75F - too high?

[sharpe1987]

Hello all,

First post to the forums here.

I brewed JZs Robust porter recipe. Ambient temp in my basement has been around 75F. Just wanted to get some opinions on whether I'm going to have 10 gallons of brown crap water, or what the end result may be.

Cheers

[12stones]

If ambient is 75F you can expect a higher temp (up to 10F) inside your fermentation vessel due to heat produced by the active fermentation. Not sure which yeast you used, but at those temps you might want to brace yourself for diacetyl, phenols and/or fusel alcohols. Depending on the strain you used maybe some banana like esters as well. How long has fermentation been going?

[dmtaylor]

You might be able to fuel a rocket with it. You should try to get that temperature down, any way, any how. A wet t-shirt and fan can reduce temperature by about 5 degrees, which would help a lot.

[12stones]

I prefer a swamp cooler if you have no temp controlled refrigeration.

[Ozwald]

You might be surprised. I've had that problem in the past without it turning into a fusel bomb destined for the next shuttle launch. But it definitely could go the phenol/ester/fusel route. At least you won't have to worry about diacetyl.

Let it ride. If you're still early in the fermentation use the tricks above to help slowly drop it down. If it's been going for more than 4 or 5 days, don't worry about it & aim for cooler temps next time.

[sharpe1987]

Been going since Sunday, so 5 days. Guess ill just wait it out and see.

FWIW it was a split batch, 1056 and 1068 yeasts.

[brewinhard]

with the chico strain you can sometimes get lucky! I once fermented a huge RIS at 80F when i first started brewing bc it was summer and I couldn't get it any cooler. Long story short, the beer blew the lid off the bucket and spewed yeast everywhere. One year later it went on to win several 2nd and 3rd best of shows in statewide comps. Who wouldve thought?