Brewing @ >30°C (86°F)

[sbaclimber]

So far (~1/2 dozen beers) I have been getting very good clarity and head retention in my IPAs...until the last one:


I have been working with the same basic equipment, process and recipe, mostly just fine tuning to improve my process and recipe. So, I was a bit surprised when my last beer to finish up turned out noticably cloudier than the previous brews and doesn't retain much of any head to speak of. Almost all of the previous brews produced great thick stable heads!
There are only two things with this brew that are significantly different to any previous brews...
1) I used Nugget instead of Magnum as my bittering hop. Amount and boil-time was the same though.
2) The weather was hot!

I don't really have any sort of temperature controlled area for fermentation / storage. As opposed to the "normal" summer room temperature of 20-25°C, this beer was subjected to 30°+ during fermentation, and not much less while conditioning. I am assuming this explains the increased cloudiness.
I can't really image that using Nugget instead of Magnum for bittering would kill the head retention though. :?
Could that possibly also have something to do with the rather warm fermentation / conditioning :?:
What is really weird, is this brew actually has a bit more CaraFoam than the earlier brews, so theoretically the head should be even better...

Anyone have any (other) ideas?

btw, here's basically the recipe (20l):
5.5 kg Pale Ale
0.5 kg CaraHell
1 kg CaraPils/Foam
0.25 kg CaraRed
25g Nugget @60min
15g Saphir @20min
10g Saphir @14days in 2ndary
Yeast = WLP007

 

[Altbier bitte]

That's pretty hot. What about off flavors? I would expect increased esters, but are their any new off flavors in this batch? One possibility is wild yeast contamination. Wild yeast eats dextrins that beer yeast won't. Dextrins contribute to foaminess and head retention, so that could explain it. You might be putting the ubiquitous local wild strains at a competitive advantage versus the beer yeast with the excessive temperature. Btw, what kind of yeast are you using? Some can handle higher temps - I don't know about 86F though. If you have a basement, I'd put it down there.
I'm curious about something. I know that Cara-Pils is a, basically, unfermentable dextrin malt used to contribute body and help with head retention - are Cara-Foam and Cara-red the same type of thing?

 

[Altbier bitte]

Okay, sorry I see it's wlp-007. They call 70F the max for that. 86 is awful warm. I couldn't see your post while I wrote mine. I guess Cara-Hell is just light German caramel malt, right?

 

[sbaclimber]

I guess Cara-Hell is just light German caramel malt, right?

Yes. "CaraHell" is just a trademark of Weyermann: http://www.weyermann.de/eng/produkte.as ... &sprache=2

There aren't any off flavors. The beer tastes pretty much exactly as I expected it to. I wouldn't even say that I have noticed any significantly increased esters, though I find dry hopping tends to hide those a bit quite often.
(EDIT: I may also not be noticing *increased* esters so much, because I always ferment at room temperature, which means all of my brews have been somewhat "estery" anyway)

I didn't think about wild yeast. That could be a definite possibility. With it being so warm, all the windows are always open and the draft is blowing god-knows-what through the apartment.
A basement would be great! But unfortunately, I live in a 5th story apartment with no usable basement. Just a room in the attic, which is even warmer.
(probably good for drying hops up there...)

 

[Altbier bitte]

If you had wild yeast, you would definitely taste it. You've got me on this one - seems like you have plenty of body building malt there. It looks bubbly, so I'm assuming it's carbed well. Is it bottle conditioned, or forced? If the former, maybe it just needed a little more time. If it's forced, maybe you need to play with your process or line length or something. If that 'pale ale malt' is undermodified, a protein rest might help. I guess if future batches are good, chalk it up to an aberration.
Well, at least it tastes good. Honestly, the clarity isn't that bad for an ale, from what I can see.

 

[JAMC]

Is there any chance at all that you could have got soap compounds in it?

 

[sbaclimber]

Is there any chance at all that you could have got soap compounds in it?

I suppose, but highly doubt it. I rinse everything well after washing, and again with sanitiser before I use it.

 

[sbaclimber]

seems like you have plenty of body building malt there. It looks bubbly, so I'm assuming it's carbed well. Is it bottle conditioned, or forced?

Yeah, it's got plenty of body (I love beer with a really full smooth mouth-feel )
It is bottle conditioned and very well carbed. I had been adding 120g of sugar to 20l before bottling, which was adequate but not quite "crisp" enough, so starting with this brew I've been adding 150g/20l.

The odd thing is, there is plenty of foam when I pour the beer, but it is sort of loose and falls together rather quickly to what you see in the pic. Some of my earlier brews had such a tight firm head, that there was still 1-2" of solid head after 1/2 an hour! (granted, they were >50IBU with a 90min boil...)

 

[BrewHop]

What was your hop schedule like? IPA's in general can have trouble with head retention because of the oils in the hops. Also, sometimes hops can contribute a hop haze to beers. Did you change anything hop wise with this brew?

 

[sbaclimber]

What was your hop schedule like? IPA's in general can have trouble with head retention because of the oils in the hops. Also, sometimes hops can contribute a hop haze to beers. Did you change anything hop wise with this brew?

Well, strictly speaking, yes, I changed quite a bit...
1) Nugget instead of Magnum as the bittering hop
2) Saphir instead of Smaragd as the aroma / dry hop

The times remained all about the same though (60min, 15/20min, 14 days)

 

[BrewHop]

k, did you use larger amounts?

 

[sbaclimber]

k, did you use larger amounts?

nope, same amounts as before.
25g @60min
15g @15-20min