So last night I had a friend over, as he wanted me to teach him to brew. So the beer on deck was a Munich Helles (specifically the Hofbrau clone from AHBS). I made a starter last week (1/2 gallon).
ANyway, the brew went smoothly, but as we were chatting near the end i mis-read my thermometer and yanked my wort chiller early. I racked it to the fermenter and checked my gravity and temp. That's when I noticed it was 90F, not 80F. In retrospect, i shuld have re-sanitized my chiller, dropped it in the bucket and chilled it more. But alas, i am stupid. It was getting pretty late, so I waited until it hit 88F and pitched my starter and put it in the lager fridge set at 52F.
Laying in bed I remembered the only batch I ever had to dump was an Irish Ale that I pitched a starter into at 80F...it took off hard and fermented at like 80~82F and produced a ton of fusel notes. It was undrinkable. So panic set in about 3am as I thought I made the same mistake.
This morning I head out to the garage and check the lager fridge. The fridge is holding at 55F and the Fermomete ron the side of my bucket read 65F. It looks like it is dropping down as it should.
So, did I ruin another by starting it so warm, or will it be ok due to being lowered down to fermentation temps by the fridge? God I hope I didn't ruin this beer!
ANyway, the brew went smoothly, but as we were chatting near the end i mis-read my thermometer and yanked my wort chiller early. I racked it to the fermenter and checked my gravity and temp. That's when I noticed it was 90F, not 80F. In retrospect, i shuld have re-sanitized my chiller, dropped it in the bucket and chilled it more. But alas, i am stupid. It was getting pretty late, so I waited until it hit 88F and pitched my starter and put it in the lager fridge set at 52F.
Laying in bed I remembered the only batch I ever had to dump was an Irish Ale that I pitched a starter into at 80F...it took off hard and fermented at like 80~82F and produced a ton of fusel notes. It was undrinkable. So panic set in about 3am as I thought I made the same mistake.
This morning I head out to the garage and check the lager fridge. The fridge is holding at 55F and the Fermomete ron the side of my bucket read 65F. It looks like it is dropping down as it should.
So, did I ruin another by starting it so warm, or will it be ok due to being lowered down to fermentation temps by the fridge? God I hope I didn't ruin this beer!