Temp too hot after initial fermentation

[AlbuquerqueJoe]

So I had some Cranberry Weizen in the primary fermenter. After 7 days, the SG was right where it should be, and all signs of vigorous fermentation had subsided. The krausen had fallen back into the beer. As I was preparing to transfer it into the secondary, something came up, and long story short, I had t rush out of town and left the primary fermenter with the beer still in it sitting in the garage, just outside of my ferm chiller, were im sure the temps got up to about 90!! There is no funny smells, and so far as I can tell it seems ok. Think there will be off flavors? I used Nottingham dry yeast.

 

[samc]

You should be fine. . . Now take a sample and drink - then you have your real answer.

 

[AlbuquerqueJoe]

So it has a bit of a sour taste, which isn't necessarily bad in a cranberry beer. It is still sweet tho, so i'm guessing the high temps for 5 days killed the yeast. It's in the secondary now. Think I'll reptich, let it go for another week in the primary at 68 degrees, then bottle it. Wish me luck.

 

[jtlawlor]

Highly unlikely that you killed the yeast - unless you got it above 110-120.

 

[AlbuquerqueJoe]

It almost definitely got above 100. I live in the desert.

 

[AlbuquerqueJoe]

so my brew has a solvent-like smell that is pretty strong and a mild bandaid, solvent flavor. I was worried about this. Does anyone know if cold conditioning it for several months will help this go away?

 

[jonnagle82]

RDWHAHB!

I had an AHS American Red Ale that fermented too warm. Temp reached close to 85-90 F. Reached SG in about 3 days! Initial reaction was that I ruined it, but after reading multiple posts on here, I let the beer sit in primary for about 2 months before touching. I then racked to secondary to let clear. Upon racking to secondary, I had found a white/grayish growth on the top of the beer, but racked anyway. That sat for about 3 to 4 months before I bottled. Those sat for a month and I just recently tried a few. Probably one of my top beers. SWMBO says so too. Too bad that I will probably never be able to replicate this. Especially with the possible secondary "infection".

Long story short, let it go. The yeasties are you best friends!

 

[kanzimonson]

What was the temp during the first 7 days of fermentation? In a hot climate, room temp won't cut it, unless you're running your AC at like 60 degrees.

I made a beer with the same solventy flavors you're describing, and it never aged out. In fact, it got worse over time.

 

[ForRealBeer]

Sounds like you might have a lot of chlorophenols which are initially produced by the yeast...or possibly an infection.

Some say that high fermentation temps generally leads to the fusel alcohols (alcohol/gasoline/rocket fuel), not chlorophenols, and that phenols come from using untreated tap water and/or bleach in your process, but if you used the same water and the same cleaning/sanitation methods as you did with other batches, I'd point back at the high fermentation temps or a possible infection that was accelerated through the outlier of the high fermentation temp.

Ah well, lessons learned.

Revvy posted a good link in another thread about this:

This is a good piece from BYO's mr wizard on Chlorphenols...

Quote:
Chemical off-flavors are frequently encountered in beer and can be caused by numerous factors. The most obvious cause comes from traces of cleaning or sanitizing chemicals left on equipment surfaces after use. Chemicals containing chlorine and iodine are well known contributors of chemical off-flavors if the compounds remain on the equipment. Of the two, chlorine is the worst because it can combine with malt phenols to form a class of compounds called chlorophenols, which have a pronounced medicinal aroma. Iodine sanitizers usually cause no problems if used at their recommended concentration.

Some brewers encounter problems with chlorine even without using chlorinated sanitizers. These problems are often traced to chlorinated tap water. If brewers use chlorinated tap water for rinsing brewing equipment, then chlorophenol off-flavors may arise. One well known craft brewer had a problem with chlorophenols in his fruit beer that was eventually traced to the fruit. The fruit source had been rinsed at the farm with chlorinated water and this chlorine was being introduced to the beer at the time of fruit addition. This problem took some good detective work to solve.

Medicinal aromas can also come from wild yeast contamination. In fact the classic indicator of wild yeast contamination in beer is a distinct phenolic aroma. This aroma is often likened to cloves or the smell of standard bandages.
This PDF may have some answers...I thought I did see Cambden mentioned in it.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fw ww.probrewer.com%2Fresources%2Flibrary%2F42-phenolic.pdf&ei=F7XwSbSeN4ikNaWElb0P&usg=AFQjCNGcx QhIoK71wGiuDqxwJIrCKZtV4w