77 degrees after 5 days of primary fermentation..

I brewed an imperial IPA last friday, aerated, pitched and saw TONS of activity in the first 24 hours, after about 48 hours the yeast dropped and no bubbling (i know this is no indictation that fermentation is over). Up until today, it was sitting in my closet at a constant 70 degrees. Well, today, we got a mini heat wave up here in the NE and the closet swelled to 77 degrees today. I'm using Safale us 05 yeast which has the top of the temp range at 75. Im a little scared (because im at work) that now it is ruined.

Its been 5 days since pitching and im hoping someone will say i SHOULD be ok since fermentation could be over... or that 2 degrees higher than the given range isnt TOO much to worry about.

Will my beer be spoiled?

ahhhh, now my roommate texts me saying "so i turned a fan on and trying to draw the closet air out... now its at 78"

The first couple days are the most important temp-wise. You would be okay @ 78F right now but the first couple days @ 70F ambient may be your problem. The beer probably was up around 75-78F with an active fermentation. That may have created some Esters & Fusel Alcohol. Good luck!! Cheers!!!

I've done 4 batches all at 70 from day 1 of fermentation all the way through to bottling with no ill affects in the past 2 months. But atleast someone has eased my stress a bit. Thanks!

Well, just got home and took a quick grav reading, it's at 1.020. Yes it's an extract. I'll take a reading late tonight and tomorrow morning to see where it's at. I'd like it around 1.015..

seems like someone is in the same boat as me! Best of luck. Stupid NE weather...

Plascentofawoman said:

seems like someone is in the same boat as me! Best of luck. Stupid NE weather...

Click to expand...

I'd recommend getting a tub to stick fermenters in with water so the temp swings dont effect it as much. search for 'swamp coolers'

I fermented a pale ale with 05 yeast at more than 80 degrees, off the chart of my little temperature reader on the carboy and it turned out fine, if sweet because of a different circumstance. You'll be fine. You havent ruined the beer, that much is for sure. You may lightly affect the taste, but I think that will be as far as it goes.

Looks like it wasnt stuck, it was just done. The addition of amylase hasnt produced a lower FG, its still at 1.020. NOW, im worried that since nothing took advantage of the breakdown of the amylase it'll be off (not that it wasnt off to begin with). A friend of mine suggested getting some Wyeast american ale activator, smacking it, let it inflate, and tossing it in to clean up what the amylase has done but the existing yeast hasn't. He said dont make a starter as to not over attenuate, and that the first round of yeast probably took care of most of the fermentables. Thoughts?

dont waste the money on a smack pack, if S-05 didnt eat it up, that wont. what was your OG and did you use anything besides extract in it?

no? throwing in new yeast wont eat up the broken down sugars the seemingly dead (inactive) yeast wont?

I steeped .5 crystal 60 and .5 carafoam.

S-05 is far from dead or inactive 2 weeks old. did your OG happen to be around 1.08? does the beer taste any different now? I'm also not entirely sure if a few days is enough time to say that adding the amylase didnt change anything.

Good to know. i did swirl it a bit when adding the amylase, and that was Friday night, so 3 full days and the fg was still at 1.020. My OG was 1.071.

do you still have it around 70F? any change to the look of the beer? in the cases i've read about people using amylase they notice a layer forming over the wort within a day. i haven't seen any feedback on anyone using it with extract kits tho (not sure it should be any different tho)

i had a thin layer of white foam over most of the beer in the first day, its slowly bubbling slower and the layer of foam has now become more of a foam ring, still thin (less than .5 inch). Its in a water bath that is at 68-70 degrees and the ambient temp is 70.

apologies for perhaps being a bit thick headed.

certainly no apologies necessary, especially since this is pretty seldom charted territory. im actually kinda stumped that it hasn't moved even after showing that activity. if you still see no movement by the weekend I guess you could try adding more yeast, tho there should be more than enough yeast left in suspension to take care of any newly broken down sugars. I would just try a re-hydrated pack of notty or S-05 in that case tho.

many people have quoted a 1.02 curse with extract kits, but you'd think adding amylase could solve that. it seems like it can just be slow sometimes tho with the amylase so I'd just give it a lil more time before trying anything else

I'm going to hold off until friday to do anything but i'll take a reading tonight after work. Im stumped too because i've read so many threads about how people get lower FG's within days... What I thought happened was that since my room temp got to 79-80 for about 8 hours before i put the carboy in a water bath, so i had thought the yeast died or something. Also, my krausen completely filled the carboy, leaving a brown film on the inside of it above the beer (all the way to the neck). So, i guess i'll give the amylase a week (friday) then look into pitching some more yeast. And see what happens. I just want to flesh out all my options...

1. pitch into current primary
2. rack to 5 gal carboy, pitch
3. rack to 5 gal carboy, clean 6.5 gal carboy, rerack to 6.5gal, pitch.

in the end, if nothing works... ill just chalk it up to extract being extract. Looks like im moving onto partial mash next!

nah the 80s aren't high enough to kill the yeast, fermentis even recommends rehydrating the yeast in 80+ water before pitching it (not necessary IMO). good luck with the brew and with moving on to PM! I'm sure you'll find yourself quickly moving along to AG once you get a hang of it. just in case you haven't already come across it, check this out for moving on to PM/AG: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

oh, and if the brew tastes fine, I'd roll with it as is and quit torturing yourself over a few points if it doesn't end up going any lower

I wouldn't worry about it much, but you will get esters. I had a similar problem last april where I began fermenting an IPA in a closet at ambient temp 68-70. Had a freak heat wave and the closet had to increase to better than 75 degrees when I was away for the weekend. I brewed on friday and the heat came saturday and sunday.

It actually tasted good. The 05 gave it a nice peachy ester which suprisingly meshes well with Simcoe!

Success! Came home after work, did a quick reading and it's down to 1.014-1.016. Very strange since I did one a day ago and it was at 1.020. Whatever, I'll take it!

I've done pm once and made a nice blonde, I'll have to do that again. Either way, thanks everyone for putting up with my over worrying the whole ordeal. That guy was right, rdwhahb.

Now, where'd I put my beer...