Severe heat concern

[Toy4Rick]

Hey all

So last weekend after my Belgian Red had been fermenting for 7 days, my fermentation fridge started acting up. I pulled the plug and said, don't forget to take the fermenter into the house.

Well guess what, I forgot and on top of that I forgot that I had a 60 watt bulb in the fridge to help balance out the temp

3 days later I opened the fridge to find my beer about 130 degrees

I'm going to finish it off and keg it anyway, just curious to know what I should be expecting

Rick

 

[GoeHaarden]

130! That's impressive. Never had one that high, so I can't say exactly. I'd be concerned with fusels, but with that temp I might start to worry if it killed off the yeast. Did you check a gravity to see where fermentation was at?

 

[schematix]

take a sip so you can experience it and then dump it. that flavor just won't age out. get another batch going soon, but make sure your temp control works reliably first!

depending on how quickly it got to 130 it might not even be fully fermented as the yeast would have been cooked.

 

[passedpawn]

balance out the temp? What's that mean?

Fermentation was likely mostly done, but I'd think heating up yeast to that temp might produce some off flavors. I'll be watching this thread to find out how it turned out. Good luck

Did you measure the final gravity?

 

[Toy4Rick]

Thanks everyone, I'll keep you posted

When the garage is too cold I use the bulb to warm things up so the fridge and bulb kinda work against each other. Once the garage warms up, i turn the light off, however this time I forgot when I unplugged it

Doh
Rick

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks everyone, I'll keep you posted

When the garage is too cold I use the bulb to warm things up so the fridge and bulb kinda work against each other. Once the garage warms up, i turn the light off, however this time I forgot when I unplugged it

Doh
Rick

I have a 2 stage controller that has both heat and cold outputs. In a Florida garage, the heat comes on so seldom that I don't even put the heater in there anymore. Anyway, you might consider such a controller. Mine was fairly expensive, but I think there some nice cheap versions of the ubiquitous STC-1000 that do the same.

 

[Toy4Rick]

Well I tasted it today and decided to go ahead and dry hop it (it's really a Belgian Red IPA) and see how it finishes out

Stay tuned
Rick

 

[GoeHaarden]

I agree with passedpawn about using a controller. I use the BrewPi to control my fermentation temps. DIY, cheap, with remote access if you like that route better...

 

[madscientist451]

Maybe this will be a new method for Belgian beers, ferment at 70 for 7 days , then let it free rise and then heat to 130!
Sometimes mistakes can lead to new discoveries.

 

[passedpawn]

Sometimes mistakes can lead to new discoveries.

Truth!

 

[Toy4Rick]

Well back for an update

It's carbing up as we speak. It's not nearly as bad as I expected. Lost quite a bit of flavor but almost no fusels issues. Drinkable yes, a great beer no. It reminds me of beer I was making 6 years ago

I'll drop back by after I get into the keg

Rick

 

[mongoose33]

I'm thinking this event gives new meaning to the term "steam beer."

BTW, one thing I like about the Inkbird controllers (and I suspect others have this feature too) is it allows me to set an alarm for too warm and too cold.

It works. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[bucketnative]

Heck at 7 days of fermentation, most of it may have been completed, and the effects minimal. The high temperature, depending on how fast it rose, may have killed off most of the yeast. I bet it won't be too bad.

 

[Toy4Rick]

Well, time for an update

I finished the keg, kept telling myself it was good (first Belgian and all)

Since then, I brewed the same beer with a slight different Belgian yeast, everything went as planned and guess what, it tastes virtually the same.

I think the excessive heat happened 1) after primary fermentation was done and 2) so fast that the yeast didn't have any time to wonk the beer before they were killed off.

With that being said, I'm not going to make a habit of doing this

Enjoy
Rick