I think i fermented to high....

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RyanT

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I realized last night that my wife had been turning off the AC in our condo to save costs while we were at work during the day. I have been fermenting a Wit beer during these past 2 days of high temperatures in Chicago, and she remembered that it was 85 degrees in the condo when she got home from work on mon and tuesday evenings.

i have been fermenting a Wit beer using Wyeast 3944. the temperature range on that is up to 75 degrees.

i put the fermentor in the bathtub in a waterbath, and also set the AC to 72 degrees. So I should be OK going forward.

So what do you think? Is 2 days up at real high temps enough to screw up the flavors? I know belgian yeasts generally handle high temps pretty well, but this was quite a bit more...
 
Only time will tell my friend... Every batch is different and every yeast handles high temps in a different way. If you used a Belgian yeast, you're probably looking at some small "off flavors" in your beer, which may not be desired, but could turn out good.

You're looking at anywhere from 10-15 degrees over the optimal temperature for that yeast. Because of those temps, you may notice more fusel alcohols which are quite harsh in high quantities (nasty hangovers as well). Some of those fusel alcohols may also break down into esters during conditioning, giving a somewhat banana flavor to your beer.

As long as you have it back down to the optimal temps, you're minimizing the risk and amount of damage that could be done. Give the beer some time to clean itself up and you may want to consider aging in bottles for a month or so before popping open a bottle just to allow for more conditioning time.
 
thanks!

I do plan on bottle conditioning. I also really like banana flavors in belgians, so hopefully those fusels will turn over into esthers.

I brewed a tripel over the winter, and wow, it took maybe 3 months in the bottles to erode the harsh bite of the fusels. now they taste real good, but it took awhile.
 
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