First brew going horribly wrong?

I got a brewing kit and some "Brewers Best Full-Bodied Weizenbier" and some liquid belgian yeast.

After starting the brew and having everything go smoothly, the temperature has gone up and it is beyond my control and will remain that way until this brew is bottled.

Put the wort in the fermenter and the room temperature was at a steady 72 degrees. The temperature has slowly risen to close to 80 at points and I have no way of bringing it back down in the short term.


The directions suggested an ambient temperature of 68-72 for the fermenting process.


How do you think this well change the final outcome? Can i tell before I waste time bottling it if it has gone bad, or do I need to wait until it is bottled and wait another 3 weeks?


-Brian

The beer will be drinkable, granted there might be a lot of esters, phenols and maybe some fusels. You could buy a bucket, put the carboy in, fill it up half way with water, soak a towel in the water and then cover the carboy with the wet towel. The swamp cooling method works well and it's relatively inexpensive. You can also put a couple of bottles of frozen water in there to bring the temp down lower, you have to exchange them every couple of hours to keep the water cool.

Iordz said:

The beer will be drinkable, granted there might be a lot of esters, phenols and maybe some fusels. You could buy a bucket, put the carboy in, fill it up half way with water, soak a towel in the water and then cover the carboy with the wet towel. The swamp cooling method works well and it's relatively inexpensive. You can also put a couple of bottles of frozen water in there to bring the temp down lower, you have to exchange them every couple of hours to keep the water cool.

Click to expand...

This swamp cooler pratice works!! Use a kegger tub. You can find one at Menards.

Where's home? Got a basement or garage? Outer wall? Opportunity to turn down heat or stick it under the AC vent? Open a window?

A weizen can go high in heat depending on the yeast. It will be fruity and estery anyhow since that's the style. Weizens are a traditional warm weather brew.

Do what you can to get it to 75'F. If you can do this it would be much better than leaving it at 80F. Try not to subject it to wide temp swings 80 to 60 and back up. Just shoot for a slightly cooler 75'F

If you can do this it will be OK

Just putting a wet t-shirt over my bucket dropped the temp 4 degrees.
I had to resoak the shirt daily.
Put the shirt over the entire bucket and let the airlock stick out the neck hole.

Freeze some bottles of water and put them in there, this will bring the temp down lower. I ferment nearly all my beers around 60-64F, I like the smooth flavor and ester and phenol balance from extended cool fermentation.

well Im in a college apartment and they just shut the AC down for the year, despite it being an extra hot october...


So no more temp control other than the weather. No tub to use at the moment, but ill try the wet tshirt trick along with a fan