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musicis

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In my chest freezer last night I cleaned up blow off from a stout brewed one day ago. I forgot to put back the thermometer and this morning the beer itself hit 111 degrees. :-(

Thoughts?
 
How it the world did it get to 111? Fermentation should only raise the temperature 5-10 degrees.

I would just get the temp down, maybe age it a little longer and hope for the best.

Brew another as soon as possible in case it is a dumper so that you don't have a gap in your supply.
 
I have a ceramic reptile bulb heater. When cleaning the 1/4 inch of beer on the bottom and splatter on the sides the dangling thermometer was in the way so I moved it on the ledge. One of the fermenters I see some bubbles so I guess that's a good sign. My question is what temp would kill the yeast?
 
So you forgot to put the sensor (thermocouple) for your controller back in.....

Damn....that is not good....

How long had it been fermenting?

I would be more worried about off flavors, fusel alcohols, etc.....
 
I'm sorry I meant sensor. The beer was 67 degrees at 7pm. 13 hours later I discovered this. Today is three days since I brewed it.
 
I made a stout about 15 years ago before I had any idea of what I was doing. It was summer and it fermented in the 80's maybe peaking at 90F. When it was finished it had a strong odor like nail polish remover. I still have some of this beer - it hasn't changed a bit.
 
Let this be a lesson! I unplugged the freezer since it's almost winter. Stupid stupid!
I also knew that after seeing this ceramic heater in action that 150 watts was WAY to much. I am tossing it out for the lowest possible watt ceramic heater. I guess I will wait the two week primary and then taste it before I put in glass carboy.
 
I use a similar setup to you....your issue was that you forget to put the sensor back in freezer....if you had done that the heater would have shut off and everything would be fine.

I use a 200 watt My Buddy Heater (something like that)...with no issues

The one thing I did learn on my first batch I fermented in this setup is that (even in the winter, with my freezer in garage) ....the self heating that the yeasties do during peak fermentation will heat up the freezer since the extra heat cannot escape...so now I simply keep the lid cracked about 3/4" with a small block of wood for the first 3 days or so of fermentation. after that I close it
 
I'm new posting on here, so please be gentle...


Instead of a ceramic heater, why not get a small light fixture instead? A 60-watt or 100-watt incandescent bulb in a freezer should provide all the heat you need. If that doesn't suffice, what about an IR heating bulb. I have a couple built into to hood of my stove and they definitely put out heat.
 
We use ceramic heaters as they don't put off light. Light+hops=bad. That's why we keep our beer out of the light, or in mostly non-transparent containers to ferment.
 
Today I tasted this big stout and after scrutinize a full cup it does have a little bit cardboard taste to it. Its a 10 gallon batch. I guess I'll transfer it to the secondary and see what I have later. It was subjected to this high heat for less then 12 hours. Thoughts? I hate to dump I all. t
 
if you got the room to store it dont dump it. time will heal many things, including your beer. it sounds like its not totally fubar now and i cant think of why it would get worse.
 
I removed the 150 watt ceramic in favor of a 60 watt one. That was the cats meow! The 150 watt would shut down and at least 3 degrees would continue to rise. Now with the new 60 watt, it hits the target temp and stops RIGHT there. 150 watt is WAY too much for a 14.8 freezer in Chicago.
 
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