Noob Help! Fermentation too hot

[LogicalBrew]

Hi guys

I'm 3 days into my first ever brew - a Woodforde's Wherry kit, with the supplied yeast substituted for a Gervin ale yeast.

I'm having to brew in the garage (wife's rules!) and so I have a heating pad under the primary fermenting bucket, given that even the day-time temp is a little cold in the UK at the moment for the optimum range of the yeast.

The first night of fermentation I stupidly left the heat pad on and, by the next morning, the mix was at 28deg! (noob mistake - I know!) I killed the heat-pad and let ambient air cool the mixture so that it was back to normal operating range by about the start+24hours mark. Thanks to Amazon Prime I had a heat controller delivered and wired up by about the start+36 hours point and the temperature is now stable in the 18-20deg range (measured on the outside of the fermenting 'bucket').

My question is - is that 12-24 hours at 8-10degs over the optimum temperature going to have ruined this batch? Do I bother finishing the fermenting and conditioning the beer, only to be disappointed in a few weeks time when I start drinking it? Or do I just call it a learning opportunity and start again, now that I have my temperature control sorted?

Grateful for any advice even if it is bad news!

cheers

LB

 

[TheRedDarren]

I would say don't throw it, it may not be the best pint you'll ever have as there will possibly be fusels (solvent flavour and a massive headache) or too many esters (desired flavours but not in abundance) but it may also be fine and very drinkable.
If you throw it you'll never know, and if you drink it you'll be able to identify undesired flavours in the future.

 

[clibit]

It might have affected it flavour wise but I doubt it will have ruined it. Definitely finish it, it will most likely be fine, especially as you got the temperature down pretty soon. Even if it doesn't taste great initially, time often sorts that out, I have had brews that fermented too high that improved hugely by leaving in the bottle for 3 to 6 months.

 

[Wardy]

I pitched yeast at 27 c on my last brew and it took 2 days to get down to 20 C in my brew cupboard. Bottling night tonight but tried it yesterday and it's my best brew to date so you might end up being very surprised at your results as you brought the temperature down quickly.

 

[LogicalBrew]

Thanks guys - I was leaning towards keeping it just for learning value, so I can see what 'wrong' tastes like and you both seem to be agreeing with that. I just wanted to check that it wasn't totally doomed. :?

I've got a couple of pressure barrels for long-term storage, so I guess that I'll just barrel it up and leave it to condition for longer while I start the second batch with better temperature control. :razz:

If I get the temperature control right, how long should conditioning 'normally' take?

cheers

LB

 

[Racinsnake]

+1 Its quite difficult to completely ruin a brew without salvation IMO.
Conditioning, well as long as you can resist! personally I try to give mine 3 weeks in the fridge before giving in lol I had a bottle of Wherry last week that was 18 months old, not a vast difference from the batch I drank after 3 months from what I recall.
I'd like to know more about your heat controller as I currently use a heat pad and time control.

 

[rodabod]

I did a Wherry once at 22c which had banana-like esters. These disappear with time as the beer conditions. Try to hold it around 18-20c.

 

[LogicalBrew]

+1 Its quite difficult to completely ruin a brew without salvation IMO.
Conditioning, well as long as you can resist! personally I try to give mine 3 weeks in the fridge before giving in lol I had a bottle of Wherry last week that was 18 months old, not a vast difference from the batch I drank after 3 months from what I recall.
I'd like to know more about your heat controller as I currently use a heat pad and time control.

Racinsnake - I picked up a controller from Amazon. You can get similar units elsewhere a little cheaper but I wanted the quick delivery that only Prime can offer (delivered Sunday morning!) and, as it deals with mains electricity, some reassurance that it wasn't a dodgy knock-off!

It was really simple to wire up. I had an old mains flex, with moulded plug still attached, that I just had to strip the wires and screw into the connections for power in. I had an old laptop lead that used the same standard 'figure-8' connector as the heat pad (probably same as yours), but I could just as easily have used the original that came with the pad. That plugged into the 'heater' output of the controller (You need a common 'return' and a spare bit of wire to jump the 'live' across). There are loads of examples on this forum of people doing similar things (search for 'stc') and some much more professionally than me! Obviously the controller includes an output for a chiller as well but I don't need that in my garage! Upshot was that £13 and about an hour's bodging later and my heat-pad was receiving its orders from the heat controller instead of being always on. The controller ships with a thermistor/probe that I have just taped against the outside of the brew bucket under some thin foam insulation. Working pretty well so far! And I went from feeling stoopid to feeling smug :-)

 

[Racinsnake]

Cool. Got all that about except jumping the live bit, but I know a sparky :electric: lol
I always try to ferment at 18' so hopefully this will be easier to regulate in the coming months.
Thanks for the info :wink:

Rob.

 

[LogicalBrew]

I'm in work so I can't take a picture but quick drawing done on ppt attached to show what I mean....

I set 20º as target temperature ('ts' in the menu) with a 2º variance allowed. So, the pad switches on at 18º and off at 20º. But obviously you can set the target temperature and the allowed range to whatever you want. I am assuming that the centre of the liquid will be a little bit warmer than the outside edge, so thinking of lowering my temperature setting to 19º and narrowing the range to 1º variance to give an indicated range of 18-19º at the outside and, presumably, a little bit more in the centre of the bucket.

Good luck! :-)

 

[Racinsnake]

Thats clear as Wherry!! (jokin) thanks iv got it now and il be giving that a go at the weekend. I'd agree with your theory as iv put a mild on last week and it was a steady 20' on the strip thermometer for two days before I needed to introduce a heat source.
I too brew al fresco - these Grimsby girls are just as disinterested in the sport of homebrewing :-)