Fermentation temp just hit 88f.. is my beer ruined.

[Sonsofsummer]

Brewed a red ale about two days ago.

Following the boil, I cooled to about 60f, oxygenated the wort (7.75 gallons, 1.052) and pitched 1000ml starter (WL San Diego Super)

My plan was to pitch cooler and bring the temp up to the recommended range of 66-68f, which worked great for the first 2 days.

Here’s where it all went wrong...

I’m pretty new to brewing but have realized that temp control is important. So I built a pseudo glycol chiller using a bar fridge, copper coil, stainless coil (in the fermenter), and a submersible pump which pumps glycol from a reservoir in the fridge. Setup is controlled by an ink bird.

To make a long story short, it’s my first time using the new setup. I accidentally set the fridge to what I thought was the lowest setting, but was actually the off setting.

Well, the inkbird kicked on and triggered the pump and continued to run with no cooling in the fridge. The heat from the pump heated the glycol and when I woke up and checked on it, the inkbird showed 87.5f as the current temp..

I managed to cool the fermenter back to 70f within an hour using the pump and two HD buckets (don’t know if this swing may have made things worse)

The fermenter was likely at these temps or above 70f for a maximum of 3-4 hours.

Aside from off flavors from esters, is this beer going to have a bunch of fusel alcohols now?

Pretty disappointing as everything was going well with this batch.

TL;DR: I screwed up with my chiller during fermentation and the fermenter went as hot as 88f for 3-4 hours, and now I’m worried that my beer is ruined.

 

[Toxxyc]

Let it finish, let it finish slowly and let the yeast clean up. You might get a lower attenuation and some flavours, but luckily it's a relatively neutral strain. Let it finish, and then decide if it's ruined. Might turn out just fine.

 

[Sonsofsummer]

It’s back bubbling happily away at 67.5f now...I guess let it finish and see is about all I can do at this point. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[odie]

you will only know once you drink it...nothing to be gained by dumping it...let it roll...

I doubt anything bad will come of it...

 

[Sonsofsummer]

you will only know once you drink it...nothing to be gained by dumping it...let it roll...

I doubt anything bad will come of it...

Thanks. Hope you’re right!

 

[Sonsofsummer]

Well just to update for anyone that is interested or perhaps for some reference if someone manages to replicate a similar scenario.

Bottled the beer last night and sipped on a little bit from the fermenter. Taste seems to be pretty good. There is a little bit of astringency, but I’m not sure that I can place the cause of this on the incident above.

I think the beer will definitely be drinkable.

 

[odie]

All my beers have been fermented at room temps from 1994 to about 2017ish. I never had a ferm chamber before. Brewed in Hawaii and South Texas so imagine the temps. Never had anything bad come of it but it was air conditioned. even in the 70s the fermenter temps are gonna rise above that from the activity unless you are directly cooling it in a fridge or some manner.

Yeast work in a "range", not a set point.