I just posted my levelheaded "how do I fix my temp controller" thread, so now it's time to panic a little.
I brewed a CDA/Black IPA a couple days ago, 5.5 gallons, 1.087 OG, two packs BRY-97 yeast. Temps got a little low - about 15 Celsius - early in fermentation because I had an issue with my new heating lamp (thought I had the unmarked inline switch set to "on" but it was actually set to "off"). Still, I had krausen and there was clearly some fermentation going on, so once I got my heating issues ironed out it all seemed good. My last check last night was about 14 hours ago, the beer was at 17.5 C - right at the bottom of the +-0.5C range my STC allows before kicking on - and all was well.
Flash forward to this morning, about 1.5 hours ago, and all was not well. The STC read 24C for the beer temp; the ferm chamber's LED read 42C air temp, and both the fridge's compressor and the heating lamp were blasting. Looks like I got some wires crossed somewhere - that's for the other thread. Anyway, I unplugged the heat lamp and had to rush to work.
In short, somewhere around 24 hours after fermentation started, the temp started to ramp up. It did so for somewhere less than 12 hours, but probably at least four or five to reach that temperature. Now it's cooling down in a wine fridge with a weak compressor that will probably take another three or four hours to get it back to proper temps (fortunately assisted by the 13C ambient temp in the room). That's anywhere from 8 to 16 hours at higher than optimal fermentation temps early in fermentation.
It'll be beer, but should I be worried that it will be crappy beer after all this? What are the best case/worst case scenarios for something like this?
I brewed a CDA/Black IPA a couple days ago, 5.5 gallons, 1.087 OG, two packs BRY-97 yeast. Temps got a little low - about 15 Celsius - early in fermentation because I had an issue with my new heating lamp (thought I had the unmarked inline switch set to "on" but it was actually set to "off"). Still, I had krausen and there was clearly some fermentation going on, so once I got my heating issues ironed out it all seemed good. My last check last night was about 14 hours ago, the beer was at 17.5 C - right at the bottom of the +-0.5C range my STC allows before kicking on - and all was well.
Flash forward to this morning, about 1.5 hours ago, and all was not well. The STC read 24C for the beer temp; the ferm chamber's LED read 42C air temp, and both the fridge's compressor and the heating lamp were blasting. Looks like I got some wires crossed somewhere - that's for the other thread. Anyway, I unplugged the heat lamp and had to rush to work.
In short, somewhere around 24 hours after fermentation started, the temp started to ramp up. It did so for somewhere less than 12 hours, but probably at least four or five to reach that temperature. Now it's cooling down in a wine fridge with a weak compressor that will probably take another three or four hours to get it back to proper temps (fortunately assisted by the 13C ambient temp in the room). That's anywhere from 8 to 16 hours at higher than optimal fermentation temps early in fermentation.
It'll be beer, but should I be worried that it will be crappy beer after all this? What are the best case/worst case scenarios for something like this?
