56 points in 4 days?!

I brewed an OLD ale as my second beer on saturday OG 1.076 . I went out that night and got home and saw a bubble and got excited. I wake up the next morning and Im laying in bed, why dont I hear a bubble?, I thought. I look at my carboy and beer is flooded through the airlock and fermentation went crazy through the night. I ran to Lowes and bought some tubing to run from the carboy to a glass of water. Fermentation activity was fast for the next couple days. It quickly slowed down afterwards. So now on wednesday i get a bubble every minute and that seems WAY to slow for being not even a week in. So I take a gravity reading and I get 1.020. And Im like... what????already???

So more details on the brew...

It was a partial mash extract brew
I used Safeale S04 dry yeast
Fermentation temp was a little high 76 degrees

I took a sip from the hydrometer tube and it wasnt disgusting but not all that great either. Malty and yeasty.

Any insight?

LifeTree said:

Fermentation temp was a little high 76 degrees

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Is that air temperature, or beer temperature? Either way it's high, but if it's the ambient then the bulk of fermentation probably happened at 80-85°F. It could easily finish in four days if it got that warm.

temp is too high...it makes it ferment too fast and taste "off"....try to stay in the 60's

That was air temp but the I took a beer temp from the hydrometer tube and it was close to that also. It looks like I need a fermentation chamber or keep the carboy on ice because I cant keep my house cooled like an ice box

Those temps and that yeast would finish fast. Just try to let it sit for a few more weeks at a stable, warmish temperature and it could clean up a little, but it's a live and learn type of thing. Though any beer at this age will be yeasty. The "malty" is probably the yeast character.

s04 is a fairly fast yeast, so yes, it could finish in 4 days at that temp

I once had an S-04 bubble on for over 2 weeks on an ESB, but that was at around 63F and a 1.045 wort. If it was that warm its probably already done, and will need some cold conditioning to smooth it out a bit.