Fermentation temperature?

[Texasboy1894]

Hello. I have been making a sour mash corn whiskey for a few weeks now and I just wanted to see if me fermenting the mash outside instead of inside would be acceptable. It would just be easier for me since that's where my operation is based. The recipe is 7 or 8 lbs cracked corn, 10 lbs sugar, and 4 cups of malted barley.

Now I live in southeast Texas and yesterday it got to 101 in my backyard. Is this temperature acceptable for fermenting? If I leave it in the shade will it be better? I know warmer temperatures make for a quicker ferment but is this too hot?

Thanks

[Prairiepiss]

I would say. Yes that is to hot. But it depends more on the yeast then the recipe. Each yeast have a optimum working temp range. Bakers yeast would be better around 80ish. To low they will slow and go dormant. To high they will die. And somewhere in-between optimum and to hot. Will stress them out. Making a crappy drink.

[Jimbo]

100 is too hot for any worthwhile yeast. The highest temp yeast worth using is some Distillers yeast strained for 86-90F. http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/upl ... 6/DADY.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow 100F will even have that yeast throwing crap in your drink tho.

If you wanna call that a 'Sour Mash Corn Whiskey', leave out the sugar. Not trying to be a snob here, but if we call our drinks whatever we want then it just confuses the hell out of the masses. Youre making moonshine. 'Corn Whiskey' is, according to regulation, 80% corn minimum (fermentables).

[Prairiepiss]

It's a corn sugarhead sour mash. But the masses are cornfused anyway. If they can't take the time to research what it is. Then screw them. LOL

[heartcut]

I ferment in an air conditioned garage at ~ 80degF. The AC went off after a power failure during the summer once (Houston) for a weekend when we were gone. The yeast started working again but the distillate tasted like ass. Ended up refluxing it with the feints.

[Texasboy1894]

Yea I figured it was too hot. Inside it stays. Thanks for the responses. And yes, I am aware that it isn't true whiskey.

[Bubbas55]

ok i know the yeast tells the story.... my basement runs about 70 degrees... too cool for most ... my shop runs 85 to 95 most of the time... too hot???... thinking about a carboy warmer for the basement
newby here
thanks
bubba

[Jimbo]

What are you making? 70 is perfect for beer yeasts

[Prairiepiss]

ok i know the yeast tells the story.... my basement runs about 70 degrees... too cool for most ... my shop runs 85 to 95 most of the time... too hot???... thinking about a carboy warmer for the basement
newby here
thanks
bubba

Wrap it up in a blanket. The yeast make their own heat.

And step on over to the welcome center and vibe us a proper intro.

[Dnderhead]

70f is not that bad.

[F6Hawk]

I would say. Yes that is to hot. But it depends more on the yeast then the recipe. Each yeast have a optimum working temp range. Bakers yeast would be better around 80ish. To low they will slow and go dormant. To high they will die. And somewhere in-between optimum and to hot. Will stress them out. Making a crappy drink.

Not arguing this, PP, cuz I have read it on here many a time. But I wanna ask WHY? When I bake, or hydrate yeast, I do so at 105~115°. Why will anything over 80° produce a nasty wash, yet breads taste delicious?

[rad14701]

I would say. Yes that is to hot. But it depends more on the yeast then the recipe. Each yeast have a optimum working temp range. Bakers yeast would be better around 80ish. To low they will slow and go dormant. To high they will die. And somewhere in-between optimum and to hot. Will stress them out. Making a crappy drink.

Not arguing this, PP, cuz I have read it on here many a time. But I wanna ask WHY? When I bake, or hydrate yeast, I do so at 105~115°. Why will anything over 80° produce a nasty wash, yet breads taste delicious?

When making bread the yeast are active for a very short period of time so they don't get much of a chance to get drunk to the point of puking and shitting themselves at the same time... And if you were to get really drunk you'd be more apt to lose control of your bodily functions in extreme heat before you would in more moderate temperatures...

Just sayin...

[cornsqueezer]

LMAO Rad you have a way of explaining things!!!!!!

[rad14701]

LMAO Rad you have a way of explaining things!!!!!!

Sometimes I get accused of talking down to people so I figured I might as well dumb it down to street level for a change... Just kidding... Maybe...

[Prairiepiss]

What Rad said.

[F6Hawk]

Well, that certainly makes sense. time. And I have some spare time tonight, so I'm a-gunna try this. Put some yeast in 80° water, and some in 105° water. And I'll watch them little buggers and see what they all do. I have never seen a yeast take a shit before, so this might be a learnin' experience! Since it might take a while, I might's well pull up a bottle of month-old SF and get comfy...

[Zeotropic]

This seems like a good thread to post my question in.
I have been wrapping my fermenter because I had it in mind that hot fast fermentation was good for my whiskey. Well I have a hard time remembering numbers so I have been fermenting with red star bakers or red star dady at 90°f to 95°f and I just started rereading all the threads on yeast temp and I am finding that is too high.
My question is how bad is that going to be for flavor?

[AZJarhead]

Zeotropic, really can't answer your question being a Newby, but I have found a way to keep my fermentation at 80F. "The Brew Belt" from milehigh distilling; https://milehidistilling.com/product/brewbelt-20w/
It keeps my bucket at 79.9F when I use it.

B8A6ECA4-4FA9-445F-A099-1686656EE589.jpeg (22.09 KiB) Viewed 5697 times

[Zeotropic]

Zeotropic, really can't answer your question being a Newby, but I have found a way to keep my fermentation at 80F. "The Brew Belt" from milehigh distilling; https://milehidistilling.com/product/brewbelt-20w/
It keeps my bucket at 79.9F when I use it.
B8A6ECA4-4FA9-445F-A099-1686656EE589.jpeg

I keep my house at 78 during the day so I don't really have a problem keeping it warm enough.

[howie]

apparently, specs obtained for lowans instant dried yeast (very popular in Oz)
rehydration temps of 30C (86F)
Pitching 30-35C (86-95F)
pH of wort 4.5-6.0, suggest 6.0 (not sure on this bit, seems high )
Fermentation temperature 30-37C (86-98.6F)

2nd hand fridge, inkbird 308 WiFi and heat belt.
set at 32c (90F) and forget.

[NZChris]

Zeotropic, really can't answer your question being a Newby, but I have found a way to keep my fermentation at 80F. "The Brew Belt" from milehigh distilling; https://milehidistilling.com/product/brewbelt-20w/
It keeps my bucket at 79.9F when I use it.

Read the OP. This thread is about ambient temperatures being too high.

[NZChris]

Old but working refrigerators and freezers can be re-purposed to control fermenter temperatures 365 days a year by adding heating elements and controlling both heating and cooling with cheap digital controllers.

[Twisted Brick]

This seems like a good thread to post my question in.
I have been wrapping my fermenter because I had it in mind that hot fast fermentation was good for my whiskey. Well I have a hard time remembering numbers so I have been fermenting with red star bakers or red star dady at 90°f to 95°f and I just started rereading all the threads on yeast temp and I am finding that is too high.
My question is how bad is that going to be for flavor?

What temp is too high? Only you can make that call. A lot of distillers prefer the taste of whiskey fermented in cooler temps while others prefer the convenience (speed) of fermenting warm and learn to like the flavors a warmer-temp yeast produces. The published Red Star DADY upper limit is 90F so if you were to stay at 90F or below I think you wouldn’t have to worry about a stressed-induced flavor shift. If you do find your whiskey flavor is affected by warmer temps you’ll have to modify your fermentation environment or find a more hi-temp tolerant yeast. What if you had never read that those higher temps are ‘too high’?

[Zeotropic]

This seems like a good thread to post my question in.
I have been wrapping my fermenter because I had it in mind that hot fast fermentation was good for my whiskey. Well I have a hard time remembering numbers so I have been fermenting with red star bakers or red star dady at 90°f to 95°f and I just started rereading all the threads on yeast temp and I am finding that is too high.
My question is how bad is that going to be for flavor?

What temp is too high? Only you can make that call. A lot of distillers prefer the taste of whiskey fermented in cooler temps while others prefer the convenience (speed) of fermenting warm and learn to like the flavors a warmer-temp yeast produces. The published Red Star DADY upper limit is 90F so if you were to stay at 90F or below I think you wouldn’t have to worry about a stressed-induced flavor shift. If you do find your whiskey flavor is affected by warmer temps you’ll have to modify your fermentation environment or find a more hi-temp tolerant yeast. What if you had never read that those higher temps are ‘too high’?

Thanks for the reply that all makes a lot of good sense. If I had never read that it was too high I would go on doing what I'm doing because it ferments like crazy it's done in a few days and smells great when it's fermenting and at least some of the batches are turning out good but I have had some weird tastes and I don't know if it was the oats or if it was mad yeast from being too dang hot because my last batch turned out a bit funky flavor. I think I fermented the first two to three days at closer to 95°f.
I'm wondering what are the flavors that I would expect from stressing the yeast with high temperatures? Can anyone describe that clearly?
The reason I wonder is I'm curious if the weird flavor that I'm not particularly fond of in one of my whiskeys is from stressed yeast.
I'm pretty sure I won't have a problem from now on because when I pitch the yeast at 95 degrees I'm not going to cover the fermenter I will leave it uncovered till the next morning and I'm pretty sure that's going to get my temperature right into the mid to high 80s which seems to be where most people like it and well I'll know in a few years what I like best. [emoji16]

[Zeotropic]

Old but working refrigerators and freezers can be re-purposed to control fermenter temperatures 365 days a year by adding heating elements and controlling both heating and cooling with cheap digital controllers.

Yeah I am actually Refrigeration tech so I plan to build a fermentation chamber in my garage that will hold at least one 30 gallon barrel and I'm trying to decide between recirculated air to control the temperature or a coil submerged in the bucket with heated and cooled water flowing through it.
But I guess that's really for another thread and it's going to be a while before I get to that point.

[Deplorable]

Old but working refrigerators and freezers can be re-purposed to control fermenter temperatures 365 days a year by adding heating elements and controlling both heating and cooling with cheap digital controllers.

Yeah I am actually Refrigeration tech so I plan to build a fermentation chamber in my garage that will hold at least one 30 gallon barrel and I'm trying to decide between recirculated air to control the temperature or a coil submerged in the bucket with heated and cooled water flowing through it.
But I guess that's really for another thread and it's going to be a while before I get to that point.

If fermenting in plastic, I'd lean towards a submersible coil. For a SS fermenter, I'd go with an ambient air recirculating system.
Plastic doesn't transfer heat worth a shit.

[NZChris]

I often use a plastic fermenter in an old fridge with a fan connected to the controller to move the air. A fast ferment might be two or three degrees above the setpoint in the fridge, not enough to be a problem. I monitor the temperature difference to get an idea of how the ferment is progressing.

[Twisted Brick]

Yeah I am actually Refrigeration tech so I plan to build a fermentation chamber in my garage that will hold at least one 30 gallon barrel and I'm trying to decide between recirculated air to control the temperature or a coil submerged in the bucket with heated and cooled water flowing through it.
But I guess that's really for another thread and it's going to be a while before I get to that point.

Uh, I know about that! I picked up these insulated commercial door cutoffs to make a fermentation chamber over two years ago. Been too busy with building, malting and distilling to even think about finishing them.
.

[Zeotropic]

Yeah I am actually Refrigeration tech so I plan to build a fermentation chamber in my garage that will hold at least one 30 gallon barrel and I'm trying to decide between recirculated air to control the temperature or a coil submerged in the bucket with heated and cooled water flowing through it.
But I guess that's really for another thread and it's going to be a while before I get to that point.

Uh, I know about that! I picked up these insulated commercial door cutoffs to make a fermentation chamber over two years ago. Been too busy with building, malting and distilling to even think about finishing them.
.

IMG_1685.jpg

That'll probably be my story in a couple years from now. [emoji16]