I made a rookie mistake yesterday. After getting spooked by a near mishap with my new wort chiller, poor efficiency, and boiling my 5 min hop addition for around 15 mins, I was moving faster than my brain was thinking.
To sum it up, I pitched S-04 into wort that was around 69-70F, breaking my general practice of pitching below fermentation temp. I put the carboy into a fridge with a temp controller strapped to the carboy set to 64F. At the time (not thinking clearly), I figured that by the time the S-04 was rehydrated the beer would have cooled off. This morning the S-04 had already formed a slight krausen and was bubbling slowly at about 63F (colder night than expected). I’m hoping my gamble didn’t ruin my beer.
The real point of this post is: I’ve heard off flavors can be contributed to a beer by high fermentation temps within as soon as the first 12 hours after pitching. Would you guys say you generally agree? I figure if I screwed up, then there isn’t too much I can do now, but I might as well learn something from this experience.
