BIAB - may have messed up seriously!

Brewing Processes
1

3 days ago I brewed my favorite brown ale in my normal fashion, except that I let the water get to 172F instead of 162, mashed in and THEN realized what I had done.  I iced it down fairly quickly to 145, but the damage may have already been done.  On top of that, it has been really cold up here in the frozen North and so I wrapped the fermenter with my plastic wrapper for which I have purchased a regulator but it hasn’t come yet.  it seemed to be working at first, but I checked the temperature of the wort the next afternoon and it was at 85 F, so I immediagely unplugged it.  I added a pack of dry yeast and nothing happened.  The next day I added another pack of dry yeast and still nothing has happened.

Should I throw it out, or is there something I can do?

2

It should ferment since your mash temp should have been at least <165F, and potentially around 155F if you normally go from 162 to 145 (this time it would be 172 to 155).  It’ll be a slightly different beer than last time but it’ll be beer - and you can drink it too ;D.

Fermentation temp of 85F is pretty hot! Get that sucker down to 60-70F if using ale yeast, and ride it out.  If you don’t like the outcome then adjust next batch.  That’s about the best you can do right now, but there’s no sense tossing it when you can use it as a learning experience.

3

Thanks.  I will probably drink it anyway.  But I think I will also brew another batch fairly soon too.  :slight_smile:

4

I had a somewhat similar experience with some points of commonality.

Please see

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Author Topic: Unintended stress test for US05  (Read 247 times)
Online Lazy Ant Brewing
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Unintended stress test for US05
« on: January 30, 2018, 11:57:04 AM »
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I brewed a porter on Jan. 9th, put a fermentation wrap around the plastic bucket, set the temp controller for 68 F and stuck the bucket in my garage fridge which I had unplugged.

With the cold weather we’ve been having, the temp in the unheated garage was cold enough that the indicator light on the temp controller was always on indicating that the wrap wasn’t providing enough heat to get it up the 68 F I had selected.

So I brought the bucket inside my family room, stuck it underneath a card table and put a black garbage bag over the bucket to keep out light, but did not use supplemental heat from the wrap.  Everything going fine for the moment.

Then a close family member died and I had to do a very quick emergency house cleaning to receive out-of-state relatives who were going  to staying at my house for a few days.

Put the bucket back out in the garage fridge, plugged the fermentation heater wrap back into the temp controller and thought everything was fine.

A day later (or perhaps two days later) I opened the fridge door and it was HOT. 87 F!!! air temp ( I don’t know what the actual temp of the brew was inside the bucket) In my haste to get back to the house cleaning, I had left the temp probe for the controller on the cold garage floor!!!

Then after the funeral and bereavement meal we had lots of food left in the styrofoam-to-go boxes which take up a lot of space;  So I had my son plug in the outside garage fridge to store the leftover food.  That of course sent the temp of the beer down below 40 F.

Now  the beer is back in my family room with the yeast warming up again.

I’m thinking it will probably be a negative “educational experience” i.e. it will probably taste awful with the temp excursion to 87 F, but time will tell.

Mine came out fine.  However, I don’t know what the actual temp of my wort was–when the temp in the fridge was 87 F-- I didn’t test it.  Also my wort had been in a cooler fermentation for quite a few days befoe my temp excursion happened.

Carry it through to completion and taste it.  If you don’t like the results at least you have a learning opportunity.

Cheers and brew on!

5

The way I understand it the mash got to 175F.  The enzymes that break up starches to sugars denature at 168F so I think it not going to ferment.

6

LeftyLucy,

Can we get an update on the beer?  I’m curious as to how it turned out. or if it turned out

7

Yeah, almost forgot this thread, sorry.  I carried the batch through to completion and I had my first taste of it last night.  It was good!  I still can’t believe it, but it had enough krausen around the edge of the fermenter that I thought, “why not?”, so I bottled it and it came out pretty dang good!  Not terribly high in alcohol, this is a guess, but it tastes fine, and I will cheerfully drink it all!

Thanks to all who replied.