Whats going to happen to my beer

[rwmiscik]

So I brewed a blonde ale on saturday and then all day sunday everything was going great it was at the suggested temp of 68 degrees and it was going perfect. Then due to unforeseen circumstances i got up monday morning and my door was wide open letting allthe cold air in and my beer temp was down to 50 degrees. So i wrapped a blanket around it and put infront of the heater and by the end of the it was up to 62 degrees and all the yeast was dormant and at the bottom of my carboy. Then this morning (tuesday) it was still at 62 so I left it closer to the heater and went to work and when I returned from work the temperature was reading over 78 degrees! Now i moved it away into a cooler spot and its not really fermenting still im not sure if it is just done fermenting because the temperature was so high for about eight hours or if it never started. My hydrometer is broken so I have no way to tell what the gravity is at the moment. My question is what do you think the beer is going to taste like. Im assuming with all the massive temperature swings it going to have ALOT of off flavors but i am relatively new so i dont really know for. Id love to get an experts opinion on what i should do and what they think it is going to taste like. thank you

 

[frazier]

Well - don't panic, first of all. There's almost nothing you can do to kill your beer, short of freezing it solid or heating it to 100.

It sounds like it wasn't fermenting actively at 78 - either it was past high kraeusen, or hadn't gotten going yet. In either case, put the fermenter in a stable environment, walk away from it, and check it again in a couple weeks. That will give you time to replace your hydrometer, and you won't really need it until then anyway.

No worries!

 

[rwmiscik]

Thanks for the info. I brewed on saturday and on sunday i got up in the morning and it had about two inches of krausen on the top. The recipe i was using says to rack it to a secondary which im not even sure i should do because most of what ive read on this site is that secondaries are pointless unless your dry hopping (which i am not). I am going to my LHBS on friday and i will replace the hydrometer i broke so im thinking ill wait another week or two and then take some readings and see how it goes.

 

[frazier]

Sounds like a good plan. I'm sure you brew will be fine.