kegtoe

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I love ales and make several different varieties with several diffferent yeasts. I have been using smack packs and now White lab test tubes. I do a starter each batch. What is a good common temp for fermenting ales?

I know that it depends on the yeast but i'm not going to control my house (in Northern Minnesota near the cadian border) to get accurate fermenting temps. Typically our house is at 68 degrees while we are at home and 64 to 66 in the day while we are at work. I have a brew belt but am worried i might get the wart too hot when using that

Whats your favorite fermetning temp?

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Soperbrew

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Right now I've been letting mine go in a corner of my house that's been about 64-65F which is where I'd be setting the temp. if I had them in a chest freezer with a controller.

Potter1

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63-65 for most all english and american ale yeasts, 68-70 for belgians

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doug1395

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Last months issue of brew your own they asked a series of questions to brewmasters from around the country.One of the questions was what is your fermention temp in ales . They all answered 62 to 65 degrees. Bottoms up!

EricCSU

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I have fermented both Cal Ale and the Kolsch yeast anywhere from 62-68 with no noticable difference in flavor. The Cal Ale stays around 64-66 here in the winter and 68 in the summer (with lots of help). Even at 62, Cal Ale produced a huge blow off and fermented all the way down in a few days.

Eric

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SpanishCastleAle

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Depends on the yeast strain but I usually just gage the rate of fermentation (just by observation). If it seems to be too fast I cool it and vice versa. My starting point is usually 64 F unless I know the strain well enough (like I know Notty will still ferment fast at 64 so I go cooler with Notty).

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nostalgia

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Same here. I set the temp on my controller at 63F for ales.

-Joe

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sp1365

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I try to keep my ales in the 62-64* range.

ArcaneXor

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I always pitch cold, keep the temperature cold until fermentation starts to slow and then let it free-rise to ambient room temperature - around 70 degrees in winter and 78 in summer.

For Koelsch yeast, I start around 62 degrees, for English and American Ale yeasts I start around 64-68 degrees, and for Belgian yeasts I start around 66-70 degrees.

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Yooper

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Almost all of my ales are at 62-65 degrees. Occasionally, I have to raise it up to 68 or so if I have any trouble getting that yeast to attenuate. I have one strain (northwest ale yeast) that I like at 68 degrees.

My house is cool all year round- either my living area in the winter, or my basement in summer- so I don't really have a problem with keeping ales at an ideal temperature.

If your house is at 68 degrees, you definitely don't need a brewbelt! The fermenting wort is probably at least a couple degrees warmer than ambient (maybe more), so you're could already be at the top of the yeast's temperature range. If the ambient temperature drops during the day to 64, that shouldn't drop the temperature of the beer very much at all. You could try putting the fermenter in a pail of water to help stabilize temperature swings.

If you have a "stick-on" thermometer, those are really helpful and can tell you the temperature of the fermenting beer.

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