Refrigerator Failure during Lager Fermentation

[Nosybear]

Okay, all you lagerers (?) out there, a problem: I brewed my Oktoberfest last Wednesday then went away for a few days. While I was gone, something triggered the ground fault on the circuit my refrigerator runs on. When I got back, the fridge had warmed to 68°. I'm expecting more esters than usual but a question to others who lager: Is the beer irreparably damaged and should I start over?

I'll continue to work with the beer and let you know the results of this inadvertent experiment in high-temp lager primary fermentation.

 

[LarryBrewer]

The yeast will probably be stressed. You'll have to see if it hits the target FG and how it tastes. Could still be OK, depending on how long it was at that temp.

Edit: I would not re-pitch that yeast.

 

[Nosybear]

Checked this eve - fermentation complete (down to 1.014). I tasted the gravity sample and could detect no ill effects from the refrigerator disaster - I'm thinking I just got lucky and got in a diacetyl rest! The stuff is good green, I'll rack and start lagering tomorrow. This evening I'm bottling the Koelleweizen for the Colorado State Fair!

 

[Foster82]

My free refrigerator has been tripping the GFI in my garage, and from what I can tell it happens whenever it hits a defrost cycle. In my fridge there is an actual heating coil that kicks on to thaw out the cooling coils. When water from the cooling coils hits the heating coil connections the GFI trips. Apparently this is a very common problem with fridges and GFIs. The kicker is the defrost cycle is trigger by run time alone on most fridges, which does not get reset when the power is cycled off. Solution? HD extension cord to circuit that is not GFI protected.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

probably not an issue but wouldn't hurt to see what the amps of both heat and cooling devices are putting out if there both on at the same time

 

[Nosybear]

I'd set up a sprinkler on a timer to water our plants while we were away and the water was tripping the outside outlet. Checked gravity again last night - down to 1.012 (a nice, dry beer!) and the sample tasted great. So I'm calling this one "no damage," at least at this time.