AC going to be shut off

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senorswiss

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I've done some searching, but couldn't find quite what I'm looking for.

So my landlord is resurfacing our patio, which is where the heat pumps are. We will be losing the AC for several days very soon (probably this weekend, while I will be out of town). Temps are forecast to be around 90 F. I've currently got 15 gallons of beer in my brew closet.

One of these I will get kegged and in the keezer before hand, but the other two are not ready.

My extra pale ale has been in primary for over two weeks, and my Scottish 80 has been in primary + secondary for over a month, now. Since the main fermentation is long over on these beers, I'm not sure how much I should worry about the imminent temperature rise. Any thoughts?
 
im not expert so get a second opinion. but since primary fermentation is over controlling temps are not that important anymore.
 
Heat can damage your beer regardless of the stage, but a couple days at 90F won't be a big problem. If you have the extra cornies and space in the kegger, you would be better off kegging early and cooling them down. The kegger should be okay for a couple days without power. It will warm up some, but not too much.
 
If you have a bathroom you can keep them in, I've found that if you close the bathroom door and turn the fan on then the fan draws the warmest air out from the top and draws cooler air in from the floor through the crack under the door. You can drop 10 degrees that way.

Could also just get some tubs and use water and frozen water bottles to keep 'em cool.
 
Thanks for the input, guys. The keezer will not lose power, but I don't have room in there for the other two beers.
 
If you have a bathroom you can keep them in, I've found that if you close the bathroom door and turn the fan on then the fan draws the warmest air out from the top and draws cooler air in from the floor through the crack under the door. You can drop 10 degrees that way.

Could also just get some tubs and use water and frozen water bottles to keep 'em cool.

Interesting idea about the bathroom, but it's on the top floor, which gets much warmer than the lower level with no AC. I have the beers in a water bath, but I'll be out of town so can't swap frozen bottles.
 
Fill up your bathtub with water and put them in it. The evaporative effect of the water will keep them a little bit cooler. Don't know how much cooler though. Also might not work since your bathroom is going to be warmer than your downstairs... just a thought though.
 
You will be fine. The initial fermentation is over. Think about it this way, your bottled beer is going to get hit with the heatwave as well. They taste fine, no? Your fermenting beer is just in a larger bottle right now.

It's not an ideal situation, but it shouldn't hurt it too much. Stick it in the bathtub full of water with a fan on it if you want to be extra safe.
 
Well, I don't have any bottled beer, and never have (homebrew, I mean)...started straight with kegging. I thought it was pretty bad for bottled beer to get too hot (say trunk of your car), but I'm glad to hear most people think it's not going to be too bad. It certainly won't be getting as hot as a car trunk anyway. I'm guessing maybe in the 80's, but no idea, really.
 
Beer can be fragile and vulnerable......but not as much as it's sometimes made out to be. We tend to be so careful about matters of sanitization and temperature control when fermenting that we tend to become a bit "overprotective."

Cases in point:

I transported a six of several styles on an airplane cross-country, the bottles in gallon ziploc bags. The beer tasted the same at the destination as it had at home, and as the rest of it did when we got home.

My son, headed overseas, brought the rest of a batch of porter (in swing-tops) cross country under the back floor of his SUV, over a couple of days. Let it settle down for a week, chilled it, and it was terrific.

I think other people could chime in here with similar events that demonstrate that beer can be pretty robust. It sounds to me like your beer is pretty far along in the fermentation process; I'm thinking it'll be fine for a few days.
 

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