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Hot Ferment
Filing this under woops on my part. Didn't even occur to me how hot it got in the past few weeks and I stuck my primary in the closet Friday night. Sure enough I look at the thermometer says 74 
It's been almost 4 days now but I checked last night and I didn't even see a krausen. Wondering if it's too late or if I should try to move it to the basement where it is probably low to mid 60's. Or should I just let it be and the damage is done and hope I come out with something I can stand to drink?
it's probably done fermenting at that high of a temp. even if it's not done, the flavor profile from the hot ferment is set. Not much you can do at this point but hope for the best.
I had this problem last summer where even the coldest part of the basement was 80. If it was an ale at 74 it is pushing it but it could turn out ok. Over that and you'd be looking at the hot esters and fussell alcohols that aren't that great (though, i've had people try that beer and like it, some people just like the hot tasting beers, but I can't stand them.) Was it a "Big beer"? If it was a higher alcohol content and you don't care for it after a couple weeks of bottle conditioning, just let it sit for six or seven months and see what you think, it might mellow over time and leave you with a beer you love. Sometimes mistakes turn out to be the best thing that happened to your recipe!
It was a lower abv irish dry stout. I'm just going to hope for the best at this point although I would have expected to see some remnants of activity up the side of my bucket.
are you saying there's no krausen residue? I would expect to see a ring around the fermenter where the krausen was. If there isn't, I'd take a gravit reading. If nothing has changed, you'll need to add new yeast.
Hogarthe wrote:
are you saying there's no krausen residue? I would expect to see a ring around the fermenter where the krausen was. If there isn't, I'd take a gravit reading. If nothing has changed, you'll need to add new yeast.
Thanks, I didn't see any. I'll take a reading tonight and see where it's at and if it's not close to probably 1.012 or so maybe I'll put it in the basement and pick up some new yeast and try to repitch.
Alright. So I procrastinated and checked on it tonight. SG 1.022. I was expecting probably 1.012 or something. It doesn't taste ruined although it does taste like a hot ferment. I've moved it down to the basement where it should be mid 60's instead of 74. Should I pitch some more safale 05 on it? What could it hurt?
you didn't mention
if this was an extract, or all grain, and I didn't see what kind of yeast you used here for Primary fermentation. 74f should be fine, at the most you'll get some fruity esters, but that hot taste should dissipate, again depending on what kind of yeast you used.
I brew hot all the time, even up to 85F for some belgians, and wheat beers. If you did use S-05 you would be at the high end, as it says 59f-75f. If your making an extract beer 1.022 might very well be your FG, but leave it for another few days, and see if it drops.
Thanks, It was all grain. My first Brew In A Bag and my first all grain. I used S-05. I'll check the sg again today and see what's up. It's supposed to be a dry irish stout so I had assumed it would ferment out quite a bit more. As it is now it tastes pretty sweet. Regardless I guess I'll have beer 
bruguru: What makes you sau that if it's an extract I might have a high FG? I don't make a lot of stouts, mostly ipa's and most recently this irish red but I'm always around 1.012, the Red came in at 1.010. Is that abnormal?
Just as an update I'm still at 1.022 and since I'm so lazy and didn't check it until last night I'll probably leave it. I might call the LHBS and ask him what he thinks since it's his recipe but oh well. I'll just have a sweet dry irish stout with low abv
As a general rule, wort from an extract is not as fermentable as wort from all grain mash. Depending on the maltster they can be anywhere from 55-75% fermentable. With grain you have the ability to determine the fermentability of your wort by varying the temperature of the mash.
You didn't say what temperature you mashed at, but if the temperature was a few degrees higher than you were planning on that could be a reason for the higher than expected FG.
ruralbrew wrote:
As a general rule, wort from an extract is not as fermentable as wort from all grain mash. Depending on the maltster they can be anywhere from 55-75% fermentable. With grain you have the ability to determine the fermentability of your wort by varying the temperature of the mash.
You didn't say what temperature you mashed at, but if the temperature was a few degrees higher than you were planning on that could be a reason for the higher than expected FG.
Hmm, I think it got a little too hot for a bit and I brought it back down. I didn't write down my OG because I'm a complete moron and had too many beers. So it's possible I just had a high OG and now my FG is high too?
There are lots of variables, and sometimes it is hard to pinpoint why things turned out the way they did. The main thing is it was your first all grain, and if you enjoyed the process and learned something then it can be called a success.
If you think your stout will be a bit too sweet, you could dry hop with an appropriate hop. It won't increase the bitterness, but the added hop flavor would probably increase the perceived bitterness and help to offset the sweetness.
I brewed a Porter last fall and ended up with too high of a mash temperature. I thought I had the temperature stabilized, but an hour later when I opened the mash tun the thermometer read 158 degrees. Oops. It finished at 1.030 and was pretty sweet. I just told everyone it was more of a dessert type beer 
It goes back a ways, but I fermented a high SG wine from crushed grapes in 2007. I did let it go at the temp inside the house and didn't realize I was a bit too hot for the yeast I was using. I do have it in my notes somewhere, but for our purposes, the yeast is kind of irrelevant. This was wine and we are talking beer. The point is that I had almost 14 gallons of wine that measured almost 19% abv. According to the info I could get the yeast would only go to 17%. Trust me, this is strong stuff and it tasted hot hot hot. I let it set for over a year and if anything, it was even hotter tasting. However, I just couldn't force my self to throw out 250 lbs worth of fermented grapes. I bottled it. That wine, is probably somewhat past it's prime from a normal home made wine aging standpoint, but is now very drinkable. The hot taste is completely gone. You can't drink a lot of it, but it is reasonably good wine now, even if I do kind of have to treat it like a desert wine due to the strength.
Do you have somewhere to store your beer for six years?
I guess I could bottle it and stick it in the closet! I called the LHBS and they suggested throwing some sugar in there. Actually they suggested not actual sugar but you know. I suggested I just use the priming sugar since I keg and the guy said that would be fine. Not ideal of course. But we're hoping that it might kick some of the yeast back into activity. Probably not since I'm guessing it will just eat the simple sugars and fall back out but at the very least I might get another .5 % abv out of it so it will at least taste like beer and feel like beer. I just have to actually do it. I'm actually thinking I might just keg it tonight so I can have it carbed by Friday since I don't think I have much of the red left 
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