Heat Killed My Beer?

Hello all. Question.. I have 2 5 gallon batches going right now. One is in the secondary and one is still in primary about to go into secondary. I came home tonight to find that my wife borrowed my space heater for an hour. It was keeping my space at an even 70 degrees. When she returned the heater it reset to a 95 degree temperature and was going for about 6 hours at 95... Needless to say she may be sleeping with the dog outside tonight but more importantly is my beer ruined??? Please let me know. Thanks guys.

95 degrees isn't enough to kill the yeast. I would put the beer back into the temp it was at and wait it out. Don't dump your hard work and money. I bet the beer will come out fine.

Don't worry.

I never met a space heater that could take the ambient temperature of a room up to 95.

It is doubtful that your beer reached 95 degrees in six hours so the yeast is probably fine. You may get some off flavors though. Warmer fermentation temps can produce diacetyl which gives an off butterscotch like flavor and aroma to the beer.

Tom

Good news. Thanks guys I'll repost later and let you guys know how it is. Cheers.

Published.


The beer will be ok.

I bought a beginners kit and started it today. Amber All Malt. The recipe said to brew the dried malt, syrup, and hops in 1.5 gallons, then add it to the primary with enough water to make 5 gallons. It ended up being a little over 3 gallons of cold water. I poured the hot wort in, but didn't let it cool before adding the yeast. How long should i wait to see fermentation before i assume my yeast friends couldn't stand the heat?

Spend the money and buy one of those homebrewing books. Really saved my bacon on a couple of scenarios. Usually ya want to get the wort down to under 80 degrees as rapidly as possible, pour into your carboy and then pitch the yeast. Then you'll have some action about a day later. if your using a liquid yeast, break the bag the day before and you'll have a nice hyper inflated bag of happy critters for your wort. Good luck

I don't know what I was thinking , actually I was worried about my batch being warm enough . I put it on my food dehydrator and left it for about an hour and half , when I put my thermometer in it measured 100 degrees ! Before I did this I had activity in the fermenter (bubbles in the air lock and some slight movement) , now I have 0 activity . I'm wondering if I killed my little friends and if so can I just add more yeast to start the process over ? Thanks in advance ........ D

Dvinhammer said:

I don't know what I was thinking , actually I was worried about my batch being warm enough . I put it on my food dehydrator and left it for about an hour and half , when I put my thermometer in it measured 100 degrees ! Before I did this I had activity in the fermenter (bubbles in the air lock and some slight movement) , now I have 0 activity . I'm wondering if I killed my little friends and if so can I just add more yeast to start the process over ? Thanks in advance ........ D

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Well, it's probably not dead. It's probably finished, since yeast go crazy at high temperatures. If you have a hydrometer, check the beer and see what it reads.

If your house is above 58 degrees, that's warm enough for fermentation. Most people have trouble keeping the temperatures low enough.

I haven't picked up a hydrometer yet and since things are a little tight it's about two weeks out . I think you're right though , it tastes like beer and everything has settled to the bottom . I think I'll bottle it tomorrow and hope for the best . I guess I'll know in a week or two ........ or three . Thanks that was quick , I thought I'd be waiting a couple days , I'm gonna like it here ! D