fermentation closet complete!

Hey guys just finished my fermentation controlled room in my closet. It's big enough for me to store 5 ferm buckets/carboys. I set it up with a temp control and a space heater to hit my desired temperature. One quick question. Should i heat the room to 68, or is the liquid supposed to be 68F? If so, what do you guys heat your room to for the "best" success of yeast growth

You want to control the temperature of the beer so what I do is put my temperature controller sensor in a large vessel of water and try to maintain the temp of the water at my fermentation temperature. It's not exact, but it seems to work. You may have to tweak it a degree one way or the other or you can say its close enough.

I think i'll keep the room at 70 and wrap a small blanket around the buckets.

I personally don't like the "sensor in a bucket of water" thing, because the water stays pretty constant. Your beer doesn't stay constant. The process of fermentation makes heat, so the beer temp is always trying to rise. For this reason I prefer to either tape the temp probe to the side of the fermenter and cover it with insulation or use a thermowell in which you can submerse the probe in to the beer itself. This will keep the ambient temps where they are supposed to be in order to maintain a constant beer temp.

I completely agree with Stauffbier. Have you ever touched the side of your bucket or carboy during active fermentation and felt the heat that emanates from it? It's kind of amazing. Taping and insulating the sensor to the side of the bucket is easy and effective.

Also, 70 degrees sounds a little on the warm side for most ale yeasts. Depending on what yeast you're using and what flavors you want, you might want to stick to the mid 60s.

drewN said:

I think i'll keep the room at 70 and wrap a small blanket around the buckets.

Click to expand...

That seems awfully warm. If the room is 70, your beer could be 75-80 degrees. Why would you need a heater at all?

drewN said:

Hey guys just finished my fermentation controlled room in my closet. It's big enough for me to store 5 ferm buckets/carboys. I set it up with a temp control and a space heater to hit my desired temperature. One quick question. Should i heat the room to 68, or is the liquid supposed to be 68F? If so, what do you guys heat your room to for the "best" success of yeast growth

Click to expand...

How cold is this room ambient? Most people have a hard time getting temps down, not up. 70 is too warm for ambient if you are brewing ales, mid 60's is ideal and as already noted it's not the room but the beer temperature you need to be concerned with.

Active fermentation can raise the internal temperature of the vessel by 5-10 degrees so your temp monitor really needs to be on the vessel. If not then you want to keep the room slightly cooler than the the desired temperature for fermentation.

As a side note, please be careful in using the space heater if this is a small confined room, those things are notorious for starting fires, shorting out, etc.

If you're controlling ambient temp, keep it right around 60F and you'll be good to go for nearly all ales. An make sure your wort is about the same temp before pitching!

Thanks for the heads up, before i had my space heater my room was low to mid 50's. Ill adjust the room temp to 63

drewN said:

Thanks for the heads up, before i had my space heater my room was low to mid 50's. Ill adjust the room temp to 63

Click to expand...

Drew, just in the sake of conversation, my coal room right now is 58 degrees. I have two ales in there just fermenting up a storm. One says its 64 the other 66 on the side of the carboys. I wouldn't waste much electricity heating a room for fermentation.

Just my 2 cents.

Rick

F250 said:

Drew, just in the sake of conversation, my coal room right now is 58 degrees. I have two ales in there just fermenting up a storm. One says its 64 the other 66 on the side of the carboys. I wouldn't waste much electricity heating a room for fermentation.

Just my 2 cents.

Rick

Click to expand...

Thanks! it's just a small area heat fan. The reason why i have it is at night my house heater is completly shut off, and in northern canada it gets really cold even in my house

Edit: im guessing people will ask why the heat is off at night - i love having 3 blankets while i sleep.

I keep my rope handled bucket at about 60* for the first few days of active fermentation... that's when the heat is building up and hard to control. After day 4, I let the temp of the water in the bucket rise to 68* until fermentation is complete. IF I rack to a secondary, I let it hit 70-72* until I'm ready to cold crash.

duboman said:

As a side note, please be careful in using the space heater if this is a small confined room, those things are notorious for starting fires, shorting out, etc.

Click to expand...

I hate to preach at someone, but I totally agree with this. Those things are killers!