Is my beer fermenting too warm?

[mazzstar26]

I have had a batch of Citra pale ale in primary and then secondary. I am scheduled to bottle today. I have been at 68-70 with WLP002 for most of my fermentation but yesterday my girlfriend turned the air off in the house and when I noticed it this morning it was at 72-74. Is it going to develop these off flavors? I'm dreading this considering my mash efficiency and gravity targets were the most perfect yet since I moved to all grain. I was expecting a perfect homebrew and will be super pissed if I fermented too warm... HELP!

 

[duboman]

If you are going to bottle and have verified that it is at final gravity then there is no issue with the temperature. Temperature is important during active fermentation when off flavors can be produced. No worries but be sure to take into account the beer's temperature when calculating your priming sugar. there is less CO2 in suspension when beer is warm versus cold so you may need more priming sugar by a few grams but verify with a calculator.

 

[mazzstar26]

Sigh of relief! I kept it at around 68 during primary and wasn't till the past week that it was around 70. I will adjust my priming accordingly. Thanks a lot

 

[hogwash]

Was your fermenter @ 68 or was that the ambient temp? If it was the ambient temp then you were probably a little on the high side for primary.

Once the bulk of fermentation is done it is actually helpful to raise the temp a bit to keep the yeast active so they clean up any off flavors they may have produced during the really active phase.