Chocolate oatmeal Stout Ruined?

I racked my Oatmeal stout into the secondary after 2 weeks in the primary. I then have had my Stout in the Secondary for 2 weeks, for a total of 4wks.
Its been a pain to keep adding ice to my swamp cooler bucket, but I have done my best to keep it 67-73 the whole time using ice bottles with a swamp cooler and wet towel wrap.
~Unfortunatly, I was out of town for the 4th of July, and when I returned home It was up to 84 degrees. Brewing in AZ heat is rough...

Should I try and chill it back down again to 70, or just go ahead and bottle tonight?

I'm assuming most, if not all the fermentation was done prior to the temp rising in the 80's but worried my 1st ever homebrew stout is ruined, and dammit I put some work and some $ into this one!

 

I'm no expert, but I'd say chill it and pretend it didn't happen. There's only 1 way to find out whether it was ruined....Bottle and DRINK!!!!

 

I'm with you! I live in AZ as well. The temperature rise isn't the worst thing in the world as long as it was at the end and not the beginning. Stability is key during fermentation. It's better to have an entire fermentation at a stable 70 than 3 weeks of bouncing between 65 and 75.

That being said, most diacetal (not sure how to spell it) and ester production are prone to occur in the first 5-10 days. So as long as the temperature rise was after that you should be fine with very limited effect.

I just got a fridge delivered to my house from craigslist for $50 2 weeks ago works perfectly! I'd recommend trying that route for future endeavors if space allows, less maintenance and more stable only about a 2-3 degree shift rather than 5-10 with other methods I've used.

 

Have been searching Craigslist for about 6 months for a freezer, no luck. I'm wanting to get a chest style freezer with a Johnson controls digi temp. Just haven't pulled he trigger yet. If anyone has something available, hit me up!
I'm going to have to hold of on another batch until I get one. Impossible to keep the temp right in a swamp cooler with 105-115+ degree temps!

 

You just did a high diaceyl rest. Bottle that bad boy, its certainly not ruined. I would think that this would only affect stability. Heat will speed reactions; oxidation for example. Don't dump it, bottle, taste and see if you can discern any off flavors. Brewing is a learning process.

 

I've got my bottles in the dishwasher now... The more research I do, the signs have been pointing to bottle now.

 

90% of your fermentation was done after the first week in the fermenter. 99.9% was done when you put it in the secondary. The rise in temp shouldn't affect your beer at all so long as it wasn't sitting on a big yeast cake when it happened. Here's why:

If you have a beer that is done fermenting, meaning it has been in a fermenter for >2 weeks and the final gravity is stable, large temperature swings won't make a big difference in your beer so long as you don't go too high. Too high is above about 85 F. The reason is the yeast are pretty much finished what they're doing. They're just chillin' at the bottom of the fermenter at this point. If you go over 85 F it gets a little too hot for the yeast and they start to die and release all their yeast guts into the beer. This is known as cell lysis. This affects the beer because yeast guts don't taste good. If your beer was sitting on a big yeast cake at 85 F I would be worried about this. Because you racked to a secondary and this occurred then, I would bet that the amount of yeast was low enough that yeast lysis won't affect it too much.

So, RDWHAHB.


Billy

 

Zooom101
Excellent response
Exactly what i was looking for, thx!

 

No prob Bob. Glad I could help. Keep Brewing!

 

I just recently bottled a hef (I live in peoria AZ) after 9 days in primary. It tastes great 2 weeks later .
I had an IPA that I did 9 days Primary, and then 2 weeks secondary. It was a pain in the rear trying to keep it cool for those first couple of weeks, and although it has been conditioning for only about a month now, the hef is better. But both yeast strains have different "optimal" temperatures. Ipa temp was supposed to be 64 degrees and the hef was supposed to be 72. As you know, it requires a lot of attention, and a pretty solid set up to keep it at optimal temp.

Moral of the story? Brew with yeast that you can control the temp easier. Save your cold brewing yeasts for winter time.

 

I agree with most of what you said and think the beer will be completely fine; in this case I think any off flavors would not be attributed to fermentation but rather oxidation. It can not be avoided and is sped up as temperature increases; as do all reactions (Arrhenius equation). Just my opinion.