Always Question Your Instruments: I

TroubleShooting

Tom Winiecki — Boulder, Colorado asks,

I made a yeast starter two days before using 1.5 l of water and 151 g of dried malt extract (DME) (about 3 pints water to 3⁄4 cup DME). After cooling the starter wort and adding the yeast (WYEAST 1098), I put it on a stir plate for 18 hours and then into the fridge. I brought it up to room temperature on brew day, decanted the liquid and pitched.

The recipe said to ferment at 68 °F (20 °C), so that’s what I set my Inkbird/Fermwrap to. Within minutes, the temperature shot up to 85 °F (29 °C). I know that temperature rises during fermentation, but is this rapid increase normal and/or a sign of healthy yeast?