Fermenting high temperatures

I'm brewing an IPA the first week or two fermented at 68. However I checked today, probably 2 and 1/2 weeks after pitch and the temp on the fermenter read 77. Will this cause off flavors or am I safe since fermentation should have alreay completed?

I've had a batch that fermented at recommended temperature in the beginning (1 month) and while in secondary for another month the temp got out of control. It was out of control for a few days and the beer came out tasting like crap. I had to dump it, it was that bad.

You won't know until you bottle it and taste it. I would bet you are OK.

Have you checked to see if fermentation is complete? It should be but only one way to tell. (GRAVITY) Anyways, if your fermentation stayed around 68 through the coversion process you should probably be okay. 77 degrees is not an absurdly high temperature for a completed beer to sit for a little while yet you do want to get it to a lower temperature and let it sit longer at the lower temp. Only time and taste will tell but I think your beer will be fine.

Ya I'll pull a gravity sample and taste today or tomorrow. Hopefully it taste ok. I need a new fermentation chamber. I currently have a fridge but it's so old it can't fight off the Texas heat.

Get a cooler and put it in the least used area of your house and get 2- 1/2 gallon bottles of juice or tea or whatever, empty and fill with water, and freeze them . I rotate every morning before work. when I get home its 68 everyday. But thats also indiana. Its been hot as hell this last week.

daveooph131 said:

Ya I'll pull a gravity sample and taste today or tomorrow. Hopefully it taste ok. I need a new fermentation chamber. I currently have a fridge but it's so old it can't fight off the Texas heat.

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From one dallas area dave to another, i havent had problems with my beer hangin' out in room temps as long as the fermentation is complete. I've got an orange hef hangin' out at 78 and it's guna be fine.

Just use a swamp cooler when u ferment and keep it cool as long as possible. As long as u get 3 consistent readings then u can let it hang out IMHO.

Pretty hard to do much better in the 45 plus days of 100 degrees we probably just walked in to.

You'll be fine. I always ramp my beers into the low 70's as fermentation finishes to clean things up (before cooling to knock out the yeast). Most fusels / off flavors due to high temps are created within the first few days of fermentation.

This thread came at a perfect time. I have a brown ale ( 1.046 OG ) in a fermenter using the tub of water, towel and fan cooling method. It has been sitting at 70' for 2 weeks. I would like to brew another ale but have not built a SOFC yet. My apartment gets up to 80' without AC and I compromise cost vs. coolness by setting the AC to 76'. If I brew another batch and put that into the tub of water my brown ale will set for a week at 76'. It sounds like that should be okay. Of course I can build the SOFC this weekend and wait a week for the other ale. Then I will have great temperature control and an interesting big pink conversation piece!

Another tip; this may seem obvious...but keep the fermenter as low to the ground as you can (since heat rises). I find that I can have the thermostat in my house around 74-75, but the actual temperature at ground level sits at 68-70. If you are putting it up on a shelf or something you are costing yourself 5 degrees!

That's a good point. In fact a closet on the north side of the apartment should be cooler too.