Heater Runaway During Fermentation

[Wuzabear]

I brewed a chocolate stout (Chocolate Covered Beavr Nutz Extract Kit) this past Sunday and it was fermenting nicely at exactly 70 F up until last night. Last night my router crashed and my bucket heater (controlled via a smart plug) was frozen in the on position all night. I did not realize it until I woke up this morning and saw my temperature at 88 F! Devastating!

Now I have a few questions:

1. Given that this was only for 12 hours or so (and I imagine it was ramping up for the majority of that time), do you think my beer is ruined? 88F is very high and I'm worried there is no hope.

2. How would this impact the beer? I've read that fusel alcohols are created. What else? Is there any way to mitigate any negative effect from the heat? I plan on doing a 4 week secondary.

3. Are my yeast dead? I used WLP001.

4. Should I cool this thing as quickly as I can? Or will that stress the yeast even further? I'm currently letting it come back down to 70 F on its own.

Ugh! So sad! I was so excited for this batch! Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[bassmang4]

I had the same thing happen doing a Schwarzbier with 1056. Temp jumped well into the 90s in the first 12 hours. Was trying to stay in the low 60s. Cooled it down and it turned out fine. I was concerned that the yeast would crash...but didn't. Cooled with a fan. It may taste a touch different than intended, but should work out. If you get a touch of fruitiness, may not be the end of the world with your beer. Cool it down and let it ride.

 

[azmark]

Yeast love 88, they will be fine. Bring it down slowly. If the temp didn't jump in the first few days of active fermentation, you should be fine. (even tho yeast love 88, you may not like the flavors they throw at 88)

 

[InTheBasement]

Just change the name. Call it a hot chocolate stout.

 

[Wuzabear]

Just change the name. Call it a hot chocolate stout.

Love this.

Thank you guys. I'm still concerned it will come out poorly, but at least it seems as if it will still become a "drinkable" beer. First time using my new heater and first time using liquid yeast. Moors law at work on this one.

 

[motosapiens]

I had something similar happen except it was just me that forgot to unplug the heater (before I got a digital controller). beer got pretty dang warm, probably 85 or so. It tasted fine, but it never really cleared up as bright as normal.

whenever i make a bonehead mistake, I console myself with these thoughts:
a) ignorant savages have been making beer for thousands of years without temperature controls. It's not rocket surgery.
b) i'm a drunk and i'll drink it anyway unless it's truly awful, and it has to be *TRULY* awful to be worse than many commercial beers.

 

[Derp]

I have the opposite problem. My now-unsupported BrewBit temperature controller is stuck on an old version of the firmware which has a bug that changes the temperature to 999 when it drops below 32F. I cold crashed a bitter to 35, but it must have dropped too low and now it thinks it's 999F and the compressor ran constantly. 12 gallons of beer frozen solid in a Speidel fermenter.

I have all the parts to build a BrewPi clone and I really need to get off my ass and assemble the damn thing.

 

[Incongruent]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/temp-controller-measuring-temp-reliable.597636/

Iwas using a simple heating solution last winter that was low cost. The benefit of one of these cheap wall adapter controllers paired with a warmer is that it won't be subject to wifi issues (of which I have many).

I forgot that it's nice and cold out so I could do a lager now, thanks!

 

[brews2gf]

Love this.

Thank you guys. I'm still concerned it will come out poorly, but at least it seems as if it will still become a "drinkable" beer. First time using my new heater and first time using liquid yeast. Moors law at work on this one.

I think maybe you mean Murphy’s law? Moore’s law has to do w the size of computer chips getting ever smaller.

I hope that stout turned out ok. I’d love to hear the results.

 

[Wuzabear]

I think maybe you mean Murphy’s law?

You are totally right! Murphy's law

The stout came out drinkable. A few friends even liked it.

I'm fairly new to this, but I noticed that there was definite fusel alcohol flavors (with a slight vodka like aroma) as well a very harsh burnt flavor. I think the burnt flavor was due to how I added the cocoa nibs rather than the fermentation issue. There was also definitely a metalic/meaty flavor that become more apparent as I drank the bear. I also thought that I picked up some astringency, but again, I'm very new at this.

Now that I have learned quite a bit more since this post, I think it would have been better to very slowly ramp down the temperature to the mid 70s. I also probably should have bottled sooner (I left it in a secondary for about 6 weeks, not realizing at the time the long wait would not help).

It was only my second batch and my first with the temperature control. Since then, my system is now much more robust and I'm going to stick with thinking of this beer as learning experience.

Thanks for checking in!

 

[MaryB]

I use these to monitor freezers, the beer fridge, and whatever I have fermenting https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EYIEDOI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 can have up to 8 sensors! Cats managed to unplug my main fridge(converted chest freezer, it runs off solar for super high efficiency) and the temp alarm went off at 40 degrees to alert me. 140f to -40f temp range! Chest freezer with meat is at -24, chest freezer of garden veggies is at -7.4, beer fridge is at 37, and my fermenting area is at 63 degrees right now. All read from the remote base unit on my desk! Very handy and peace of mind!