Came in today to discover one of my freezers (that holds my 42 gallon fermenters) had died and my IPA was fermenting at 84 degrees. Then I walk into the cold room and someone had unplugged my 3 bbl fermenter (it has a heat wrap around it along with insulation), and that IPA was all the way down to 52 degrees. I’m pretty sure I can bring the 3 bbl batch of IPA back as the yeast hadn;t flocculated and the beer was still fermenting. But the other batch … damn. Just sucks.
If you blend them, it’s just like fermenting at 68, right?
OK, nothing is likely to be funny for you now. Sorry.
Wow…that’s a real let down. I guess there’s no way to save it. :-\
How far along was the fermentation?
You could call it your pop skull IPA.
Sorry dude. I guess problems happen at your level too…
I had a similar event but the fermentation had been going for 7 days before the freezer failed. That one was an ESB and the batch actually survived. I didn’t harvest the yeast, though.
I had pitched the yeast at 64 on Friday, but didn’t notice the freezer wasn’t working so it spiked over the weekend. Been having a string of bad luck here lately, including having to dump a batch that I pushed the yeast too long on. just frustrating to have to lose another one already.
sorry, man, that’s rough.
Sorry to hear it, Keith.
Ah, bummer. No fun to dump it. Sorry man.
Would something like this http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Technology-Weather-Temperature-Humidity-Wireless/dp/B0037KMRVU be of any benefit in the future? I’m assuming you’re talking about your brewery & not your homebrewing. Just throwin’ it out there. Cheers!!!
Genius.
Shazaam! 8)
Have you considered making white dog? If you make your cuts right you can pull the hearts and leave the heads and tails behind.
Never drain to waste!
One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor… 
Sorry to hgear that Major. Sounds like a typical brew day for me. Difference is, I making12 gallons, have about 25$ in it, and I’m not trying to make a buck doing it. I can only imagine your pain.
Go ahead and bottle and put you competitor’s labels on it. :o
No, bad thought. 
Our lab freezers have an alarm system that auto-calls some lucy sap (me) if they fail. Might be something like that on the market.
EDIT just saw Hamilton’s post. Way ahead of me! 
I think I will get one of those alert systems for my cold room where my big fermenters are. But I’ll chance it on the small freezers. Thanks for pointing those out.
Sorry to hear about it, Keith. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again, especially if you try out that awesome alert system.
Sorry to hear about it too.
Would it feel better if I tell you that I have dumped my first 75 gal down the drain?
No. It doesn’t.
Especially after today. thought I had skated by on the 3bbl batch becuase the bottom tasted awesome. But after I ran it to the bright tanks I took another sample and it is diacetyl city. I was really bummed out because th bottom tasted so excellent. My guess is the beer closest to the yeast had all the diacetyl absorbed but the majority of the beer wasn’t touched.
Gonna try to pitch some active S-189 and see if I can’t clean it up but not holding out too much hope. Wouldn’t be so bad had I not had to dump a previous batched before this one and had I not lost that 40 gallons from fermenting at 85. I think I have dumped more beer lately than I used to brew in an entire year.