Really Hot Fermentation

[Chris_Dog]

Sunday I brewed Yooper DFH 60, I then put it in my fridge in the garage to ferment. Up to this point it has operated without a hiccup. It quit working coupled with the fact that family are in town and I didn't notice for a few days. I am pretty sure the beer fermented at 85-90°. I moved it the house yesterday morning.

My question is (if anyone knows) how funky are the off flavors going to be?

 

[Danek]

It could go one of two ways - if it was mostly done fermenting when the temps got high, then there might not be too much in the way of funky flavors, and you could have an awesome beer. Alternatively, the whole fermentation could have been hot. That happened to my first ever beer, and try as I might to put a happy spin on it, that beer sucked total ass. It reeked of bananas, in a way that really didn't go at all well with the bitterness and aroma of the hops. Mind you, that was with a crappy generic kit yeast - I guess other yeast would react differently, so your mileage may vary.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your beer.

 

[EdWort]

You could get fusels which will make the alcohol stand out. Fruity esters can happen too at high temps.

 

[Chris_Dog]

I bet it is going to be nasty, who knows though... I check it out after everyone leaves tomorrow.

 

[Evan!]

My bets are on estery, phenolic, fruity, strange---but who knows, you might get lucky and end up with great beer.

 

[arturo7]

Last summer I tried a couple "farmhouse" brews with Saison yeast. I let them ferment in my garage. The first batch was 85-90, just over the specs for the yeast. It wasn't bad but left a nasty hangover.

The second try a couple weeks later fermented at 95+. It was horrible. A buddy decided he liked it and drank about 6 liters. He was totally decapacitated the next day.

Those fusels are nasty!

 

[Kai]

What yeast did you use?

 

[FlyGuy]

I am guessing you are going to see some phenolic ester production that will lend an excessively spicey and plasticy/medicinal aroma and flavour to the beer. If it was warm early on, you are likely to get some very hot alcohol flavours as well that lend a real harshness at the back of the palate and down your throat on the swallow. I have learned the hard way that these off-flavours diminish with time, but never disappear.

Hopefully if your ferment started cool, the effects will be minimized. At the least, I bet this beer really dried out, which might not be bad for a DFH clone, depending on your recipe and mash temps.

 

[DeathBrewer]

it all depends on where it was at during primary fermentation. if the first couple of days were at optimum temp, then you might be ok. i'm sure you'll know when you taste it

 

[Chris_Dog]

What yeast did you use?

It was US-05

 

[Chris_Dog]

Crunch Time... I have to decide if I should dry hop (2.5 oz) or write it off. As expected it fermented well 1.012. The taste is sweeter than I expected and not horrible but not great. You see my problem!

 

[Yooper]

Well, if it's "not horrible", the dryhopping might cover much of the off-flavor. You'd only be out the $5-$6 for the cost of the hops. Otherwise, you're out the whole batch. If you can cool it now, you could even try "lagering" it a bit to smooth it out before dryhopping.

If it's drinkable, I say dry hop it and then drink up.

However, please do me a favor and told tell anyone it's my recipe!

 

[Chris_Dog]

I will tell you right now it is NOT the recipe but an extremely hot fermentation.

The other thing that weighs into my decision making is that I don't need 10g of beer that will give you nasty hangovers. I can buy cheap beer for that.

 

[Yooper]

I know- I'm just kidding you. You know, I was reading up on fusel alcohols last night in John Palmer's book and he claims that yeast can partially clean up fusels. Now, I'm not saying you'll have a beer than you can drink 10 pints of without a hangover, but maybe that will help. Maybe try a secondary of 60-62 degrees, and then some cold crashing. It sure couldn't hurt.

 

[Chris_Dog]

F'-it secondary and dry hop it is!