HELP PLEASE!!! Is my beer ruined?

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DirtyHaus

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Hello all, I brewed a Pale Ale Monday night (9\5) and left to go out of town on Friday morning (9\9). I got back home late Sunday night (9\11) to find that my A\C had broken while i was gone (not sure when). I do remember the air working friday morning when i left but that's it... no idea when it went out. The small bathroom where I ferment my beer was at 80 degrees...(gasp)

Now with my A\C issue corrected and the beer back to temp, I'm worried about any off flavors i might get (I know, RDWHAHB). I just picked up some wet hops to dryhop with so i'll be tasting my batch when a rack to my secondary.

My question is, what should i look for when i taste to tell me if i need to dump my batch and start over? Am i totally screwed or is there still hope? Thanks again everyone for your help
 
Given how it had been fermenting for 3-4 days before you left, I think you'll be fine.

Go ahead and taste when you rack. But I wouldn't dump it anytime soon. Even if you created more esters, you can get these to mellow some with further conditioning.
 
I would not even consider dumping that batch until it's been in the bottle for a couple of months, and I have another couple of batches that are already packaged that I like drinking better than the "bad" one.


The most common off flavors you will get from hotter fermentation are esters and hot alcohol. The esters are pretty much there to stay, but the alcohol tends to dissipate over time. FWIW I don't necessarily consider fruity esters a bad thing in many beers, even if it's not according to style.
 
More than likely your beer is fine. But don't EVER think the thought, should I dump my beer. Your beer is much hardier than that.

Read this.

Thank you so much uncle Revvy, your story about the amber ale gives me the hope i was looking for. It's funny because i never noticed how many "is my beer ruined" threads there were here until just now.

I will rack my beer today and add 8 ounces of wet citra hops. It's my first time using wet hops so i'm very excited to taste the difference even if i have to wait a few months for any possible off flavors to clean up.
 
Thank you so much uncle Revvy, your story about the amber ale gives me the hope i was looking for. It's funny because i never noticed how many "is my beer ruined" threads there were here until just now.

And none of them usually are. I can probably count on 1 hand and have a couple fingers left over of actual bad batches...it's usually noob panic nerves.
 
If you dont like it after a month bottled,let it age brew some more in the mean time for the sake of that.
 
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