Brew Room Overheated!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BillyBob

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Location
Vashon
I'm out of town and just got a call from my wife telling me that my brew room had been at 86 degrees for the last 24 hours....

I've got a batch of stout in there which I brewed Saturday, another batch of stout which I brewed 3 weeks ago (ready to bottle next weekend) and about a case of stout bottle conditioning.

Any opinions as to whether it is all ruined?
 
The two older ones will definitely be fine (so long as they were fine before, of course). The one you just brewed may be affected by the higher temperature. It all depends on how much it had fermented by the time the heat went up.

When the yeast are digesting sugar at higher temperature, they will produce more esters, phenols, and higher alcohols - in most styles of beer, excessive amounts of these are considered off-flavors. The amount produced will be a function of how high the temp was (quite high, in this case) and how much sugar is digested at that temp. If your stout had been, say, 90% fermented by the time the temp went up it should be little affected. If it were half done, you would probably have pretty noticeable off-flavors, though how much depends on the strain of yeast, etc, etc.

Even if it had a ways to go yet, fermentation probably had already passed the crucial lag phase and the first 12 hours or so of fermentation, which are most crucial for flavor profile. And yeast can clean up a lot of off-flavors they produce given time.

It's too soon to despair. Perhaps it will not be quite so good as it might have. But I'll wager it'll still be at least fine, if not better. Barring problems other than elevated temperature.
 
Thanks for the encouraging words folks.
I just read Revvy's "Never dump your beer" post too, so I'm feeling some better.
I'll probably leave the new batch in the fermenter an extra couple of weeks (I normally go four), then let it bottle condition at least six weeks and see what happens.
 
You may have just brewed the best beer ever. :rockin:
What kind of yeast was pitched? Chances are the peak fermentation period was over. Should be ok.
 
You may have just brewed the best beer ever. :rockin:
What kind of yeast was pitched? Chances are the peak fermentation period was over. Should be ok.


Wyeast 1084 smack pack.
It was very active all day Sunday, and im guessing the krausen would have fallen before the high temps occured.
 
You're probably in good shape then. Sounds like fermentation was, if not almost done, at least seriously on its way. Might be some very slight off-flavors, not more than that.
 
What's the cutoff for issues? I've got a similar issue with mine. My LHBS was out if the good stuff so i had to settle for a safe ale -05 yeast. It says the range is 58-75 and I have a rolling fermentation but sitting at 76. It may also make a difference that its a bock beer (wrong yeast I know, but I can't lager yet). It was 74 when the krausen
Started to form and climbed slowly to 76 over 36 hours. Fermentation is still VERY active at a bubble every second or so. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
What's the cutoff for issues? I've got a similar issue with mine. My LHBS was out if the good stuff so i had to settle for a safe ale -05 yeast. It says the range is 58-75 and I have a rolling fermentation but sitting at 76. It may also make a difference that its a bock beer (wrong yeast I know, but I can't lager yet). It was 74 when the krausen
Started to form and climbed slowly to 76 over 36 hours. Fermentation is still VERY active at a bubble every second or so. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
This reply's probably a bit belated, but hey maybe it'll still help someone.

Probably too late to change much in the flavor profile; the first twelve hours at high krauesen are the most important for that, with subsequent times increasingly less influential. And Safale-05 is a tough yeast, but no yeast likes having its temp dropped after it's gotten that high. Maybe lower it a bit if you can, but mostly this is just gonna be a not very clean-tasting batch that might need some time to smooth out.

It is possible to get....decent...results making a lager-like beer with a clean-tasting ale yeast like S-05. A lot of the 'lager' flavor comes not from the yeast per se, but from the lower fermentation temperature. Much of what makes lager yeasts unique is simply their ability to ferment at cooler temperatures, not any inherently different flavor profile they produce. As such, temperature is almost more important in lager production than yeast strain selection. I would have a way, whether it be through swamp cooling or simple ghetto lagering (my preference), of keeping beer temperature in the high fifties to at most the low sixties before trying what you're trying. And if you can do that, you may as well use a lager yeast as well, slightly higher temp be damned. A lot of homebrewers preferentially ferment lagers in the mid-50's just to get a more reliable fermentation anyways; we don't have the sort of rigorous quality control and volume of professional brewers.
 
Skyforger said:
This reply's probably a bit belated, but hey maybe it'll still help someone.

Probably too late to change much in the flavor profile; the first twelve hours at high krauesen are the most important for that, with subsequent times increasingly less influential. And Safale-05 is a tough yeast, but no yeast likes having its temp dropped after it's gotten that high. Maybe lower it a bit if you can, but mostly this is just gonna be a not very clean-tasting batch that might need some time to smooth out.

It is possible to get....decent...results making a lager-like beer with a clean-tasting ale yeast like S-05. A lot of the 'lager' flavor comes not from the yeast per se, but from the lower fermentation temperature. Much of what makes lager yeasts unique is simply their ability to ferment at cooler temperatures, not any inherently different flavor profile they produce. As such, temperature is almost more important in lager production than yeast strain selection. I would have a way, whether it be through swamp cooling or simple ghetto lagering (my preference), of keeping beer temperature in the high fifties to at most the low sixties before trying what you're trying. And if you can do that, you may as well use a lager yeast as well, slightly higher temp be damned. A lot of homebrewers preferentially ferment lagers in the mid-50's just to get a more reliable fermentation anyways; we don't have the sort of rigorous quality control and volume of professional brewers.

You have my attention...what's ghetto lagering? And that all makes sense. I may give it another shot with some mods. We may have a fridge we
Can use in the future for lagering but if we want to ferment several, this info will be helpful since we can only lager 1 or 2-5 gallon batches at a time.
 
Ghetto lagering just means you ferment the beer in a place that has a cool enough ambient temp to ferment at lager temps - about 48* or so is ideal, but somewhat higher is also fine.

For about 6-9 months of the year where I am, it's possible to find places with appropriate stable cool temps where you can ghetto lager. My garage is typically a perfect temp for fermentation for the entire winter, and a shed does just fine for lagering.

Not sure where you are precisely, but if you're somewhere in Indiana like your sig says, you should be able to ghetto lager just fine in the winter.

It's not perfect, but the lagers I make turn out just gangbusters. Use of high-quality base malt, hops, and good mashing practice are more important for lagers than absolutely precise temp control in my experience. But temp control is very important once you get more than a few degrees out of range.
 
Skyforger said:
Ghetto lagering just means you ferment the beer in a place that has a cool enough ambient temp to ferment at lager temps - about 48* or so is ideal, but somewhat higher is also fine.

For about 6-9 months of the year where I am, it's possible to find places with appropriate stable cool temps where you can ghetto lager. My garage is typically a perfect temp for fermentation for the entire winter, and a shed does just fine for lagering.

Not sure where you are precisely, but if you're somewhere in Indiana like your sig says, you should be able to ghetto lager just fine in the winter.

It's not perfect, but the lagers I make turn out just gangbusters. Use of high-quality base malt, hops, and good mashing practice are more important for lagers than absolutely precise temp control in my experience. But temp control is very important once you get more than a few degrees out of range.

The problem we have in indiana is that the weather is f#%*ed. Take this week for example. It was 20 yesterday, it's going to be 60 in 2 days, then 7 for a low Friday. So a 50 degree swing inside of a week. I don't know why God hates indiana, I just know that he does. On the bright side, I can brew outside Thursday in our spring like temps before the arctic blast moves in and flash freezes the state.
 
My. We've had pretty big temps swing here too this winter, but I agree that may be a bit much to deal with. A water bath helps, but there are limits.

Even a fairly stable first week would be fine. A slightly unstable week and you need to move stuff around a few times, but it's manageable. Fifty degrees...not so much.
 
We may have a fridge we
Can use in the future for lagering but if we want to ferment several, this info will be helpful since we can only lager 1 or 2-5 gallon batches at a time.

Pony up the $30-35 needed to build a dual temp control box (using an STC-1000) for that fridge.

That, combined with a DIY Paint can fermentation heater will be the best money you've ever spend on brew equipment, especially if you want to do bocks and lagers.

http://brewstands.com/fermentation-heater.html



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ebay-aquarium-temp-controller-build-163849/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top