Temp Fluctuation with Hefe issues

Howdy group..

I have my first brew (a german hefe) in primary right now and it is crusing along..

My temperature has been rather inconsistant throughout the ferment so far and I'm just curious what to expect.
I used 6 lbs of Wheat DME and 4 oz(i think) of Northern Brewers for bittering.
The yeast is WLP300: http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=19830

the page there says ideal 68 - 72 ... the brew notes that came with the kit say 64 - 74 with recommended temp of 68

so...
I pitched around 7:00 on sat. evening at 66 deg.

Sunday around 10:30 i ran to the pet store and bought a small stick-on aquarium thermometer to monitor the temp better... stuck it on..
the temp had risen to around 74 deg so I took the carboy and put it into a 60 qt cube cooler and then put some water in it with a little ice and two frozen 20 oz coke bottles of water. also covered it with some towels that were hanging down into the water.

I returned that evening after church to find that it had cooled to 64 deg.

soo.. i took it out of the cooler.. and put it into the built in clothes hamper thingy in the bathroom for the night.

this morning.. it was around 72 deg.

I went to the freezer for the frozen 2 liter i had and put that in the hamper with the carboy.. after overthinking the issue a little more.. i decided to move the carboy back to the cooler with the two liter and that is where it sits now.

The two..err.. three question i have are..

1. Since the temps have been so up and down am i looking at lots of banana and clove flavors or are the yeast gonna get stressed out and leave lots of off flavors and junk in my brew?

2. How can i do better to keep the temps constant?

3. This beer will have been bottled for two weeks on my birthday and i think my wife is going to throw me a party. think it'll be any good by then?

many thanks group!
I'm having lots of fun here

cheers!


will

1. Not sure. The vagaries of hefe yeasts are still beyond me at this point. I don't have temp controlled fermentation (not fancy, anyways), so I just deal with what I get.

2. The waterbath method should work pretty well for this. There is nothing wrong with 64F, but if you wanted ~68F just use less ice bottles and try removing the shirt.

3. Possibly...it's worth trying at that point. If you carb to style (high carbonation) it may take a little longer than you are used to.

waskelton4 said:

Howdy group..
1. Since the temps have been so up and down am i looking at lots of banana and clove flavors or are the yeast gonna get stressed out and leave lots of off flavors and junk in my brew?

Click to expand...

Update..
just got home from work/meeting and the 2 liter took it down to below the thermometer's low of 64 so i'm guessing i'm down to 61 or 62 now.. (eek)

any more info on the question above?

I've taken the carboy out of the cooler and put it in a clear non insulated tub that i'm going to try and keep at a more constant temp.

also.. the krausen has dropped and the airlock has slowed.
it is now48 hours after pitch.

Is this most likely due to a fast ferment or did i put all the yeast to sleep ??

going to have a brew....

ws