Talk me off the ledge

Saisons are really forgiving, you can ferment them at higher temps and they'll still taste great. You'll be fine.

Scroll down and read what this one guy is fermenting at:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/cottage-house-saison-254684/index52.html

 

Lucky for you this saison strain can handle higher temps. I think you'll be fine. You may have some fusels depending on when the cat messed it up.

 

Chances are if it started around 70 and the majority of the cell activity occurred at that temp...then a day or two later slowly raised up to the 84, I think you're okay.

As others have alluded to above...for Saisons, there are actually some fermenting techniques that advocate started at about 70 and letting the beer warm naturally to ambient temps anyway.

EDIT: just saw post above...this happened 5 days in? I think you're just fine.

 

Hey wow! I actually just served a keg of that very HBT Cottage House Saison at a party and it went over like gangbusters. We had an unseasonably warm couple of days early in my fermentation period and while it didn't get up to 84, I think it got up to like 78-79 at day 3 or 4? Anyway, I agree that the 3711 was really forgiving and the beer came out great. Granted, I also had it on the cake for about 4 weeks total and kegged for 2 before I served it, but I agree that you should be fine.

 

I do not recommend "crashing" the temp of your brew. You know the result of higher ferm temps is increased fusel alcohols and esters. Most of this occurs in the first 72 hours, so if the runaway temp just happened today you might have dodged a bullet. But you can reduce diacetyl with a rest after fermentation is complete. The most effective way to do this reduction is to increase your ferm temp about 5 degrees. You do not want the ferm temp to drop at the end of fermentation, this will slow or stop the diacetyl reduction.

Ideally you want to do this rest when your fermentation is complete, I suspect you have a little ways to go. So I recommend dropping the temp slowly back to your 70 range . . . the most important thing you can do is keep the yeast in the ball game. Then when you reach terminal gravity, give it a 5 degree boost like nothing ever happened.

If all else fails: http://www.ooze.com/ooze13/cats.html

 

I am not a homebrewer, but shouldn't your beer be better protected from a cat? They can be rife with bacteria.
Maybe I'm not visualizing this correctly.

 

You're probably fine, this is a very forgiving strain. Taste it!

I like to use insulating foam tape on my temp probe, not even my burly cat could knock it off with that adhesive.

 

Step one: Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

Step two: Drown cat.

 

It's not a stretch. I have a cat and have never once thought it would walk by and mess with my brew.

 

assuming appropriate vessel was used, it would take a goddamn MacGyver of a cat to truly do any damage to a fermenting beer.

 

If the temp jumped up after day 2-3 with that strain you should be fine as ester production is formed early in the fermentation as are fusels. I would not cool it since, if by the odd chance that 3711 isn't already done, you could stop the yeast early and then think it is done, bottle, and the added sugar wakes them up only to blow through all the remaining sugar and blow through the walls of the bottles as well.

 

I think you're trying to say start at 70 and let the wort temp rise naturally due to the heat generated by fermentation, right? If so, that's a reasonable approach for saison yeasts. ('Ambient' would be the air temperature in the space where the fermenter is placed.)

 

I think he's probably fine too, but would say it a little differently. Fusels are produced early on, with Esters (which are largely a product of the conversion of Fusels and other alcohols) following after. So the 'stage' for Ester production is certainly set early on.

 

I ferment my saisons in my garage when it gets in the low 80s. I dont let it get too hot, but up to 85 works good.

 

The bigger problem is that 5 days into fermentation, the beer should have reached final attenuation. As far as temp though, it is fine. You'll probably get some extra peppery flavor from 3711 fermenting high.

 

Also, don't drop the temperature more than 5 degrees in 12 hours. You will shock your yeast.

 

Nice! I'm actually brewing a very slightly modified version of it this Sat.