High Ambient Temperature for 6 - 8 hours....

Hello,

After spending many months of research, I've finally found the time to start brewing at home.

Brewed for the first time two weeks ago and have an IPA fermenting nicely in a cool cupboard under the stairs at between 16 and 18 degrees C.

I brewed up a batch of Milk Stout on Friday but unfortunately can't fit another FV in the cupboard.

The coolest alternative spot I have in the house has been sitting at around 21 - 22 degrees C, however the weather in the UK over the past two days has warmed up significantly (for the UK!) and the ambient temperature around the FV hit 24 degrees last night. I have now used the various methods described in other threads to get the temp down, wet towel, ice bottles and fan and the ambient temperature around the FV is now back down to 21 C and dropping.

My question is , will sitting at that higher temperature for between 6 and 8 hours so close to the start of fermentation (i.e. within first 48 hours) have had any significant determental effect to the beer.

I'm using US-05 and understand that it will still perform up to 75 F, but also aware that the temp in the FV could be higher than this and that there is then the risk of undesirable flavours and chemicals being produced in the beer. Having brought the temperature back down relatively quickly, will this have limited the impact. How quickly can the yeast produce enough volume of these undesireable compounds to become noticeable?

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give a noobie.

Les

 

Thanks for the quick responses guys. I guess I will have to wait and see how things turn out. I was out of the house at the time, but believe the temp spike would have been around 24 hours in... fermentation kicked in pretty quickly with the airlock going well around the 3 hour mark ( I made up a starter two days earlier).

A member on another forum suggested swapping the brews around as the IPA is now at day 18 of fermentation which I have done.... interestingly, the FV for the stout has a stick on theremometer (which I couldn't see until I moved it) which was reading 20 C. I understand these are more a guage than 100% accurate, but from what I've read they are normally +/- a degree or two of ambient (which at the time of moving was 22), so I'm hoping I may just about get away with 24 being the peak ambient temperature for a few hours yesterday evening.

Fingers and everything else crossed !

Thanks again.

 

A quick update on this brew.

As mentioned above, I moved the FV to a cooler spot in the house and it's been sitting there for the past two weeks.

Took a sample today and tasting really promising with a strong hit of coffee coming from the dark malts and there don't appear to be any strong unwanted esters or fusel alcohol flavours!

The specific gravity is still a little higher than I'd like at 1.030 (OG 1.062). The temperature range over the past two weeks has averaged around 16C-17C, but has been as low as 14C and as high as 21C at times.

I've now moved the FV back into the kitchen (where the average temperature is 19C-20C at the moment) to give the yeast a more stable and slightly warmer environment to finish their job.

I've also just taken delivery of a Cool Brewing Insulated Fermentation Bag to allow me to cool the brew if temperatures were to unexpectedly increase over the next week or so.

Really looking forward to trying this one once racked and conditioned!