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Physics, chemistry and biology of brewing. The causes and the effects.

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slothrob
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temp

Post by slothrob »

Just a note, I ferment almost every ale at 60 or 62oF, including WLP002, a mean floccer, with quite a bit of success, IMHO. At the peak of activity, a lot of these may hit 64oF for a day or two, perhaps even 65oF, briefly. My English Ales could probably be a bit more estery.

I was assuming that the OP continued to cool the wort after discovering that he had pitched at 90oF. If so, he might still get a drinkable, if less than ideal, beer. He will also benefit from the fact that the first batch always seems to taste better than it actually does, thanks to the magic of making your own beer!
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river water brewing
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Thanks so much and one more question

Post by river water brewing »

WOW, all of your replies have been very helpfull!!! well i guess this first batch has been a big learning lesson, but at least i have that out of the way now LOL

i did a gravity test on 2/13 and it was down to 1.020, and it tased sort of bland, so your right it may be a dead batch but we will give it a try and see what happens

ANOTHER QUESTION
what kind of airlock action should i expect durring the conditioning phase? i am about 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes between bubbles, is this normal or is this a sign i put the yeast through too much stress in the bigining with those high temps?
JG
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Post by slothrob »

"Conditioning" is usually a term reserved for the carbonation step, but as long as you are seeing bubbles you are probably still in primary fermentation. That will continue until the gravity stops dropping (plus maybe a couple more days to finish off some fermentation byproducts.) Bubbling probably just means the beer isn't finished yet.

After that is "secondary", if you choose to do that step(I often don't), which is essentially a clearing or brightening step, though it does give your beer a chance to age properly, as well.

If your only problem is that the beer is a little bland, you may have dodged the biggest potential problems of hot fermentation. Carbonation will do a lot to bring the flavors more in line with what you're used to, if you don't have a lot of experience with cask conditioned ales.
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