I'm guessing this is brew temp...

[kicknbrew]

So, I'm just approaching one year of brewing on 11/20/11. What a year!

Since I started in the late fall and brewed some AMAZING first batches through the winter and spring, I think I got spoiled by cooler temps in my drafty apartment, and didn't realize the effect warm weather was going to have on my brewing.

In June I brewed a rugenbrau kit from my LHBS and it came out tasting like vinyl shower curtains. I also forgot to add the corn sugar at bottling (DOH!) and it was flat ANd sucked. Totally gross.

I traveled all summer, then brewed a pumpkin ale and a stout, both of which are in kegs in my keezer ("new" keezer, pics to come soon), and both of which taste like star-san smells, which I think smells kinda like vinyl.

I'm pretty nuts about sanitation, and the common theme here has been the ambient temp. I checked my stout at kegging and despite keeping it in a 65 degree room, the little sticky thermometer said 75!!!!

Tell me I didn't screw up.. does that ester go away or am I just drinking 10 gal of beer by myself?

 

[MalFet]

Temperature control is the only thing that matters. Purchasing a mini fridge was the best decision I ever made.

(Yeast metabolism is exothermic, so it's quite common for fermentation temps to be significantly above ambient)

 

[IffyG]

Purchasing a mini fridge was the best decision I ever made.

Agreed. A minifridge and temp controller made the biggest improvement in my beer over any other changes to my brewing process.

 

[elpenoso]

At leat it woll get you drunk.........

 

[kicknbrew]

Yeah, I thought keeping the a/c on all day in my small bedroom would work. The room was 65, but the beer was 72.

Tsk Tsk. What a shame.

Pumpkin ale needed more spices anyway.

 

[kicknbrew]

I just set up my keezer, maybe I'll start brewing like mad, keg the beer, let the finished kegged beer sit in a closet and use the keezer as a ferm chamber for a few months while I rebuild a backlog.

 

[edmanster]

temp is a must and you could have opend that batch and added the suger to the bottles eventhough it sucks