HELP!!! Totally screwed something up....

First off.... I'm an idiot. Made a really stupid mistake. I pitched my yeast at somewhere around 82-85 degrees. Ouch. So yeast pretty much killed instantly right???

I had a fogged up thermometer and read it incorrectly and when I got up this morning the wort was still at around 75 degrees. Can I fix this??

I put the fermenter out in the garage to try to bring it down to 68 and I'm hoping I can repitch some yeast this afternoon. Will this work?

I'm sure this beer is going to be far from perfect at this point, but what other things can I do in this situation. Are there going to be really bad flavors from pitching at that high temp??? Should I just scrap the whole batch or re-pitch?

Any advice on how to save this pale ale would be much appreciated!!!

John

You didn't kill the yeast, not at 85 degrees.

You might get some fruitiness from the higher temps, but otherwise it will be fine. You do want to ferment at a much lower temp- construct a swamp cooler: a rubbermaid tote container with water and frozen water bottles and sink the carboy in it. Put a wet T-shirt over the carboy as well- evaporation will cool it down.

Walk away from the carboy and let the yeasties do their thing.

So you don't think I need to pitch more yeast??? I have seen a couple of small bubbles come out of the airlock. So just cool it down and let it be??

Re-pitching at this stage is completely unnecessary.

Re: the airlock bubbling- this is not a way to gauge fermentation. Think about it: it's a $1.50 piece of cheap plastic and not a precision instrument. The only thing that an airlock exists to do is to vent excess CO2 while prevent outside nasties from falling into the fermenting wort.

Walk away. Leave it be. The yeasties know what they are doing- they've been doing it for 2000+ years.

I understand that you're excited/nervous/concerned but just let it ride.

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. I did put the wet shirt over the carboy and now I'll leave it alone. Thanks.

+1 to flyangler's advice. Only think about repitching if you check the gravity in a week and it's still high. THEN you can assume the yeast were killed off, but I don't think they were at 85F.

85 deg will not kill the yeast. You may have some off flavors but your yeast are fine.

I pitched at 100 degrees once (accidental, don't ask how I managed that) and the beer was fine. No worries.

Fill your bathtub with water and ice, and put your fermenter in there during the next 12-24 hours....all will be well...

Or go with a swamp cooler.