Fermented too hot?

So, I brewed AHS's Northumberland Brown Ale. The room I fermented in was roughly 70-71 degrees. When I woke up the next morning the airlock was going nuts and I saw the stick-on thermometer was reading 77 degrees. I moved the fermenter to a cooler room that got the stick-on thermometer down to 71.

The yeast was a dry Windsor yeast by Danstar.

Am I doomed to drinking a banana ale (gross)? Is it normal for a fermenter's internal temp to be 6 degrees higher than the room temperature?

I'm a new brewer that needs to be talked off the ledge.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

It is normal for the temp to go up during fermentation. Can you get it cooler?

HickoryMike said:

Am I doomed to drinking a banana ale (gross)?

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The fermentation temp did get a bit high but I don't know if it's overly high. Safale S-04 suggested temp range maxes out at 75.2, I dunno what Windsor's suggest range is - it might be a bit higher. So you might have some banana flavor, but it depends on how long it was at that temp. Nothing you can really do other than wait and see.

If it does have a banana flavor, condition it longer in bottles and as far as I'm aware, that should mellow that out.

Is it normal for a fermenter's internal temp to be 6 degrees higher than the room temperature?

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yes. Fermentation is a chemical process; therefore, heat will be released.

My first beer fermented at a similar temp and at 2 week bottled, it did indeed have a nasty banana flavor.

So I let it sit for another week and the banana flavor, while still there, wasn't nearly as gross and obvious as the previous week. T

he advice they give to let it sit is the bees knees!!

I'm letting it still still another week to try and so on until there are no more noticeable changes.

yeah 77 is wicked hot. It's gonna have some strong ester flavors and some hard alcohol flavors. Just do the next one cooler like mid 60's

Great. Lesson learned: internal fermenter temp will be significantly warmer than the external temp.

So I guess I will let it sit in the secondary for 2-3 weeks then the bottle for a month.

Thanks for the advice.

yeah, my first two batches did the same thing but my off flavor was more like cloves than bananas. Since then, as soon as I put the lid on, I put the bucket in the swamp cooler and in goes ice. As soon as the yeast kicks in, it really puts out the heat.

Tell people it's a Belgian and they'll think you did it on purpose.

Danstar's web site says 64-70F (17-21C) for feremtation temp.

do a search for water bath. that will take care of it. Even if it has been a few days, i would still do it. better to reduce the effect than to keep it going. Its easy to do and costs nearly nothing.

My first 4 batches were not temp controlled so been there done that LOL

UPDATE

After 2.5 weeks conditioning I popped one of these badboys in the fridge and sampled after another 2 days.

The beer tastes like it's not done conditioning, but it's not the banana bomb I was fearing. Perhaps my saving grace was that I recognized the problem and then quickly moved the batch to a cooler spot? Perhaps I was saved by the fact that the wort was cool when the yeast was pitched? Maybe the slightly malty profile of the beer is masking off-flavors that would be more apparent in a Pale Ale? Perhaps the 3 week fermentation allowed for the yeast to "clean up after themselves" ?

Either way, I think this beer will be a solid batch. I'll probably let it go another couple weeks in closet before I throw a bunch in the fridge.

Cheers!