* while in front of the dehumidifier fan!! Put a wet towel around it. Though gravity had only dropped 10pts when I checked, hopefully this pitch of yeasts’ fusel and ester-making days (hours) are largely behind it.
