I had an issue...

Iccenine · Oct 28, 2021

So I started brewing about 9 years ago and got pretty into it. But I was living in an apartment so kept pretty much to partial mash extract brewing. Well I moved into a house with some space a couple years ago and decided to pick brewing back up. So I purchased a bunch of new equipment and even a brewzilla. To get back into things I decided to just do a warmup partial mash again. But I had a bit of an issue during my attempt to chill the wort (I thought I would get a little cute with the worth chiller and lost some of the wort and couldn't get it down to temp).

Long story slightly shorter I ended up with 5 gallons of wort in my fermenter that was hovering around 88 degrees. I had no way to get it cooler faster (I live in Arizona). I had to make a decision to leave it in the fermenter or pitch the yeast (WLP002). Because it wasn't cooling quickly at all I just decided to pitch the yeast. It started bubbling within 12 hours (now at about 70 degrees). And kept going for about 48 hours pretty vigorously .

So from the point where the wort went from a boil to 93 degrees was about an hour and it was 4 hours later (at 88 degrees) when I pitched the yeast. Its been in the primary for 5 days now (at 68 degrees). What potential issues am I facing/should I be on the look out for? I appreciate the help.

GFHomebrew · Oct 28, 2021

You coulda left it longer (depending on how good your sanitation is).
Pitching yeast above its recommended ferm range can produce some unwanted phenols and esters
WLP002 That's American ale yeast?
Let it ride package and pray it's drinkable

.

I've been fermenting at above recommended ferm temps recently using pressure in the fermentor ~15psi to reduce ester production.
This I can vouch for that it helps keep the ferm tation "clean".

Maples · Oct 28, 2021

Plus 1 to some ester or phenolic production, can range from banana to nail polish. I just had this issue with a few of my beers. I didn't really solve it until I got a fridge with a temp controller to ferment in.

Depending on what beer you're brewing you can use Kviek yeast from Omega labs. It produces minimal esters up to 90 degrees. Something to keep in mind too is that your yeast will generate heat as well. A reading from the outside walls of the fermenter can read lower than the center of the fermenter.

Either way, don't stress yet (I should take my own advice), give your yeast some time and they might clean up some of the off flavors if you did actually get any.

Nosybear · Oct 28, 2021

Trialben said:
You coulda left it longer (depending on how good your sanitation is).
Pitching yeast above its recommended ferm range can produce some unwanted phenols and esters
WLP002 That's American ale yeast?
Let it ride package and pray it's drinkable .

I've been fermenting at above recommended ferm temps recently using pressure in the fermentor ~15psi to reduce ester production.
This I can vouch for that it helps keep the ferm tation "clean".

I think WLP002 is the British strain. Pitching hot is suboptimal, esters and phenols as mentioned, but it'll still make beer.

Donoroto · Oct 28, 2021

Ok, so you pitched warm and now it is a few days later.
My advice is to leave it be for 5 or more days, then package it. 3 weeks is not a problem, if you can wait that long. The time will let the yeasties do what they can to clean it up.