Hot Fermentation

[BeerRenter]

Noticed there was already a thread or two about fermentation temps. Sorry if this is redundant...

I brewed a light ale last weekend and left the carboy in the garage all week while I was in and out of town at work. Went into the garage tonight (where the carboy has been fermenting all week) and noticed how hot it was in there. I took a look at the thermometer (not attached d to the carboy) and noticed that the temp was 85 degrees at 10:15 PM at night! Our daytime highs have been in the mid 90's, so I'm sure the garage got up that high if not higher.

the airlock has already stopped firing, but should I dump it? I've always had a cool room in the house to ferment, but I finally got the garage all set up for all my equipment. Didn't even think twice about how hot it was going to get. Its a bummer if I have to scrap this one.

 

[D2T]

...should I dump it?...

No! Chances are it's fine. I've had one or two batches get a little hot (before I started putting them in the basement) and they were all fine. It might have altered the taste a bit but it's not going to make your beer undrinkable.

And you can always dump it later if you decide it's not good enough.

 

[McKBrew]

Do not toss your beer. Let it run it's course up until you bottle. If everything is good then, go ahead an bottle it. (I'd recommend tasting a sample before you bottle just to see if any off flavors have developed, even then if they are not over-powering, I'd still bottle it anyway)

 

[malkore]

i too say assume its fine for now and proceed like normal.

even if there's a little off flavor to it, a fair amount could mellow out with some bottle aging.