Fermented too hot.

You could leave it on the yeast and see if they clean up the fusels (i.e. convert them to esters).

 

It works in every good beer made, i.e. the fusels are made and the yeast convert them. The question is how elevated are the fusels in your beer and how much will the yeast convert. I don't think anyone could predict your likelihood of success or how long it would take. Since you're pipeline constrained, I'd suggest trying it for as long as you can stand to.

 

Could try throwing in some Brett to see if it'll eat the fusels, too.

 

Yeah . . . don't do this.

No reason to drain pour it right away. It might calm down enough so it won't be an issue. If it doesn't subside quickly, though, I'd think about rebrewing it because long term aging probably won't help.

 

The differentiation here is between volatile compounds like mercaptans/thiols and more stable ones like higher alcohols. If your beer made it through the log phase at a reasonable temperature, fusels are unlikely, but if the yeast replicated at a higher temperature, higher alcohols and esters, like ethyl acetate, may be the issue.

 

I vote dump. It may get a little better, but it will never get as good as it could have been. And then if you take a mediocre stout and put it in a barrel, you’ll taste it months down the road and you’ll have a mediocre barrel aged stout. Why disappoint yourself twice?

Eat the coat, rebrew, and save that barrel for a good beer. Learning experience.

 

edit: was gonna tell you to save it. If you are dead set on putting it in a barrel I would dump it. Don’t waste a barrel on a beer that is already very flawed.

 

How valuable is your barrel resource and are you willing to tie it up with a questionable beer?

"It was at 82 degrees for like 28-30 hours and I was able to get it down to 70-72 after that, but it fully fermented out in 2.5 days."

I am willing to bet that a considerable amount of higher alcohols (fusel oils) were created during those 2.5 days. It is possible for yeast to process those higher alcohols into esters but based upon my readings that is a very slow process (i.e., months). During the time the beer is being aged in the barrel this process may happen. Then again what you might have 3-6 months is a barrel aged beer with notable higher alcohols. Or you could properly brew another batch of beer and age that beer in your barrel.

To quote Dirty Harry: Do you feel lucky....

Cheers!

 

Just curious whether you're saying this because it won't work, or because you're worried about him infecting his equipment?

Brett stouts are delicious.

 

Find someone with a still and donate it

 

There's always the option of blending depending on how bad or not so bad it turns out, but if you're already willing to dump I'm guessing whatever you've invested in it so far doesn't really matter.

 

At the risk of getting long winded, Brett does not fix bad beers. Especially if you're not looking for something phenolic.

As far as the infecting equipment goes, Brett. sp. are not any hardier than any other yeast strain. If you clean your equipment well, you have nothing about which to worry. That said, you should probably have separate plastic and rubber for your clean and non-sacch. beers.

 

That would be the less risky option.

Cheers!

 

Yes, agreed, throwing good beer after bad is never a good thing but... that essentially happens with barrel aging all of the time and in the end they usually get something that's much greater than the whole of the parts.

So I'd agree, wait and see, and if it improves to a certain level you could always blend it if needed. It might also be interesting to hold it and blend in different beers that you make that might fit to see if something interesting comes out of it.