Did I Eff up my Batch?

[brewchick3]

My house always gets cold and I keep a heating pad under the bucket and put it on low when I see the temp dropping below 65 just to raise it bit. I knew one day I would do what I did today and forget to turn it off. So I get home and my temp is around 78. Did I completely lose my batch? Its back down but I'm nervous.

 

[MalFet]

Where in the fermentation process were you? What kind of beer/yeast? How's it taste?

 

[GulfCoastGirl]

My house always gets cold and I keep a heating pad under the bucket and put it on low when I see the temp dropping below 65 just to raise it bit. I knew one day I would do what I did today and forget to turn it off. So I get home and my temp is around 78. Did I completely lose my batch? Its back down but I'm nervous.

I'm new to brewing so I can't say with any certainty.... but from everything I've read here, my best guess would be NO..... you didn't ruin it. Just carry on and it should be fine.

On another note.... you can buy a cheap ($7.00) timer that you plug the heating pad into and set the off time. So that way at the time you turn on the heating pad.... estimate the time you want it to go off and set it. That way you don't have to remember. You can pick up these cheap timers at Wal-Mart in the section where they keep the light bulbs....I have a few for various things and they work great

 

[Daybis]

You should be fine. YOu might have some off flavors, but it will still be beer at the end. HOw far along was it in primary fermentation?

 

[brewchick3]

It's been in the primary for about 5 days. It had an odd smell even before this happened, but I added honey to this batch so I'm hoping that's just the krausen with the yeast and honey. Smells the same now as it did yesterday. I used a White Labs Ale Yeast. Thanks for the tip on the timer. That's what I'm gonna pick up tomorrow. Should I taste a sample?

 

[brewchick3]

Just took a small sample and it tastes like beer. The krausen is huge, I guess from the honey, and I think that's the weird smell. But it's down to 72 and tastes ok and the beer without the krausen smelled fine. Whew!

 

[jmprdood]

Relax - it's beer! It might not be award winning, but it is yours!

Cheers!

 

[Jebu1788]

I'll echo everything people have said here already. You should be fine. It's not like you had it at 78 for a week. I'll add this as a reference: (quite a worthwhile read)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

 

[tknice]

You should be fine at 78. I once had 10 gallons fermenting in two separate carboys and one of my chambers was accidentally set to 95 degrees for a day during active fermentation, the other was at 67. I believe it was WLP007 English ale yeast. If nothing else, it was a great experiment!

I thought for sure they would taste very different and you know what...they really didn't.