Beer Forum

I brewed JZ's Belgian Golden Strong today and a pitched my yeast at about 80F. LONG STORY...

I put the bucket in my chest freezer and over a period of about 6 hours I got the brew down to 68. I had a pretty healthy starter and I was getting bubbles at about an hour and a half in. Am I going to get any bad effects from the fermentation starting at the 80F mark? Jamil says to get the temp up that far over the course of the week anyway, so I am guessing the 570 is pretty stable at these temp. Should I be worried about warm fusels or cleaning product tastes/smells?

RDWHAHB

Here's a status update...

I got home from work today and opened to my chest freezer to find fermentation chugging away at 68F, just like I wanted. I have a blowoff tube going into an gallon water jug half filled with a starsan mix. I put my nose up to the opening of the water jug to take a whiff and ,holy shit, I thought I was going to pass out. What ever odor or gas is coming out of the blow off is very strong, but I cannot pinpoint what it is. It is almost like it takes the air right out your lungs. Any ideas what this is? I am hoping this isn't fusels, but from what I have read, fusels don't get released through blowoff. I am really worried that those few hours at 80F may have ruined this batch. Is this normal? I am used to a slight veggie smell coming from an airlock, but I have also never used belgian yeast before.

"Takes the air right out of your lungs" sounds like CO2. Does it burn a bit too? No, not when you pee but when you breath it? sounds to me like you are fine, don't worry about it.

definitely burns...

Is that what co2 does?

Oh yeah. turns into carbonic acid in your lungs, nose, and eyes and that's what burns. try leaning into a chest freezer being used as a fermentation chest but make sure there is someone there to pull you out by the seat of your pants!

that also means your beer is fermenting nicely, so sleep well and be happy

DannyW wrote:make sure there is someone there to pull you out by the seat of your pants!

People die from falling into fermenters every year at wineries, because they pass out from the CO2.

ok so it is now day 9 of fermentation. I ramped up fermentation to 82 by putting my bucket in a rubbermaid container with water and an aquarium heater (great idea from the forum, by the way). I am still getting a good burp of bubbles from the blow off tube just about once every minute to a minute and a half. As I said in my earlier post, this beer was bubbling shortly after I pitched and it has been temp controlled the entire way. I was expecting visible signs of fermentation to be done by now. I know the Pope said we are shooting for like 90% attenuation on this style especially with the 3lbs of sugar so I am not too worried about it. I have never had a beer bubble this long and i was planning to crash the temp for a few days on day 10 and then keg, but I think I am going to have to wait now. I really hate opening the bucket to take a gravity reading so do you think I should just let it go until friday?

Also, JZ said to gradually ramp the temp to 82 over the course of a week to get the fruit notes from the yeast and to keep them working. I hit 80 on saturday and have been at 82 since sunday morning. Do I need to worry about off flavor from it being at 82 this long. Should I lower it back down or keep it chugging at 82?

Thanks,
Kevin