Possible issues with my 2nd batch ??

So i brewed up my 2nd batch last night, a bavarian hefe. Everything went pretty good but i may have made a few mistakes and wondering what this could do to the taste of the final product.

1. pitched the starter at a touch over 80 F figuring it would drop to room temp (around 70) by the time it started to ferment, but woke up this morning and it is bubbling away like crazy with the ale pail reading 78F. I wrapped in a wet towel and put the fan on it to cool it, but how bad will it effect the taste while it was feremnting at this higher temp?

2. the recipe called for 1oz of Hallertau hops, in a rush, i grabbed the 2 oz bag out of the freezer and didnt realize it until the last hop was falling into the wort. is this going to make my beer way too bitter?

3. I plan on adding 2oz of apricot extract at bottling, do you think this will cover up any bad flavors as a result of 1&2 above and could help make this a decent tasting brew??

As always, thanks for any responses

1. you should be ok, maybe put in a tub with t-shirt on it and cool water in the tub.

2.60 minute boil - probably. less than 60, probably not.

3. Not a chance.

Don't worry about the higher temp. If it's fermenting away you're pretty much set, but keep it down around 70 if you can. I've fermented high, low, middle, not enough of a difference to really mess things up, but to maintain the baseline and keep the yeast happy and energized, keep it lower. There are some technical things that occur at higher temps, but not to worry.

cheezydemon said:

3. Not a chance.

Click to expand...

So do you think the apricot extract will be pretty ineffective and not add significant flavor? should i double the apricot since i doubled the hops? or should i hold off on it all together and save it for a different brew?

You may get some off flavors due to the high fermentation temps, especially since they were at the start of fermentation.

Depending on when you added the hops they could significantly increase the bitterness.

I don't think the apricot will do much to improve the flavor if serious off-flavors have developed.

My advice, don't worry about it, when you taste it after bottling you'll have some idea of where the problems are. If there are low levels of off-flavors / extra bitterness you can always leave the bottles to condition longer; time heals a lot of beer wounds.

I wouldn't try to mask things with apricot either. at worst it'll taste terrible..at best it'll make your beer taste like fruit punch (banana esters, juicy fruit esters, plus apricot flavors....ewww)