Bottling and yeast kicked back up.

Ok, I've got a Scottish Ale that I started three weeks ago. It's still in the primary, but it was nice and clear and ready to be bottled. I brought the carboy downstairs (oh so carefully) and set it in the sink. My son goes over and washes off his dinner plate with hot water. I'm guessing he was not paying attention to what he was doing (as is the case for most teenagers), he left the water running on the divider between the two sinks. Of course, the sink holding my carboy has the stopper in it and it begins to fill up.

By the time I notice it, there is about 4 inches in the bottom of the sink and the temp of the beer has been raised by about 3 degrees, from 68F to 71F (at least according to my fermentometer). Well, this causes the yeast cake to take off again and yeast is everywhere in the bottle. It almost looks like it did during the initial ferment. Another Kruesen is forming and the airlock is bubbling.

My questions in this case are as follows;

Should I just put it back in my closet and let it go, or should I put it in my basement (about 60F) or my garage (about 40F) to slow it down? (BTW - I don't have a secondary to rack to).

Is this going to use up what yeast I would need for bottling? If so, do I re-pitch?

Have I just added a couple of weeks to my process? If so, is there a danger of sour or off flavors developing due to the yeast kicking back up?

Thank you,
Jacob

Ok, update... The Kruesen stopped at a ring around the carboy and it doesn't look like it's actively fermenting now. The air lock is a littel active, but not a lot (certainly no where near what it was about an hour ago).

Most likely the temp increase just caused some CO2 to come out of suspension and caused the airlock to bubble. it won't hurt the beer or the yeast, but if it clouded up you might want to put it in a cool spot for another few days until it clears back up.

Fermenting the beer does not use up the yeast at all - it uses up the sugar. Your yeast population will not be affected even if some additional fermentation took place (it probably did not). If anything it would carbonate quicker because the yeast got stirred up a bit.

The flavor of your beer is pretty much set at this point since fermentation is finished. Don't worry about any off flavors, the most important time as far as temps are concerned is the first few days of the ferment. You're fine, and you could still bottle now if you want - you just might have a little more bottle sediment than you would if you let it settle down a few days first.

ifishsum said:

The flavor of your beer is pretty much set at this point since fermentation is finished.

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I think you need to explain this because it flies in the face of everything everyone else has written regarding conditioning and aging of beer. What am I missing here?

LewBrew said:

I think you need to explain this because it flies in the face of everything everyone else has written regarding conditioning and aging of beer. What am I missing here?

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What this means is that your yeasties have already imparted pretty much any flavor that they were going to impart. Conditioning and aging are separates processes where proteins fall out of solution and give your beer a cleaner taste. In addition, the various ingredients that provide the flavor nned time to meld and to mellow.

I seriously doubt that what you saw is a reactivation of the yeast. Any fermentables should have long since been consumed in the initial fermentation. My guess is that two things happened. First, when you moved the fermenter the cake got shaken up a bit. Not a problem. Can't avoid it.

Second, when your beer raised temp this increased the volume in the fermenter, pushing air out of the airlock. Again not a problem.

Rack to your bottling bucket witht the priming sugar and bottle as normal and you will have no, none, nada, zero effect from this.

Edit: Forgot to mention, if your beer did indeed start to ferment again then this means that it was not done fermenting. Generally yeast do not stop working until they have consumed all fermentables. In order to begin fermenting again they would have had to find fermentables to ferment.

Ah, ok, that actually makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the information. Normally, I wouldn't mind waiting, but I would really like to have this ready by Christmas/New Years.

Will putting it in a colder place actually make it clear up quicker or does it matter?

BTW - the beer tastes great now. Good to hear that the flavor shouldn't be affected.

Update. It is perfectly calm and actually starting to clear already. I think the estimation that some trapped co2 was released is accurate (surprisingly it was a violent reaction).

Unfortunately, it's a bit late to bottle tonight, so it will have to wait until tomorrow evening. I've covered the carboy and will let it sit until tomorrow. At the end of all this, it looks like the only damage done is that I lost 3/4 cup of sugar, a 5 gallon batch of star san and I will have to put off bottling for a day.

Thank you guys for your input on this. I really do appreciate it. I guess the old adage, RDWHAHB is fitting here too (surprise, surprise).

jharres said:

At the end of all this, it looks like the only damage done is that I lost 3/4 cup of sugar, a 5 gallon batch of star san

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Don't toss your mixed Star San, it remains effective for at least a few weeks...possibly much longer!

Oh yeah, The OG of the brew was around 1.062 and the reading I took this evening before all of this happened was 1.011. I'd guess it's done fermenting.

BlindLemonLars said:

Don't toss your mixed Star San, it remains effective for at least a few weeks...possibly much longer!

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Ok, cool. That is good news. I guess I'll just put the lid on and save it for tomorrow. Good deal!