OVHA Chat

Just how critical is fermentation tmperature to final taste? What is an ideal temperature for, lets say a good wheat beer using live yeast? What is the ideal tolerance - for example plus or minus 2 degrees?

Fermentation temp. has a lot to do with the taste and aroma of the final product. Last winter I made a wheat beer and fermented it at about 60F. Beer ended up tasting very good. Spicy aroma but not very much clove, banana, bubblegum character that I expected. Same beer at a 70F fermentation temp had much more pronounced flavor and aroma. Most ale yeasts do best at upper 60s temps and you will find a lot more esters formed at temps much higher than that. Temps of about 75F or higher and you start to get off flavors that taste like solvent. Yeast works great but put off things that taste bad.

There is probably an optimum temperature for each yeast strain, and of course for each style.

Most true lager yeasts work best (not fastest) at 45 to 50 F. However, one should be ready to experiment, as not all do (Superior Lager in particular is simply inert below 50F or so, as I found to my dismay).

For lager, you will want the temp as low as you can get the yeast to work decently, as esters are NOT wanted (just malt and hop flavors). Fermentations can be rather slow -- weeks not days -- but the results are worth it.

I prefer to keep even ale temperatures lower than 65F -- I prefer the cleaner taste.

Peter