Hey Everyone! Thanks for your answers in advance!. I'm currently brewing a Canadian Blonde beer and as the temperature in my Apt stays in the low 70s I have a space heater adjacent to the fermenter just in case the temperature drops below 69. So yesterday a draft must have went in and I wake up to find the heater had turned on and the temperature around the fermenter was 79 degrees. Given that the beer was in its second day of fermenting, should I just throw it away and start a new batch or wait and see hoping the temporary rise in temperature didn't affect it much? Thanks!
Welcome! I don't homebrew but try posting here for a quicker answer: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/homebrewing.8/
Ride it to its conclusion and use taste as the judge. There are factors that could be in your favor. People routinely Homebrew beers in warm closets and With adequate pitching rate and oxygenation the beer could make it. What was your yeast, pitching rate, and oxygenation method?
Plus the ambient air around the fermenter does not necessarily translate to beer temp in fermenter. I'm not saying it didn't get that hot, I'm saying unless you measured the temp of the liquid, you can't be sure either. One more reason to let this ride.
Thanks! Unfortunately this was my small two gallon system (Mr. Beer) instead of my regular carboy, So it's one of those set it and forget it systems where I can't control the oxygenation and pitching rate.
It's impossible to say for sure. I'd recommend letting ride and using it as temp/flavor data points. But if you don't have a lot invested, dump and brew again.
Thanks, If it was an IPA or a hoppier beer I wouldn't worry about it but it's these lighter beers that tend to be more sensitive.
This completely depends on the strain of yeast you are using. 79F is very warm for most all yeasts though so we can assume that this was not ideal. Liquid temp and air temp is not the same, but the fermenting wort is going to be at least as warm if not warmer. Really warm and you'll kill they yeast, but that can be easily confirmed with a hydrometer. So you are likely to have some really odd yeast flavors, and that's not a crime. You might like it. Don't toss the beer. You won't know until you try, and you are 90% there anyway. Cheers. Canadian Blonde? Not familiar.
You control the oxygenation by adding the amount of O2 you want before pitching the yeast. You control yeast pitching rate by using the amount of yeast you want to use. Neither of these things should be harder to do with a Mr. Beer fermenter than with any other fermenter.
