brew heating up after fermentation

[trufleshufle13]

Well i have my first two brews still in first and secondary. i brewed them about a week apart because after i switched my first to a secondary glass carboy i got the urge to jump right into another batch.

temps have been pretty good and it has been bubbling strong (not crazy, but consistently) . but today we got hit with a little bit of a heat wave. its been in there 6 days. i checked the stick on thermometer and it is above any of the readings. so it could be somewhere in the 80s.

i was wondering, if it was done fermenting and/or very close, is it a problem if the heat rises that much. i get my kegging system tomorrow so i will be putting the glass carboy in the spare fridge so i can knock off some of the cooling time. (if there is a problem with this let me know also.) then when i when have the carboy cleaned i will be racking my second batch into it.

like i said, it could have been stunted or just stopped on its own, but either way is it a problem that it reaches the 80s. i will take a hydrometer reading shortly to see if it is done but i just want to know if my beer will be hurt by the heat at all.

if the hydrometer steal reads high, can i just cool it back down and it will start on its own? should i leave it where it is and try to cool it down or will it start back up again in the secondary if the temps are back to normal?

i know i threw a lot out there at once but any help on any of this will be a big help. thanks


EDIT: i just checked again and it is still bubbling every 30-45 seconds. would it be a good idea to put my secondary glass carboy in the fridge until tomorow

 

[TipsyDragon]

first off never rack your beer till fermentation is done. since you did a week in the primary i would do another 2 in the secondary before i keged or cooled before i keged.

with that said. you mostly need to worry about temps during primary fermentation. since its done/almost done i wouldn't worry to hard. but on the other hand beer starts to lose flavor when it gets above 80 or so. definitely look into building some sort of temp control. there are plenty of DIY things you can do. simplest is a wet t-shirt and a fan. put the carboy in a tub of water and put a wet t-shirt on it. as the water evaporates it will cool the carboy and draw more water up from the tub. if this isn't enough try using ice in the tub.

 

[trufleshufle13]

oh yea the first one was def done when i racked, i guess im just getting too excited to keg it at this point, probably should just wait. but thanx for the advice, i kinda just bit the bullet and kicked on the AC. its a little early in the season, but im sweating buckets and i cant imagine how my beer feels.

 

[TipsyDragon]

all i can say it try not to over think keging its really not that hard.