interesting brewing mishap

so, saturday before last i brewed a beer and had a bunch of friends hang at various stages... and ended up gettin too drunk. lol
i realized the next day i neglected to check OG, aearate or chill the beer AT ALL.
i figured wth just let it ferment and see what happens.
yeast was one vial liquid belgian ale yeast with no starter and i just transferred it to secondary today and added dry hops.
final gravity was 1003!
based on my usual efficiency and amount of grains used i assume i started at 1068ish
how the the heck can i have done everything wrong (especially not chilling the wort AT ALL or even waiting) and it still fermented like holy hell?
beer smells great and tastes pretty damn good too. i didnt pick up any off flavors

What do you mean "didn't chill AT ALL"?
The yeast would be dead if you pitched into just boiled wort.
Since you got a good ferment, I assume you pitched just fine, and all is well. Wouldn't be the first time some mistakes turned out OK.
RDWHAHB

NewJersey said:

i realized the next day i neglected to check OG, aearate or chill the beer AT ALL.

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Did you just pass out? I've gotten pretty loaded before while brewing, but never just left everything sitting out at the end of the day. Did you wake up to a pot full of wort still on the burner? I assume you turned off the burner.

1.068 to 1.003 is likely an inadvertent mixed culture fermentation.

I can't even imagine getting that drunk while brewing that I forgot to chill the beer after the boil! Unless you were doing extract with partial boil and adding cold top off water there is no way the yeast could survive that.

Pilgarlic said:

1.068 to 1.003 is likely an inadvertent mixed culture fermentation.

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explain further please. havent read about this yet
by not chilling it i mean i never put in my wort chiller and passed cold water through it. i always transfer from my boil kettle into a bucket to ferment and pass it through a strainer witch takes a few minutes.
i didnt pitch yeast literally onto boiling wort, but im certain it was not chilled enough
i had everything cleaned up and put away and then a buddy and i had some whixkey drinks together. after eating i just went straight to sleep.
got up early the next deal and lookd at the fermenting bucket hangin out in my living room and realized what i'd forgotten to do.

does the "mixed culture fermentation" mean its trashed?
how can i tell for sure?

Well your efficiency could actually have been MUCH lower due to drunken mistakes. Thus a lower OG = a lower FG.

What yeast was it?

wlp570
i had actually wanted to get the saison 2 or the other brand 3711, but my lhbs didnt have them in stock

Ehh that yeast has an average attenuation of 75%

So 75% of 1.012 = 1.003

I doubt your SG was THAT bad. I would agree that you probably have some sort of other bug eating sugar in the fermenter.

Don't get drunk when you are brewing. Good way to ruin a good beer. I almost never drink when brewing and if I do, no more than one.

rgarry said:

Don't get drunk when you are brewing. Good way to ruin a good beer. I almost never drink when brewing and if I do, no more than one.

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That's what "session" beers are for.... I usually have a 3% beer on hand for when I'm brewing and have a few/many. Save the strong stuff for when I'm done!!!

in regards to the "other bug" is it safe to drink?
i realize nobody can know that without knowing exactly it is, but is likely ok?
would "other bugs" also produce alcohol or is this beer now a low alcohol infected brew?
forgive my newbness here

I'm going to make a statement that will draw fire, but here goes. Every one of the beers that "we" brew harbors organisms we didn't invite to the party. The only difference between an "infected" beer and one that is not is the extent to which the visitors have been able to reproduce and the extent to which they have manifested themselves in aroma, mouthfeel, taste, head retention, et cetera. The beer is likely to be thin and to have a short shelf life. Taste and smell it and if it's unobjectionable and you want to package and drink it do so without unnecessary delay, and drink it fairly quickly (doesn't sound like you'll be resistant to that advice). If you taste it and it's not good, dump it and move forward. I wouldn't worry a bit about pathogens.

NewJersey said:

in regards to the "other bug" is it safe to drink?
i realize nobody can know that without knowing exactly it is, but is likely ok?
would "other bugs" also produce alcohol or is this beer now a low alcohol infected brew?
forgive my newbness here

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It's been said here before that nothing that grows in beer can kill you. It just makes it taste different than what you know to be beer, sometimes interesting sometimes rotten garbage sweaty socks and vegetal-fecal to name a few. If its seriously infected, you will realize it eventually and at that time throw it away. If you like it drink it.
You are in good company here, I regularly get drunk on long brew days. My notes get very scarce and I have forgotten to write down OG's a few times. But on the serious side make sure to be careful, it's only one turn of a valve to seriously scald you or a helper.

Agree. Your taste buds are the best test of whether it's safe to drink. Humans evolved (or, if you prefer, were created) with an innate sense of whether something is safe to eat or not: If something tastes good, chances are it's OK to consume.

isleofman said:

Ehh that yeast has an average attenuation of 75%

So 75% of 1.012 = 1.003

I doubt your SG was THAT bad. I would agree that you probably have some sort of other bug eating sugar in the fermenter.

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Not necessarily, if he mashed low he would have produced a more fermentable wort. With no notes and no memory I wouldn't jump to any conclusions and let it ride for a few weeks and taste it then.

If it has an infection that has already taken over fermentation he will know then.

MotorcycleMatt said:

if he mashed low he would have produced a more fermentable wort.

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Not that fermentable.

In addition to a potentially low mash temp, would it be possible that the yeast over-attenuated due to a warmer than normal fermentation temp? I know fermenting high runs the risk of off flavors/compounds, but doesn't it also typically coincide with a higher attentuation?

That FG does seem really really low though, what was the recipe supposed to be, did it contain a lot of sugar or anything?

Using one of the most attenuative strains, the Dupont Saison strain, with a step mash for max fermentability, sugar to dry and ferm temps into the 90's you're happy, and lucky, to get to an FG of 1.005 to 1.006. Unless you're doing a mead or using brett or lacto, that's about as low as it gets.

You probably just caught a wild yeast. I have one that lurks around my house that I catch sometimes. Gives me a low final gravity(around 1.003) and a sort of belgian fruity flavor. It sometimes takes a couple weeks extra conditioning, but always comes out drinkable...

hopdoc said:

You probably just caught a wild yeast. I have one that lurks around my house that I catch sometimes. Gives me a low final gravity(around 1.003) and a sort of belgian fruity flavor. It sometimes takes a couple weeks extra conditioning, but always comes out drinkable...

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im hoping youre right and will update thread once dryhopping is done and its carbed up and chilled down.