AC unit failure - Temp flux

Hey all...I brewed a brown ale on sunday and the same day my AC Unit went haywire...Now for the past 2 days the temperature in my condo has fluctuated from about 80* around 2 - 3pm till around midnight and down to 68 - 70* in the morning...I pitched white labs WLP013 London Ale yeast...i guess my question is am i looking at a waste of 5 gallons of beer due to fermentation temp fluctuation or is there hope that the batch may turn out OK?...i guess i'll prolly just let it run it's course and see what happens...anyone ever have to deal with this fluctuation in fermentation temps?

You'll have some fruity and/or banana esters at that high temperature, but it should still be a good beer. One of my first beers I made was just sitting in my garage and we hit a hot spell for a couple days in the spring...raised the temp up to 78F during the day. This was before I had a fermentation fridge. The resulting beer was actually very good, and only me and a couple other home brewing friends could detect the off-flavor due to high fermentation temperatures. RDWHAHB!

Thanks for the quick reply TwoHeads...I was hoping i would get a reply like that...I was planning on letting it play out regardless but it's good to hear that someone actually liked the beer that was fermented at such high temps...of course with the heat wave in the dc area it might be next tuesday before i can have someone come out to fix the AC...thank god i'm headed out of town tomorrow!!...Thanks again.

Mike

From my experience, it's pretty hard to screw up beer! That seems to be the consensus on this forum as well. Now, if you're after the best possible beer you can brew...you won't get it fermenting over 75F. Another point about off-flavors is that most of the active fermentation happens within 24-48 hours of pitching the yeast. This is the period where you should be careful about your fermentation temps. After this time, you can be a bit more lax about temp control. Cheers!

Yep, it'll be alright. It may not be what you're looking for, but it'll drink fine. The trick will be to do it again when you like it so much.


TL

Thanks for reassuring me. I will definitely brew a maple brown ale again but i'm looking to make the jump to AG for my next batch so I'll have to find a good recipe. meanwhile It'll be an interesting to see how this turns out...forced into an experiment...LOL...thanks again.

Mike