Fermenting temp on the high side, salvageable?

[Carterpants]

I did my first boil last Thursday and things were progressing nicely, plenty of action in the airlock. However, I completely spaced checking the fermenting temperature until Saturday afternoon.

I went downstairs and happened to glance at the thermometer sitting with my brew supplies, and noticed the air temp was around 75 degrees. I searched through the forums and found that the actual temp of the wort could be 5-10 degrees higher than ambient air temp, and I instantly went into panic mode.

The operating temp of the Munton's wort used (came with the kit) looks to be 55-77 degrees. I'm assuming my wort temp was all of 77 during those first 36 hours...

I got the carboy into a rope tub with some water and ice packs and ran to Petsmart to get a temp strip (aquarium style). When I got home and placed the strip on the carboy I was getting a reading of 73 degrees. So the water bath had begun to work as I was out. I got the temp down and steady at 65 degrees now by rotating ice packs/frozen water bottles in the robe tub.

Given all of this, what are my chances of actually salvaging this batch?

 

[twistr25]

You may have some slight off-flavors, but maybe not too bad. I'd make sure you give them time in the bottle to age and hopefully mask some of those. What did you brew?

 

[Math0]

A kit like this is hard to screw up. I think you will be just fine. Maybe having a more oily aftertaste

 

[E_Marquez]

A: Forgetaboutit.. nothing you can do now,,, it is what is will be.
B: My first three brews were done without fermentation temp control.... the 1st was GREAT...the second and third full of off flavors that make the beer barely palatable.
C: The time, effort and expense is done, pouring it out now is senseless unless that is your only fermenter and you want to start a new batch right away.
D: Lesson learned, control fermentation temps for here out...

 

[Carterpants]

This was the True Brew Porter kit. But, I certainly did not follow the directions as provided. I've been researching this wonderful world of homebrewing for a few months now and after a quick glance at their instructions I said, "Gonna tweak this a bit!"

So here's what I did if you're the curious type, original instructions vs what I did. Only including the steps that I changed.

* Boil 1.5 gallons of water <> I have a 9 gallon brew pot, so went with 4 gallons.
* Toss DME, LME, malto, and hops into boil <> I held back on the hops until the hot break hit, then added hops and started the 60 boil
* They didn't add a whirfloc tab <> I did with 5 minutes left in the boil (half tab)
* Didn't mention cooling, just toss into carboy and let cool to 90 degrees, then transfer and pitch <> Wort chiller brought wort down to 75 degrees, filtered to carboy, pitched, lightly shook carboy for 30 sec
* Back fill fermenter with enough water to hit 5 gallons <> Only had to add 1 gallon of filtered water

Seemed legit when I thought it all through. Maybe going off the reservation when using one of these kits was a bad idea?

 

[twistr25]

Most of it seems ok. If you want you should have plenty of room to go ahead and do a full boil. Boil around 7 gallons of water, accounting for evaporation and trub loss, should end with around 5.5 gallons going into your fermenter, then no need for top off water. But that's completely up to you. Also whirfloc works a little better with 15 minutes left I believe. See how this one turns out, but some people have better luck adding the DME at the beginning of the boil and the LME at flameout or after the 60 minutes is up. Keeps the color a little lighter and can prevent some off flavors.

Also porter being a more robust beer, you may be able to cover up some to most of any off flavors that may have developed.

 

[mcmeador]

The boil volume is good. The more of your final volume you boil, the better. With the pot you have, you could have just done a full boil. The timing of your hop addition sounds good. And cooling the wort down before pitching was definitely a good idea! The True Brew kits give some pretty questionable instructions in some areas.

If it makes you feel any better about the fermentation temperatures, my True Brew pale ale I did a few weeks ago had a definite fruity off flavor after a week in the bottles. It tasted like a bitter hefeweizen, and my girlfriend said the same thing without me having to say anything. I think my temps also got a little on the high side. After another week, the flavor is noticeably less pronounced. Just let yours sit in primary for a couple weeks and bottle. Some time in the bottle could do it good. There was a story I read on here about someone who let their fermentation temp get completely out of control (into the 90s) and found after a few months that all of the off flavor was gone and it tasted exactly as it was supposed to.

 

[Carterpants]

Thanks everyone, I feel much better about the situation now

I think my new plan of attack will be to continue monitoring the bath and keeping the strip temp around 65, and have it sit in primary for a full 3 weeks. Then bottle and keep there for 2 weeks, sample a few, and likely keep the rest in bottles for another week or so.

I've learned a lot during this first attempt and these forums have been a huge part of that. Great community here!