First Partial Grain kit

[Keith]

Well my grains are steeping for my Honey Brown. Smells some good in the kitchen! 7 mins til it's time to add the Honey, and Malt Extracts. Wife is gonna kill me. I figure I'd sneak it on while she ran out the door for a coffee haha.

I'm so damn excited for this kit!

[LeafMan66_67]

Good luck!

[Keith]

So far it seems pretty normal. Just need to stir during the boil.

[mr x]

We've all risked death and lived to tell the tale.

[Keith]

We've all risked death and lived to tell the tale.

Boiling hops are in! house is hot as hell! I'm so hearing about this tonight. Hopefully she's half cut or something lol.

[Rambo]

Good luck!

[Keith]

Other than the "Barn" smell as she called it. All was good. She even volunteered to clean the brew pot!

Altho I did a no no. I pitched the yeast too warm. Was about 34 when I pitched it, buddy showed up and I took a quick glance. Should I be overly concerned? It's down in the basement where it will ferment around 18.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

how quickly will it get down to 18? the biggest issue is that there will be huge flavour issues if it stays at that temperature for long. could you fill the bath up with cold water and set it in there to cool it faster?

[Keith]

I don't expect it to stay long at that temp. What type of flavor issues could I see?

[Woody]

That is really warm. Take Cornelius Alphonse's advice and get that baby on an ice bath in the tub. Get it down to 18 fast as it will ferment even warmer. So many off flavours can occur at those temperatures. One example and I cut and pasted this from John Palmer's How to Brew:

Estery / Fruity
"Ales are supposed to be slightly fruity, and Belgian and German wheat beers are expected to have banana flavor components, but sometimes a beer comes along that could flag down a troop of monkeys. Esters are produced by the yeast and different yeast strains will produce different amounts and types. In general, higher fermentation temperatures produce more esters. Next batch, contrive to lower the fermentation temperature by a few degrees."

[GuingesRock]

The first three days are the most critical for esters and it will get a bit warmer still during fermentation and will stay high for 3 days and then slowly cool.

If it isn’t practical for you to cool it, you could carry it through. It’s just possible that you may like the beer with those flavours, and at the very least you will learn a lot about esters and the results from high temperature fermentation, You also may find higher alcohols like fusel alcohols at those temperatures. Fusel alcohols are appropriate for a fine scotch but not supposed to have too much in beer.

I’m talking from experience here

I fermented several batches in the low 30’s (only because I didn’t know better) and I didn’t turn my nose up at any of them. JTMWhyte kindly tried one of my beers, and I think that one was also fermented too high. He said it was nothing like any beer he had had from a home brewer before almost like a Scottish Ale, he liked it and wouldn’t change a thing, apart from adding more hop aroma. I hope I quoted him right.

I wonder if anyone else has had any semi-positive experiences from fermenting at higher temperatures. I’m not trying to recommend it, and I doubt it would win any prizes at a competition.

I’d be very interested to hear if you end up liking the beer.

[Keith]

haha yea. Took me about 2 hours to drop it down to 24 degrees. Best I could do were those tiny ice packs. Time will tell how it turns out lol. But definately something I'll need to watch for in the future. May not be as noticable in a brown.