Beer fermentations hit 30c ?

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Berry454

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Hi guys

Started two new brews, a IPA kit with added dark grains to create an Amber IPA and a 5 gallon batch of an all grain hazy IPA.

Due to fermenting in my garage temperature was very low.. 14 Celsius and fermentation seemed to stall.

I added a 500w oil filled radiator to the garage but it made absolutely no difference.

As a last resort I put the oil filled radiator between both fermentation buckets and covered the entire lot with a blanket.

Woke up today and both fermentations are bubbling away at 30 degrees Celsius!

Will this harm my beer in the long run?

Turned the heat wayyy down on the radiator so hopefully the temperature drops to a healthy 20 ish degrees.

I did think how is this any different to fermenting in summer when my beer ferments regularly hit 28-29 degrees Celsius and never noticed any issues with them.. but it has got me a little worried!
 
I did think how is this any different to fermenting in summer when my beer ferments regularly hit 28-29 degrees Celsius and never noticed any issues with them.. but it has got me a little worried!
This is just likely the best answer to your question you'll get. The yeast won't know the difference between heat from your radiator and heat from summer.

But you may find that now you've removed the heat source, the temperature will crash and the yeast might go into their dormant phase and your fermentation may stall.
 
Well just wanted to update this with the final results.

My amber IPA hit 30 Celsius and my hazy IPA hit 36 Celsius for around a day in fermentation before I was able to correct the temperature.

As expected fermentation was quick, very quick with both finishing at 1.010 in less than 2 days.

Honestly thought I had messed them up and they would be going down the drain but I have been very pleasantly surprised.

The hazy IPA I have brewed many of times and it tastes exactly the same, despite hitting 36 Celsius on this fermentation.

Both now in kegs, force carbonated and taste great!

Surprisingly didn’t get any noticeable fruity flavours or esters either.
 
You might find it lacks a little on the nose, but other than that...

This method is quite viable, indeed something I used myself a few years ago. But pop an ink bird probe in one of them 👍👍
 
Interesting. What yeast did you use? I think that is probably a factor in this as said above.

The yeast used was Mangrove Jacks Hophead M66 yeast.

Yeah honestly was very surprised with the Hazy IPA as 36 Celsius really is hot. Having brewed the Hazy 7 times now (my go to recipe) I’d definitely know if it tasted different!
 
You might find it lacks a little on the nose, but other than that...

This method is quite viable, indeed something I used myself a few years ago. But pop an ink bird probe in one of them 👍👍

Probably the only reason that it didn’t lack on the nose is that I do a huge dry hop post fermentation on my hazy.. 120g of hops total a combination of El Dorado, Bravo and Mosaic..

To be fair the amber IPA did lack a little on the nose but again nothing noticeable in the taste.
 
You didn't pay me to guess did you 🤣🤣

Don't dry hop myself, prefer flame out. But I have to say 120g is a fair wallop.. What's the batch size?
 
You might find it lacks a little on the nose, but other than that...

This method is quite viable, indeed something I used myself a few years ago. But pop an ink bird probe in one of them 👍👍
I buy cheap temperature controllers from eBay for under £20, only one plug so have to choose between heating and cooling but they work ok. I use them for my sparge water heater on brew day, and on my aquariums too. Think I have about 4 of them!

Edit: meant to add that you can tape the probe to the side with some bubble wrap over it.
 
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