what now?

[knucklehead]

I've been out of town since Thursday, just got home and the AC is out. The temp in the house is 93°F. The AC won't get fixed until tomorrow at the earliest.
Tomorrow is forecast to be another 100°F day. I have a Texas Blonde and a Honey Wheat in the fermenter awaiting bottling. I was hoping to bottle sometime this week. What am I going to end up with? Do you think it will be drinkable? Will enough yeast survive to bottle condition? Thanks

 

[hoppymonkey]

give them an ice bath and hope for the best.

 

[802VermontHomebrew]

oh snap! thats not good.... what he said!

 

[Revvy]

If you have passed the inital phase of fermentation, like the first 72 hours to 1 week, which if you were planning to bottle they must be done, then no worries. It's not ideal, but if the yeast were finished then they would not be putting out nasties during their fermentation process from the high temps. You should be OK.

 

[bovineblitz]

Well if most of the fermentation happened under normal conditions it still may be good

 

[marubozo]

When did you actually start the fermentation process and how many days was it from then that the AC went out? Most of the fermentation and creation of esters and off-flavors happen in just the first few days so if you were able to have the beer ferment at regular temps before it got really hot there's a good chance the beer will turn out pretty good.

There's a chance that the high temps did kill off some yeast and there's a slight chance there won't be enough come bottling time, but I'd say that's probably unlikely. I've had a package get delayed on a truck and the cold pack gone completely bad and when the yeast arrived the vial was nearly hot to the touch. I thought for sure the yeast were dead but I fired up a starter and they were just fine.

Obviously, the whole situation is not ideal, but if the beer actually did its fermenting at lower temps I'd say in the end you'll still have a pretty good end product.

EDIT: Dang, I'm slow. 3 replies while I was busy typing.

 

[knucklehead]

Ya'll are quick! That was some fast response. The brews have been in the fermenter three weeks today. I'll bottle and hope for the best. Thanks for the quick replies.

 

[Revvy]

And the AC just went out? Then more than likely you dodged a bullet.