Beer Forum

So the temperature probe on my controller must have fallen out of place (I keep it between an insulation patch and the side of the carboy) when I opened the refrigerator door this morning to check on progress. My temp was to be controlled at 65F. When I got home from work the probe was on the floor and the fermentation temp had spiked to 70F.

My first course of action is to gradually cool the fermentation temp closer to the target. Since this occurred during the first 24 hours of fermentation, I'm concerned about off flavors produced while the temp spiked and as I cool down.

My second thought is to pitch another yeast starter at high krausen as fermentation in the carboy nears completeion.

Any thoughts on my corrective action or any other advice is much appreciated. Thanks much.

what yeast and what style?

KidHop wrote:I'm concerned about off flavors produced while the temp spiked and as I cool down.

[...]

Any thoughts on my corrective action or any other advice is much appreciated. Thanks much.

Your first action (not necessarily corrective) will be to taste your beer. There may very well be nothing wrong with it. Aside from that, I'm not sure what pitching another starter is going to do for you. The kinds of things an increased temperature will cause (more esters, more fusels/higher alcohols) are not likely to be helped by another starter; if you instead tasted things like diacetyl or acetaldehyde, these compounds are broken down by the yeast, so another active yeast pitch could help.

Bottom line is taste it when you take your first gravity sample. Your taste buds are the best evaluation tool you have. Depending on what you taste, you can then decide on whether to take action or not.

What gravity? By now the damage (if there is any - and there may not be), is pretty much done. If it's a low gravity beer it may already be at terminal gravity or very close to it, in such a case i would just keep the temp stable and let it finish it. If it's a higher gravity you may have another day or two of fermentation but by the time you slowly ramp the temp down, it may be just about at terminal gravity then anyways. Keeping it stable is better than cooling to fast and causing the yeast to floc out prematurely.

what yeast and what style?

The beer is a 1554 clone (Jan 11 BYO issue) using a Bohemian Lager (Wyeast 2124) fermented at 65F. OG was 1063.

A lager, fermented at 65 F on purpose? It's going to be interesting, that's for sure. The lager yeast beasts are so excited about the warm environment that they got a little too excited and raised the roof even more, eh? I can't say how this one is going to turn out for you. Probably drinkable, but might be kind of funky. Can't you cool it down into the mid 50s or less?

The recipe calls for that yeast to be fermented at 65F.

I would also be concerned that cooling it down to mid 50s from 70 would be too much of a temp change on the yeast.

This beer is farked.

Get your priorities straight and skip work next time until the yeast is happy and gives you permission to leave them.

I would go with cooling it down to 65, over two days, and rousing the yeast. Let it condition a week longer and hope.

Oh - and update your profile signature.