Belgian Saison .... left it in indirect sunlight today ... crap!

[jph2275]

Hey HBT,

Love the forum, it's been motivating me to read and learn a ton Well last night I decided to brew my brewers best belgian saison kit. The brew went wonderfully and I added my dry yeast last night at around 10 p.m. and this morning the brew was taking off like a rocket ship It had a huge head of krausen and the bubbling was much more intense than my last 3 liquid yeast brews (Irish red ale, AHS Texas kolsch, and falconers flight IPA).

However, I was in a rush to go to work this morning and I left the closet door which houses the beer open

The room only has one very large window which is directly across from the open closet and the shade was closed 75%. So, it only got indirect sunlight but it had indirect sunlight from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.!

Did I do anything to hurt my Saison by letting it be exposed to indirect sunlight for 8 hours? The closet door half obstructed the light, but half of the carboy *vertically* was still exposed. Makes me a tiny bit frustrated, during the learning process I keep learning things the hard way!!!

When I came home tonight the carboy was still churning vigorously and the airlock was booming faster than any other brew i've done.

Thanks for your advice, the brew is going at around 76 degrees ambient temp which I understand is ok for a Saison.

Respectfully,

Patrick

 

[jph2275]

Plastic carboy as well ... if that matters

 

[LLBeanJ]

Since you just brewed it yesterday, my gut tells me you will be okay. Based in what I've read and my own personal experiences, it has to be beer before it can skunk. If it's essentially still wort due to the fact that it's been less than 24 hours since pitching, I think you'll be all right. Time will tell on this one, though.

 

[MoonshineJane73]

Hm...I've always heard to avoid direct sunlight but my brews have been exposed to indirect sunlight a few times without much of a noticeable effect. Maybe you'll be fine if the sunlight didn't cause your temperature to get out of control and you remember to keep your closet doors closed from here on. If you're especially concerned about it, consider moving your still so sunlight through your window won't get to it in the future.

 

[freisste]

I don't know much about saisons, but my understanding is that uv affects hops. Is it hoppy?

At the end of the day, no one will be sure of the extent of the effect. You will be somewhere between completely unaffected, to absolutely skunky. You really won't know anything until a few weeks from now when you start trying them. If they are awful, you will know this is one possible reason why. If they are great, it had no effect. No one can say which of the two or at what point between the two, so there's nothing to do but wait. Fingers crossed.

 

[jph2275]

Since you just brewed it yesterday, my gut tells me you will be okay. Based in what I've read and my own personal experiences, it has to be beer before it can skunk. If it's essentially still wort due to the fact that it's been less than 24 hours since pitching, I think you'll be all right. Time will tell on this one, though.

Thank you thank you .... I hope this is correct ... some reading on the northern brewer forum and other various articles here lend to this line of thinking.

 

[jph2275]

I don't know much about saisons, but my understanding is that uv affects hops. Is it hoppy?

At the end of the day, no one will be sure of the extent of the effect. You will be somewhere between completely unaffected, to absolutely skunky. You really won't know anything until a few weeks from now when you start trying them. If they are awful, you will know this is one possible reason why. If they are great, it had no effect. No one can say which of the two or at what point between the two, so there's nothing to do but wait. Fingers crossed.

The beer kit itself did not include nearly as many hops as the last few batches of ingredients i've gotten from AHS. Especially the falconers flight, I am preparing to dry hop that one thursday in a secondary.

It used 1 oz. of hops at the beginning of my last hour of boiling, and an addition of another 1 oz. in the last 15 minutes.

I think it is ok ... I will be closing the closet door from now on and am keeping my fingers crossed like you stated. Since it is supposed to be a "barn stormer brew" that ferments at higher temperature, it makes me believe the yeast strain is pretty tough and won't be affected much.

 

[jph2275]

Also,

In avoidance of having to start another thread I have hopes I can get some words of wisdom on another question

I have been brewing at my moms house lately since my little brother is home from college (UT Austin). It is great that I can be with everyone under the same roof for the first time in a long time and still get my brewing done. However ... I needed to transfer my two carboys from her house to my house the other day (so she didn't have to add ice to my swamp cooler or worry about them in general).

The beers: a 6 day old kolsch and a 2 day old falconers flight IPA. I kept them in their rope handled buckets filled with water (my "swamp coolers") and was able to quickly load them into the back of her outback station wagon. My little brother sat in the back seat to hold them from sloshing around too much and I drove like a granny across town. This was about a 15 minute drive. There are no tint on her windows so they may have seen some sun from the top. I did my best to not slosh the beer around.

Once we arrived we quickly moved both coolers containing the carboys inside up my stairs and into my closet. They still look ok, bubbling away (the kolsch has slowed some ... but I think it was because it was rounding 1 week old).

Does anyone believe that the movement or limited time in the sun can/could cause damage to my fermenting beers (either one)?

 

[jfk69]

I think you'll be fine. The sunlight in that limited time shouldn't matter, and as long as you weren't driving like Mario Andretti, I can't see any ill effects from the move. JMO.

 

[SteveLikesBeer]

I agree with the above posters -- it should be fine. More than a few of my brews have had indirect sunlight for a period of time and I've not had any noticeable effects.If it was in front of the window, no blinds and sun coming on in you may have a problem. If I remember right I think I saw Sam Calagione from dogfish have his glass carboy behind a curtain near a window in Beer Wars.

 

[shoreman]

It may actually work out for you saison DuPont was bottled in green bottles and has a slight skunk funk that came mostly from hop and yeast but possibly from those bottles. I always enjoyed that aspect of the beer.

 

[zacster]

I don't cover my brews up and they get lots of light. I've never had a problem.