Help needed - fermentation temp too high

Hi,

First time post and I need some help if possible.

Did my first all-grain brew on Monday evening. Brewing an APA - about 4.94 kg of pale malt with 340g each of crystal and Munich; used Magnum bittering an centennial and Columbus for aroma. OG was 1.054 (which was 0.03 higher than the recipe but in the right ballpark). Fermentation temperature is meant to be 19 degrees C according to the recipe, I couldn't get the wort cooler than 22 (no worth chiller, had to use my bath and didn't have plentiful supply of ice cubes). Rehydrated and pitched my yeast when it was marginally cooler than my wort. Sealed it up and put the fermenter in a dark place - my fermometer showed 22 degrees C on the outside. So far, apparently so good.

However, I (stupidly) didn't reckon with the yeast increasing the temperature of the wort and covered the fermenter (on the outside) with some radiator foil to try to prevent heat escaping/getting in. I know - very stupid. Anyway, fermentation started after around 12 hours and after 24 hours the fermometer was showing a temperature of 27 degrees C. I took the foil off from outside the fermenter and the temperature has come down to around 23 - still higher than I would like but I can't do much better in my flat. Now, after 48 hours, the bubbling has pretty much tapered off. I am worried that there will be serious off flavours and that the fermentation could and should have gone on for another 24 hours.

QUESTIONS:

1. Is my beer already likely to be ruined? I'm inclined to leave it be for around three weeks, then bottle and wait at least four weeks before drinking.
2. If it isn't ruined, might pitching some more yeast help? Or am I just wasting my time?

Any help greatly appreciated - it may turn out to be a duff batch but I reckon I've learned loads more from all the mistakes I've made this time than from previous extract/mixed brews.

Thanks,

Dave

If you got it back down pretty quick hopefully it will have been okay

What yeast did you use? I guess it will be a waiting game. The higher temps could have meant it got going quicker than you would have liked.. I woudl leave it until next week and take a gravity check

Thanks for replying so quickly - I used Safale US-05 which I rehydrated. On the plus side (hopefully) the smell coming out of the airlock is of columbus and centennial rather than banana etc. so I'm hopeful that I have just about avoided all sorts of fruity esters.

When you say take a gravity reading in a week, do you mean check if it's at or near it's target FG? If it is higher, would you suggest pitching more yeast to ferment the remaining sugars?

discokingdave said:

Thanks for replying so quickly - I used Safale US-05 which I rehydrated. On the plus side (hopefully) the smell coming out of the airlock is of columbus and centennial rather than banana etc. so I'm hopeful that I have just about avoided all sorts of fruity esters.

When you say take a gravity reading in a week, do you mean check if it's at or near it's target FG? If it is higher, would you suggest pitching more yeast to ferment the remaining sugars?

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Safale 05 usually ferments fairly slowly and tolerates relatively high temperatures. Since you pitched at 22C , I think your only issue is restricting heat loss for a small period of time.

The fact is that nothing undoes what has been done, and the good news is that I don't see it being too bad, myself. I always leave a US 05 brew for 2 weeks in the primary FV and then rack to a secondary for a further week.

You might have to do do worse to get funky esters from US 05. I would agree with the plan of leaving a little longer before bottling than originally planned. There is a graph in John Palmer's book that shows how a slow ferment initially gets to the end of the cycle quickest, in terms of by-products and their gradual breakdown.

discokingdave said:

Thanks for replying so quickly - I used Safale US-05 which I rehydrated. On the plus side (hopefully) the smell coming out of the airlock is of columbus and centennial rather than banana etc. so I'm hopeful that I have just about avoided all sorts of fruity esters.

When you say take a gravity reading in a week, do you mean check if it's at or near it's target FG? If it is higher, would you suggest pitching more yeast to ferment the remaining sugars?

Click to expand...

I would recommend leaving it alone. Unless you know what to do in response to an unusual reading of specific gravity, and understand all the reasons behind it, I question obtaining one.

Anything you do now, makes things worse and there probably ain't too much wrong.

Just mine :whistle:

I reckon you'll be ok. US05 doesnt freak out easily, I've no temp control and 05 has always been fine. You can bring the temp down by placing the FV in a tub of water abd addng ice or frozen bottles of water.

Brilliant, thanks all, puts my mind at rest. Will give it 2-3 weeks in the primary as per the original plan, cross fingers and make sure I have a wort chilled next time so I can start off at a lower temperature.