My turn, High fermenation temp....

[Nunner]

I know, I know, but I searched and didn't find what I was looking for, so here is my question:

Yesterday I brewed a Stone Enjoy By clone, I cooled it as far as I could (relatively warm tap water here, got it to around 74*) and pitched the yeast WPL007 with a 1L starter and vigorous fermentation took of within a couple hours, when I got up this morning I saw it had already climbed to 78*, so I put it in a ice bath, but today when I got home, it was still sitting steady at 78*, so at this point its sat at around that for 24 hours. I got it in a much bigger ice bath now and temps are starting to drop, and I will be sure to double up the ice tomorrow, but my question is how much damage have I already done? After dropping all that in hops, I was looking forward to a pretty impressive brew! I will still be double dry hopping it before bottling/kegging, but just wondering what kinda off flavors from the esters I should expect.

 

[freisste]

I'd be more worried about fusels and the headaches they give me than esters. Fortunately, hoppy IPAs tend to overpower esters, IME. So from a flavor perspective you may be fine. Here's hoping...

 

[Nunner]

Haha, I can deal with a headache, pretty much a pro at that, just worried about taste right now

 

[RM-MN]

This article tells the story much better than I can. http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[freisste]

I fancied myself a pro drinker, ad I've had my fair share of hangovers, but my first brew (an IPA where I had no idea how or why I would want to control temperature) I would get a headache after one beer...sometimes before even finishing.

Anyway, someone more experienced can chime in, but it sounds pretty hoppy, so that should do a pretty good job of hiding any issues. This is why I always encourage any new brewer to make an IPA first (assuming they like IPAs) because they are pretty forgiving. Personally, I wouldn't worry.

 

[Nunner]

Yeah I consider myself a pro drinker, 10 years in the Navy do that haha. But yeah it should be pretty damn hoppy, with 15oz of hops

 

[dkeller12]

Another thing that you may want to watch out for is that cooling your fermenter down after the yeast is already very active could potentially cause the yeast to go dormant and not complete the fermentation process. Trust me, I know from experience on my first IPA. I didn't cool mine down until 2 days in and the yeast dropped out and I was stuck at about 1.021 on a final gravity beer of 1.015. I ended up having to warm it up a bit together it going and again and only got to 1.017. The beer had off flavors from the high temps but it was still great and even got a handful of complements on it.