Brew fridge mistake.

[Theoriginalrich]

Hi all. I’ve had a massive brain fart while brewing a new world saison.
I’ve got a larder fridge as a brew fridge, my first brew is the NWS but a foolishly had the fridge and heater plugs in the wrong sockets on my inkbird. I went to work this morning and the fridge was at 26c, I pumped the inkbird up to 30c but instead of heating the fridge it cooled down to 12.6c by the time I got home. It’s rising now but I’m worried I’ve ruined it after around ten hours of cold temp. One good sign is it’s still bubbling…just.

 

[crowcrow]

Sure will be fine and no long term damage done. I'd say better too cold than too hot and better that it happened early in the fermentation. Good luck!

 

[DocAnna]

I found this morning that I'd left my brew fridges off for about 24 hours ...day 4 of fermentation... and my lager had warmed up to 16 deg, which is annoying. I agree with @crowcrow, cold is fine, so long as not frozen solid, better too cold than too hot. I guess if you are fermenting that warm purposefully to encourage ester formation It might have some small impact but it's unlikely to be much at all.

 

[An Ankoù]

I found this morning that I'd left my brew fridges off for about 24 hours ...day 4 of fermentation... and my lager had warmed up to 16 deg, which is annoying. I agree with @crowcrow, cold is fine, so long as not frozen solid, better too cold than too hot. I guess if you are fermenting that warm purposefully to encourage ester formation It might have some small impact but it's unlikely to be much at all.

The way I look at it: if that's the worst thing that happens today then it's been a good day.

 

[Theoriginalrich]

Thanks everyone. Everything seems fine so far The airlock is still bubbling away nicely. It was just a brew fridge rookie mistake, I was worried I had killed the yeast.

 

[GhostShip]

I'm sure it will be fine - as others have said, too cold is much better than too hot (which can produce off-flavours).

On my brew fridge, I have labelled the two plugs (one from the tube heater and one from the fridge) that come from the back of the fridge, which saves me peeking behind the fridge each time to check which is which.

I just printed out 'FRIDGE' and 'HEATER' on the laser printer and then put a bit of sellotape over each to hold them to the back of the plugs. Saves any mistakes in the future!

 

[Theoriginalrich]

I’ve checked it again and it’s still bubbling away, I’ve put a massive F and H on the plugs so not to make the same mistake again.

 

[Theoriginalrich]

QC check after one week carbonating in the fridge at 21c. This brew is monster, came in at 6.7% and is going down far too easily.
I should of got a fridge much sooner.