New Batch hit 82 degrees. Did I kill Yeast?

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TomToro

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I made the Wicked Monk two nights ago around 8pm, sat it next to my other lbk that always reads 70 and yesterday morning at 9:50 it read 82. There's foam starting on top and the airlock smells like oranges.

I immediately moved it to my cellar (59degrees all the time) and yesterday at around 8pm it read 70 degrees so I moved it back to the original 70 degree area. It was 70 for the rest of the day yesterday and again this morning.

sg was 1074 (supposed to be 1069)if that makes a difference.I used Safale US-05yeast. It was enough for 5 gallons and the guy said just throw it all in there even though it was only 2 gallons. The wicked monk recipe did say to use 2 packs of dry ale yeast so I figured it was o.k.

-Did I wreck this thing by letting the temps get too high? (never happened before. Not sure how to stop it in the future)?

-Did I catch it in time?

-Is the high immediate temp spike normal for this type of Belgian wheat?

-Did I use too much yeast?

-Should I take a hydrometer reading today and what should I look for in those results?

Recipe:
2x WittyMonk HME (Mr.Beer)
2xUME Pale Export (Mr.Beer)
1/2cup honey
1/2cup maple syrup
Safale US-05 Dry Yeast for 5gallons


1oz Saaz and 1oz Cascade Pellet Hops (22min boil with 1xUME)Muslin sack
Poured remaining 3 cans into hot wort and then into 4 quarts of cold water, added more cold water to make 8.5quarts, mixed like crazy. Temp was at 72. Took my hydrometer reading, Poured yeast in, waited 5min, then stirred like nuts again. Put on cap and took downstairs.

Thanks,
Tom
 
You might get some off flavors (fusel, diacetyl, esters) that's pretty high for S-05. I'd be sure to let it sit on the yeast cake for several weeks to see if it will clean up a little. In my experience the fusel doesn't go away though.
I would not call this a Belgian using that yeast. You did over pitch but I'd be less worried about that and more concerned about getting your temp control down. Search this forum for swamp cooler for your next batch. You can always just pitch half a packet on small batches in the future if you're worried about overpitching.
 
I always pitch 2 packs of dry yeast when I use it, its really hard to over pitch...Now under pitching is a different story, not enough cells cause havic on your beer...and stresses the hell out of them.
 
I'm thinking that some of the orange smell you are getting is from the Cascades. An ounce in 2 gallons is a decent hop level, and Cascades have a lot of orange in their aroma. Since we don't really know how long it sat at 82*, it's hard to say what it did.

You can expect a bit of a heat spike with any aggressive fermentation...it's an exothermic process. But I've never had one that dramatic, so I'm not sure why it did that.

As far as over-pitching...if you do a quick run through the Mr. Malty calc, you find that even at 90% viability, a 2 gallon batch at 1.074 calls for 1.1 packages of dry yeast. So the pitching rate was probably about right, maybe a hair under.

I'd leave it alone. What's a hydrometer going to tell you? How much you have attenuated, and nothing more. It won't tell you what off-flavors (if any) have been produced, or anything like that. I'd just leave it alone for 3-4 weeks and let the yeasties do their thing.
 
As far as over-pitching...if you do a quick run through the Mr. Malty calc, you find that even at 90% viability, a 2 gallon batch at 1.074 calls for 1.1 packages of dry yeast.

Just to clarify, on Mrmalty I'm getting 0.5 of the regular 11.5g packs of yeast with those parameters. But again, I wouldn't worry about that aspect.
 
The yeast will be fine. That temp with us-05 is a little high though. Try for low 60s, so the ferment is at 70F or a little lower for the first week, and then raise the ambient temp to high 60s for the finish. The SG 1.074 will take a little longer to ferment out; give the 2 gal. batch 3 weeks to finish before bottling. Welcome to HBT, and hey dar from da U.P. Cheers:)
 
First, thanks for all the help, Folks!

Hey Bob, so you're saying I need to start my initial ferment at a cooler stage than 72.That's a great point and I'll do it on my next one. So maybe I can start it in the cellar at 59 until it starts coming down and keep an eye on it a lot closer, before I leave it to the 70 degree condition area. I'll try for a beginning temp in the low 60's. Again, great advice.

Thanks for the help Mr.Yooper and Have a good one, from a new Troll Brewer from the Mitten. Beautiful country up dar. I used to hunt every year in Wakefield, but didn't go over to Hurley, honest.


The yeast will be fine. That temp with us-05 is a little high though. Try for low 60s, so the ferment is at 70F or a little lower for the first week, and then raise the ambient temp to high 60s for the finish. The SG 1.074 will take a little longer to ferment out; give the 2 gal. batch 3 weeks to finish before bottling. Welcome to HBT, and hey dar from da U.P. Cheers:)
 
I checked yesterday and:

sg @ 1030
Smells great
Tastes like sewage.

I'm going to put it out of sight for three weeks and check again. Thanks for the help, Folks.
 
You probably have a ton of yeast byproducts in there from the spike in temp. They'll clean up a lot of it. Good idea on locking it away for a while, preferably in the 60's, and forgetting about it.
 
I checked yesterday and:

sg @ 1030
Smells great
Tastes like sewage.

I'm going to put it out of sight for three weeks and check again. Thanks for the help, Folks.

Yeah, don't do that. I don't care if your temps were pefect. 3 day old beer almost always tastes like sewage. Yeast make a big mess of things in the first week and then they come back in like good little doozers and sweep up all their garbage. Your beer will be fine.
 
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