Warm Ferment,, Good Beer?

[Ivan Other One]

Hello Brewers,
Recently had made a Coopers Draught with dex, LDM and DCS, at 1/3 each at 1.2kg, 15g hallertau @ 5mins, kit yeast.
Made this to 20litres, pitch the yeast in at 27deg and placed the fermenter into my fermenting fridge but forgot to put the blocks of ice in beside it to bring the temp down to around 20 to 22deg.

Checked it 12 hours later and the temp was up to 35deg and the airlock was going asa hard as a steam train on steroids.

Thinking that it was going to be a foul beer was tempted to chuck it out but ploaced a few blocks of ice beside it and 12 hours later the temp came down to 24deg and was then kept at between 20 -22 deg till ferment finished.
Racked to secondary with GEL' and kegged three days later. Taste from the wort was ordinary

First taste test 8 days later was good enough to have about 6 scooners worth. Got a good glow up allright and next morning, no hangover or dry mouth feel.

One week later took the 2/3 full keg to a party and all there enjoyed it, including some dedicated 4x drinkers.

The high temp ferment as far as I know was not going to make for a good beer but this turned out as one of the better brews I have made.

Has anybody else had this experience?

Cheers Ivan. :icon_cheers:

 

[roller997]

I have unfortunately not had any success with accidental high temp fermentations.
In the past I had way too much clove flavour in my wheat beers when high temps weren't controlled properly or I had very fruity flavours in ales & lagers.
Mind you, I use liquid yeast so perhaps your kit yeast was more forgiving at high temperatures. I suspect that this would be the case as there are probably not as many brewers who use kit yeast that would have a fermentation fridge than brewers who buy special purpose yeast.
How quickly was it finished? I would assume that it would be less than a week if you hit mid 30's.
Enjoy the beer.


Cheers

Roller

 

[Dave70]

I personally found the quality of my brews (all grain) took a quantum leap when I started fermenting in a controlled enviroment. ie: spare fridge and fridgemate. This probably varies from style, but some of the stuff I use to knock out varied from 'not quite right' to 'fruity tasting shit'.
With so many other variables that affect taste ect, the least you can do is controll the fermentation temps.
I'm all about eliminating the variables, me.

 

[QldKev]

I think there are 2 factors why you ended up with a drinkable brew.

I think the Draught kits can handle the higher temps; just the nature of their flavour, a bit of friuty and fossil fuel is not that offensive.
The kit yeasts are a lot more forgiving than most other yeasts.

When I used to be a kit brewer I used to do a 1kg Tooheys Draught with Dex and kit yeast as my house beer. I would ferment out at 22-23 and the local XXXX Bitter and Gold drinkers loved it.

With yeasts like US-05 I would not ferment over 20; I set the Dixel to 18.

QldKev

 

[MarkMc]

Same here, my Draft fermented around 24 and was very drinkable after 2 weeks in the bottle. The lager at the same temp was no where near as good, and has taken 8 weeks in the bottle to become drinkable.

 

[Bribie G]

I've experimented with Wyeast Irish Ale yeast - I made a great batch of Irish Red which accidentally fermented out at 24 degrees. Then I discovered that Guinness ferment at 25 degrees and I would bet that the Wyeast is a fairly close family member.

So now I'm running it at 23 degrees to be on the safe side and getting excellent results. It also finishes fast and clears out at the top within a few days, unlike some of the yeasts recommended as a 'step up' for kit brewers - e.g. US-05 that can hang around confusingly for ages. If I were doing kits n bits and didn't have good temperature control, I'd look at using this yeast for darker styles, over the winter. For an initial outlay of $10 you can keep it going over quite a few brews.

 

[Nick JD]

I would never ever never ever ferment an ale above 18C .. never ever.

Ever.

That's the general concensus.

Never.

Ever.

Hasn't Guinness read the back of the packet! It says 15-22! Mad Irish.

Now I need to put in about four smilies because I really should have stayed out of this.

 

[Ivan Other One]

Thanks for the replies chaps,

Yep, the brew was fermented out at 6 days but left for another 2 before racking.

The fermenter fridge is just a bar fridge used as an esky and temp control via the use of ice in milk bottles.

Flavour was sort of like a xxxx with a bit more body to it.

The hi temp was a genuine accident, by no means planned to do it that way, but was just very supprised at the final result. :icon_drunk:

Have had a couple of brews done at around the 26 - 28deg mark before and these have turned out bad, in taste and the resulting hangovers.

This is one method we will be trying to avoid.

Cheers, Ivan. :icon_cheers:

 

[Bribie G]

I would never ever never ever ferment an ale above 18C .. never ever.

Ever.

That's the general concensus.

Never.

Ever.

Hasn't Guinness read the back of the packet! It says 15-22! Mad Irish.

Now I need to put in about four smilies because I really should have stayed out of this.

Nick, I have been using Proculture Wood Ale (AKA 1469) and also Wyeast 1469. I did research on Yorkshire Square brewing and traditionally they have always brewed a degree or so colder than the Southern brewers. So I did 3 brews recently for a comp. I did two of them at 16 degrees over about 10 days and raised to around 20 for a diacetyl rest. Produced 2 fairly clean ales - very drinkable. However at the same time as that 24 degree Irish, I did a Yorkie that also went at 24 to 25 degrees for a couple of days before I wrestled it down (I'd had a fridge freezer disaster and lost my temp control completely for about 60 hours) - and it turned out the best out of the three.

I'm now a bit of an ale temperature sceptic, but it all depends on the yeast of course. I wouldn't dream of using US-05 over 22 degrees for example, but some of the 'fruity top croppers' I'm not too sure now. Maybe you could try one yourself and see what happens.

:icon_cheers:

Edit: I currently have two brown ales in primary, on Wyeast Irish and Proculture Wood Ale and they are chugging along at 21.5 and sweet as.

 

[Nick JD]

Maybe you could try one yourself and see what happens.

:icon_cheers:

Will do, Bribie. I know very little about pommy beers, but plan to get into them soon.

I loves me an estery ale.