Accidental overtemperature whilst fermenting

[Marklondon]

This is my first time brewing all grain. Currently attempting to brew a American pale ale and enjoying the process..!

Everything has gone well this far, I mashed, lautered, sparged, boiled, steeped, cooled and pitched with no problems last monday. 7 days ago.

In order to maintain a temperature in the room my fermentation vessel was residing in I set up a system using a wireless temperature tag, a wemo switch, IFTTT and an electric fan heater. All has been going well for a week with the temperature being maintained between 18 and 20 degrees c. Last night however when I was not home Zoe thing went wrong and the fan heater didn't turn off and the temperature got up to 27 degrees. I noticed the issue a few hours later and remotely turned off the heater. The temperature logs show that for 9 hours, the room temperature was over 20 degrees.

I was gutted this morning so have been searching the internet to garner opinion to determine if I should bin my beer. The yeast data sheet for safale s-04 says that fermentation temperatures should be between 12 and 25 degrees but ideal temperatures are between 15 and 20. My temperature data shows the room temperature exceeding 25 degrees for 5 hours. So will this 5 hours have ruined the beer?

Thoughts and comments appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Ajhutch]

Let it finish out and test it. I'd be very surprised if 5 hours after a week of fermentation would ruin it.

 

[Martybhoy]

There's usually a lag between room temperature and the temperature of your wort, so your wort probably didn't get as high as 27 degrees.

Plus, as it happened 7 days into fermentation, you'll probably be ok. The first few days are the most volatile.

Definitely continue the brew, and mark it up as a lesson learnt.

 

[Ajhutch]

Sorry I pressed send a bit rapidly there, doing family stuff. So I only have one golden rule with brewing and that is that I never throw a batch away until it's finished fermenting and I've bottled/kegged it and let it condition and tasted it properly. I've thrown individual bottles away but never a whole batch. Beer is surprisingly resilient. You might not have a gold medal winner but you've still got your first all grain batch and a good set of learning points.


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[terrym]

I only have one golden rule with brewing and that is that I never throw a batch away until it's finished fermenting and I've bottled/kegged it and let it condition and tasted it properly. I've thrown individual bottles away but never a whole batch. Beer is surprisingly resilient. You might not have a gold medal winner but you've still got your first all grain batch and a good set of learning points.

Best advice there is :thumb:

 

[Marklondon]

There's usually a lag between room temperature and the temperature of your wort, so your wort probably didn't get as high as 27 degrees.

Plus, as it happened 7 days into fermentation, you'll probably be ok. The first few days are the most volatile.

Definitely continue the brew, and mark it up as a lesson learnt.

Thanks for your input...

I'm thinking of starting the next batch now before the weather gets better and the temperatures get too high. Will avoid trying to use my overly complicated temperature control method on the next one as well!

 

[Marklondon]

Sorry I pressed send a bit rapidly there, doing family stuff. So I only have one golden rule with brewing and that is that I never throw a batch away until it's finished fermenting and I've bottled/kegged it and let it condition and tasted it properly. I've thrown individual bottles away but never a whole batch. Beer is surprisingly resilient. You might not have a gold medal winner but you've still got your first all grain batch and a good set of learning points.


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Thank you. I was a bit loathed to scrap the beer with all the hard work I've put in, not to mention the cost.!

Fingers crossed from this point on.

 

[Cwrw666]

I'd be surprised if there was anything wrong with it at all. The period when the krausen is frothing away is the temperamental time. A week in and the yeast will have just about finished. In fact I'm sure I've read somewhere about deliberately raising the temperature towards the end of fermentation, presumably to give the yeast a boost when food resources are becoming scarce.

 

[Flatline9]

In fact I'm sure I've read somewhere about deliberately raising the temperature towards the end of fermentation, presumably to give the yeast a boost when food resources are becoming scarce.

Raising the temperature will indeed help reach FG and will speed up diacetyl removal. So I don't think it's a total disaster
:

 

[Marklondon]

Raising the temperature will indeed help reach FG and will speed up diacetyl removal. So I don't think it's a total disaster
:

I've got a ALOT to learn....!

 

[Marklondon]

I know it's quite a while since I started this thread but I thought I'd let anyone who's interested know that the beer turned out great. The overtemperature wasn't the disaster I had originally feared.!

 

[Wabby]

Good lad for updating the thread.

Always knew it was going to be OK ... bad flavours tend to only occur if the temp spikes/moves a lot during initial fermentation (vigorous) and not once its slowed down / is re-absorbing stuff.

Plus as others have said, just because the room got up by 7 degrees in 9 hours doesn't mean the wort would.

Now just keep AG brewing :)