lager brewing to hot can i salvage it

hey guys

my tempature control on my fridge failed a few hours into fermentation so my lager is brewing at 70 degrees. can i salvage it... any suggestions.

Cool it down ASAP.

cant refrigerator down...

Here are your options.

1. Let it finish fermenting, age it, and taste it. You may like it.

2. Dump it.

Is it really going to hurt you to have it sit around for a while? In the mean time fix your ferm chamber, and brew another batch.

Stick your fermentor in a tub with cold water and ice or frozen water bottles. You can drape a t-shirt over the fermentor to help cooling through evaporation. This is called a swamp cooler. Insulate the whole shebang to keep it cold as possible longer and keep replenishing with new frozen bottles. You want it below 50°F.

cfonnes said:

Here are your options.

1. Let it finish fermenting, age it, and taste it. You may like it.

2. Dump it.

Is it really going to hurt you to have it sit around for a while? In the mean time fix your ferm chamber, and brew another batch.

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Never dump a good beer!

Steam beer is a lager fermented at ale temps. I made one after I first heavily underpitched a lager and then heated it up. It turned out very drinkable. At that time I knew close to nothing about brewing and was more concerned about speedy fermentation than having patience.

IslandLizard said:

Never dump a good beer!

Steam beer is a lager fermented at ale temps. I made one after I first heavily underpitched a lager and then heated it up. It turned out very drinkable. At that time I knew close to nothing about brewing and was more concerned about speedy fermentation than having patience.

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steam beer uses a particular yeast, it's not any lager yeast that will do well at higher temps. depending on how long this beer was at 70 degrees it may not matter, a couple of hrs vs a day or two.

eastoak said:

steam beer uses a particular yeast, it's not any lager yeast that will do well at higher temps. depending on how long this beer was at 70 degrees it may not matter, a couple of hrs vs a day or two.

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Agreed, some lager yeasts behave better at higher temps and are more suitable for steam beer.

The main problems with lager yeast at higher temps is diacetyl formation, which needs substantial time to condition out later, once the primary fermentation has finished. And again, it all depends on the yeast strain.

i used saflager american lager yeast

Optimum fermentation for those top out at 57°F and 59°F, depending if you used the S-23 or SW34/70.

Try the swamp cooler idea, you only need to knock off 15 degrees to be in a "safe zone" according to the packets. The lower the better.

don't be discouraged if the beer turns out crap. we've all made crap beer, i dumped many batches early on but i kept at it and it's worked out for me.