Beer disaster while I was gone.

Well, I've been traveling alot for work lately. Just got home tonight and I've been excited to keg another cream ale. Been thinking about it all week. But... Things didn't go as planned while I was gone... I've had the carboy in my converted keezer fermentation chamber chilling for the last week at about 42 degrees - clarifying with some gelatin. So I come home tonight to see that the towel I use to cover up the carboy to keep light out must have slipped off the carboy when I closed the lid and exposed it for the last 4 days to the warming lamp I have in the chamber. I pulled it out and prepared for kegging. Looks like the light had really darkened the beer, and sure enough, it smells slightly skunky. I kegged it anyway. It doesn't taste extremely bad, so I figure I'll try to drink it. Actually tastes alot like that Costa Rican beer I got down there a few years back. Sigh...So frustrating. I need drink more and work less.

What kind of warming lamp do you use? Maybe you should try switching to one of those ceramic heaters that they use for pet reptiles. No UV, so no worries about skunking!

Thats a really good idea. I had a heating pad in there til I discovered it auto shut off after 2 hours. I put a house hold lamp it there with a 45 watt bulb to do the trick til I came up with something better. Was doing great until that towel fell off the carboy!

Incandescent bulbs don't produce enough UV to cause any harm, and I'm not convinced that fluorescent do either.

My brewing room is about 12' X 12' and very well lit. I have 8 - 40 watt fluorescent bulbs and full carboys sitting everywhere, and I very often forget to turn the lights off. I've never had a problem with skunking.

Stretch a t-shirt over the carboy, that won't slip off. Wrap your towel around the carboy over top the t-shirt and the towel won't slip off either.

Try this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TKDQ5C/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I've got one almost exactly like it and it works great.

bja said:

Incandescent bulbs don't produce enough UV to cause any harm, and I'm not convinced that fluorescent do either.

My brewing room is about 12' X 12' and very well lit. I have 8 - 40 watt fluorescent bulbs and full carboys sitting everywhere, and I very often forget to turn the lights off. I've never had a problem with skunking.

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Skunking occurs with both visible and ultraviolet light. The usual range quoted is 350 to 500 nanometers (350 is close to the edge in UV, then you go to violet, indigo, blue and 500 is green). White light contains the frequencies which 'can' skunk beer, whether they will or not comes down to energy levels, exposure times as well as the colour of the container and the colour of the beer (clearer beer will allow more light to potentially interact with more of the riboflavin which absorbs the energy from the light, catalyzing the isohumulone which makes the skunky flavour). The amount of riboflavin and isohumulone in the beer will also affect how readily the beer will skunk.

To answer the OP, how much heat do you need? I use a small 120 volt fan in my freezer to move the air around, and it seems to donate enough heat to maintain pretty much any temperature I want, even with the room dropping into the 40's sometimes.