High Temeperature When Pitched Yeast

[osta]

This is my first batch and it did not go as well as I liked. The main issue I had was with cooling the wort. My original plan didn't work because the ice-water in my tub melted fast and got very warm. Lucky it was cold that night so i sat it outside. It cooled down, but wasn't fast enough for me. I was worried that it would develop bacteria. I panicked, it was late and I was recycling (drinking) beer bottles to use for this batch. I put the extra water to I had in my sanitized primary fermenter and put my wort in with it. I am not sure what the temperature was, but I know it was much higher than it should have been when I pitched my yeast.

I put it in a closet and the next morning it was bubbling co2 in the airlock. It steadily bubbled for 2 days now and it has slowed down bubbling a lot.

My question is did I kill some of my yeast? Obviously it didn't kill all of it since it started fermenting pretty quickly. A lot quicker than I expected. I did re-hydrate my yeast bfore pitching, so I know it was good before I added it to the wort.

I never took a OG measure. After reading some post here I decided to try my hydrometer and use that to measure how long it ferments for. I will do this after work today.

How long is long enough for it to ferment? I am worried I killed some of my yeast and that it wont be enough to complete the fermentation process. I figure if I can confirm it is fermenting for at least 4 days, with the hydrometer and it gets to the FG listed on my recipe it will be good. Is that correct?

 

[boydster]

You didn't kill the yeast by pitching too warm. Yeast really like working at warm temps, up to probably 130 or 140 before they start dying off. The problem is that the yeast start making more flavors that can be undesirable at warmer temps, and once the fermentation gets started it is much harder to get the temperature down because it is an exothermic process. The yeast will finish fermenting faster because they are working faster, but in doing so they may end up creating things like esters and higher/fusel alcohols that will change the flavor profile of the beer.

You will probably still have a very good beer at the end of this, but remember what you learned from this batch and get your temp under control from the beginning and it will be even better next time. The 4 most important things to get a handle on when you first start brewing are: sanitation, pitch rate, temp control, and patience. If you have those in check, you will consistently make good beer.

 

[solbes]

+1 to what was said above.

You made beer, and you can check gravity now on a sample to verify it finished. It will likely not be your finest product, but hopefully it will be plenty drinkable. Without knowing how warm it was when you pitched, you may have created some fusel alcohols, which can cause headaches with some people. If it was lower than that, you may have just created more esters, which are often fruity in nature.

Give it 3 weeks in primary to clean up fermentation byproducts. Or if you have a secondary, rack it over after 2 weeks total and let it sit for an additional week or two. Re-check the gravity before bottling. If it hasn't moved much since the last time you checked, you can bottle. Then get another batch going.

For the next batch, keep a sanitized thermometer floating in the wort so you can keep track of temps. When you get within 0-5 deg F of the low point in your yeasts working range, transfer to primary and pitch the rehydrated yeast. You will have a fine second batch I bet. And don't forget to check the gravity.

 

[osta]

Thanks for the fast replies!!!

 

[BigFloyd]

There's no way that any of us can even begin to guess how that batch is going to turn out without knowing what your pitch and ferment temps were. It could be fine. It could taste like a**. It could fall somewhere in between.

One of the most important brewing tools you can possibly own is a decent thermometer. Buy one. Use it.

Here's a waterproof quick read digital one for less than $20 - http://www.amazon.com/ES432-Ultra-Fast-Water-Resistant-Thermometer/dp/B0089O0W1G/ref=sr_1_5?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1390328315&sr=1-5&keywords=waterproof+thermometer.