Is my beer gonna be bad?

First part of fermentation was way too hot.... Just took a hydro sample and then taste tested, and it was awful. Tasted really strong alcohol wise.... Is that an off flavor of the fermentation, or just because I'm not used to drinking68 degree flat beer?

How warm was fermentation. Usually, when I taste test before kegging, the beer tastes about like it will when finished only flat.

That kit is supposed to give you 6.5% ABV, which in room temp flat beer may be pretty noticeable. How long has it been in primary? What was your hydrometer reading?

The first 2 days of fermentation was at 75 degrees. Fourteen days in primary, fg 1.014

Hate to break it to you, but you are tasting "hot alcohol". Fusels or other higher alcohols that the stressed yeast produced due to either underpitching or fermentation temps or both. I just made a 9% beer that I tasted after a week and can't taste any alcohol in it at all. Next time control ferm temps and make sure you are pitching the proper amount of healthy yeast. Your beer may get better with time, but why risk it? Do more research and reading on this forum and learn how to make the best beer possible without having to let it sit around for weeks or months just to be drinkable. We've all made bad batches. Learn from it and keep moving forward.

Oh, and well made ales can be spectacular at 68 degrees and flat.

chumpsteak said:

Hate to break it to you, but you are tasting "hot alcohol". Fusels or other higher alcohols that the stressed yeast produced due to either underpitching or fermentation temps or both. I just made a 9% beer that I tasted after a week and can't taste any alcohol in it at all. Next time control ferm temps and make sure you are pitching the proper amount of healthy yeast. Your beer may get better with time, but why risk it? Do more research and reading on this forum and learn how to make the best beer possible without having to let it sit around for weeks or months just to be drinkable. We've all made bad batches. Learn from it and keep moving forward.

Oh, and well made ales can be spectacular at 68 degrees and flat.

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I was afraid of that, did not realize how much heat fermentation would produce. Just put my second batch in primary today, pitched way cooler, and in a way cooler spot in the basement.

75 is a bit hot. If it tastes funky I'd leave it in primary for a few more weeks. It probably made a lot of fusel alcohols and esters during the first few days of ferment but the yeast can clean up some of that with time. It might take many weeks for the yeast to fix things up.

At this point, you might want to leave it on the warm side ~70F as that will help the yeast do their clean-up. Taste it occasionally; when it tastes like good but flat beer, go ahead and bottle it. Your hop flavor might take a hit but no big deal, you should still be able to get good beer out of this.

You might want to buy a beer of this style and deliberately let it go warm and flat and taste *that* so you know what you want your beer to taste like in the fermenter.

Keep calm and carry on!

What was the yeast that you used? Some yeasts can ferment at that temp without producing too many off flavors. Yeast such as US-05 has a high fermentation temp of 74 degrees.

It was, in fact, US-05

74 might be fine for US05, but only if you are maintaining the fermenting wort at that temp. 74 is not room temp or ambient temp, that's wort temp. A strong fermentation left uncontrolled with hit upwards of 85 degrees in a 74 degree room. Do yourself a favor and do some research on swamp coolers or fermentation chambers and try to keep the fermenting wort under 70.

jimmarshall said:

It was, in fact, US-05

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65-68 is probably the best temps. However US05 is killer yeast and I think you'll be fine when left in the fermenter a couple more weeks. The yeast should clean up pretty nice in that time.