First All-Grain Fermantation failure!

[wtrfwlnut]

So I was really excited to have nailed my OG for my first all-grain batch(Bells 2 Hearted IPA). Made my yeast starter on my stir plate and pitched at the right temp. Felt really good about everything including my cleanliness. Then I put it in the Ferm chamber with the carboy of beer that I made a couple weeks earlier (an extract clone of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale). The older beer had another week or so to ferment before dry hopping. I had to put that off until last Wednesday but the day came, time to dry hop the Celeb Ale.

- Up to this point, I had the temp controller probe in a Thermowell in the older beer which controlled the temp of the ferm chamber. Had the temp set at 67 Deg F and thought I was good. Well, I moved the thermowell to the Bells and my High Temp alarm goes off immediately! CRAP, The Bells is reading 77 Deg!! Ouch! For nearly 2 weeks it has been higher than my desired ferm temp. Lesson Learned, put the probe in my most active brew.... I can only imagine what kind of funky flavors I'm going to get at that higher temp. Such a disappointment. I'm going to go ahead and dry hop it and see how it turns out but this learning brewing has some hard lessons.

Maybe I should just chuck the carboy in a corner in my closet and visit it sometime next summer....Might make a good sour.

 

[tootal]

I bet it turns out fine. Obviously that's not "optimum" temp but today's yeast seem to work miracles at times.

The fermentation creates it's own heat so that made the difference. Lesson learned but I think you'll be fine.

 

[kh54s10]

I don't really understand what happened here. You moved the thermostat probe to the new beer and the alarm went off. That does not surprise me, the fermentation could raise the temperature above the others. But then you never got to your desired temperature?? It should have cooled based on the temperature it was reading off the current batch.....

Put the probe in the current batch. It might cool the earlier batches lower but that is better than letting the current batch get too warm.

 

[Morrey]

The way you are describing things, is your temp controller working properly? Using a temp controller probe in a thermowell is what I do. Assuming your thermowell is long enough to reach into your beer? Assuming the temp controller probe goes into the thermowell and touches the bottom?

Are there fluids or water in the thermowell to aid conductivity? If so, is your probe submersible? Not all are.

Sorry for the questions, sounds like a controller issue. Also, you may want to put the probe in an ice bath and see if the controller reads 32F.

 

[jpakstis]

I recently made a trillium style pale ale with US-04 and a wheat beer with US-05. I have no fermentation temp control and just relied on ambient temps in our finished basement. They were both around 75-76 in the fermenter and both tasted just fine.

 

[Pariah3j]

I wouldn't worry too much at this point, worst case scenario it has some sort of off flavor - but ya never know, this could end up being your best beer you ever made - happy accidents have a way of doing some unusual and amazing things. So as the saying goes... RDWHAHB

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Morrey and kh54, I think the OP saying he put the Bell's fermenter in the ferm chamber with another brew that was mostly fermented. The temp sensor stayed in the older brew set at 67 for the past 2 weeks. So the controller was keeping the older brew at 67 (not too hard since it was mostly done) while the Bell's was going through active fermentation and pretty much free rising in temp.

OP, what yeast did you use? Some are more forgiving of high temps than others.

 

[wtrfwlnut]

I don't really understand what happened here. You moved the thermostat probe to the new beer and the alarm went off. That does not surprise me, the fermentation could raise the temperature above the others. But then you never got to your desired temperature?? It should have cooled based on the temperature it was reading off the current batch.....

Put the probe in the current batch. It might cool the earlier batches lower but that is better than letting the current batch get too warm.

The Thermowell/probe was in the current batch... That's why I was surprised...I thought I'd be fine and both beers would be at 67 deg...Apparently not the case so I learned when I moved the probe...

At first I just thought it was the thermowell that had gotten up to ambient, but it took quite a while of the ferm chamber cooling to get the new batch down to 67..Like overnight.

I know I pitched at 65 so it should have stayed relatively cool for the first few hours anyway....

 

[wtrfwlnut]

The way you are describing things, is your temp controller working properly? Using a temp controller probe in a thermowell is what I do. Assuming your thermowell is long enough to reach into your beer? Assuming the temp controller probe goes into the thermowell and touches the bottom?

Are there fluids or water in the thermowell to aid conductivity? If so, is your probe submersible? Not all are.

Sorry for the questions, sounds like a controller issue. Also, you may want to put the probe in an ice bath and see if the controller reads 32F.

I tested the temp controller against a thermo pen after this happened with the same concern. The temp controller has a differential compensating feature also so I was making sure I didn't need to use that feature. It is apparently reading correctly. Thermowell/probe was over half way (2/3 actually) submerged and dry inside with no liquid in it. The probe is submersible as well and reached the bottom of the thermowell. Not a controller issue as far as I can tell.

It just seems that the ferm chamber was keeping temp cold enough to keep the first beer at 67 Deg, but the more active ferm beer generated more heat requiring more cooling to stay at 67.

 

[wtrfwlnut]

Morrey and kh54, I think the OP saying he put the Bell's fermenter in the ferm chamber with another brew that was mostly fermented. The temp sensor stayed in the older brew set at 67 for the past 2 weeks. So the controller was keeping the older brew at 67 (not too hard since it was mostly done) while the Bell's was going through active fermentation and pretty much free rising in temp.

OP, what yeast did you use? Some are more forgiving of high temps than others.

Exactly what happened. I used Denny's Favorite 50 (Wyeast Labs 1450) in the Bell's. Specs say it likes 60-70 Deg F...ugh

 

[wtrfwlnut]

Thanks for the other words of encouragement tootal, jpakstis and Pariah3j. I hope it turns out ok but I'm going to pay more attention next time I ferment two at the same time in the same chamber...

 

[55x11]

Thanks for the other words of encouragement tootal, jpakstis and Pariah3j. I hope it turns out ok but I'm going to pay more attention next time I ferment two at the same time in the same chamber...

IPA could be surprisingly forgiving due to hop bitterness and aroma. Just dry hop it quite a bit. Don't tell anyone what happened. I bet you will get compliments on how this is the best IPA ever.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

You may still be OK. Let it finish. You never know what the yeast will do.