Swamp cooler too cool?

In brewing my first ale and I have a nice insulated laundry rope basket doing the job really well. I have a room temp of about 80ish-f but my swamp cooler "water" is steady at 60f. The fermometer when the primary is in the water is around 62 I want to say. Im scared that its too close to the 60-58f mark. Will that potentially screw up my batch?

The airlock is steady bubbling. The beer is bubbling up from the bottom to the top. It looks like some trubby mess is trying to eat upwards and spiraling back down in its trubby goodness at the bottom of the primary.

Because of my inexperience- lets say this is my first batch (second in 20 years!) im trying my best to just do the right thing.

Am I right to assume that the glass fermometer reading is the outside glass temperature- cooler I would assume than the inside yeast action- how much warmer should it be in my batch and are all the right things happening right now that I can expect?

Should I keep the water at 60f and assume the inside is a bit warmer? Should I keep this going at 60f for the next 3 weeks if I do a 3-3 or a 2-1-2?

any advice is helpful

How long has it been at 60* for? Because if the ambient temp is at 80 it should warm up in a day and you may even start need to add some ice to keep it down. In general, I personally like to start on the low end of the temp guidelines and 60* should be just fine for that and then warm up a bit after the visible fermentation is done just to make sure the yeast finish their work.
I think more than anything those first few days or even week consistency is the most important assuming you are within the recommended temp range so I would just rock 60*.

What yeast is it and what kind of beer?

58-60F water is perfect, and that's the exact temp I have mine at. The temp of the beer during the first few days is likely 4-8 degrees higher inside of the fermenter. Which means your beer is fermenting at about 64-68F which is perfect! After initial fermentation is finished you can let the water of the swamp cooler come up to 65-68F and the beer will equalize at that point...

Stauffbier said:

58-60F water is perfect, and that's the exact temp I have mine at. The temp of the beer during the first few days is likely 4-8 degrees higher inside of the fermenter. Which means your beer is fermenting at about 64-68F which is perfect! After initial fermentation is finished you can let the water of the swamp cooler come up to 65-68F and the beer will equalize at that point...

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I highly doubt that beer in fermenter 4-8 F degrees higher than surrounding water. 1-2 degrees at most. I usually just monitor the temperature of water around submerged carboy exactly where I want yeast to be at. Water is not like air. I read somewhere here who did a experiment with temperature probe inside of fermenter and the difference was almost none existent. This is why I always ferment inside a tub full of water, even in temperature controlled freezer. Much less temperature swings and variations this way compare to ambient air. So if your water 58-60F I'd say your beer right there as well. You'll get nice and clean ales this way. Brew a Kolsch with 2565 it is perfect temperature for that strain.

Stauffbier said:

58-60F water is perfect, and that's the exact temp I have mine at. The temp of the beer during the first few days is likely 4-8 degrees higher inside of the fermenter. Which means your beer is fermenting at about 64-68F which is perfect! After initial fermentation is finished you can let the water of the swamp cooler come up to 65-68F and the beer will equalize at that point...

Click to expand...

Yep. I let most of my fermentations kick off around 60, sometimes lower, in the cooler. I then let the fermentation slowly raise the temp ~5 or so degrees over a few days. Works great. I've had really good luck fermenting ales a bit cool, as have many others.

thanks for the feedback. Since its really my first batch, I am nervous. Spent hours and hours sanitizing and going nuts about reading every damn thing that there is. From the looks of things- its just kicking major butt right now and the aroma is very nice when you smell the airlock- and when you first enter my house... you smell the beer. The wife isnt killing me yet

Just make sure and toss in a few beers that the wife likes every once and a while and you'll be good to go.

cmybeer said:

Just make sure and toss in a few beers that the wife likes every once and a while and you'll be good to go.

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Going to make an apfelwein- just need to get more glass and I will start fermenting one. She wont like the morning after so much but the night before I am sure will be a ton of fun :rockin:

paraordnance said:

I highly doubt that beer in fermenter 4-8 F degrees higher than surrounding water. 1-2 degrees at most. I usually just monitor the temperature of water around submerged carboy exactly where I want yeast to be at. Water is not like air. I read somewhere here who did a experiment with temperature probe inside of fermenter and the difference was almost none existent. This is why I always ferment inside a tub full of water, even in temperature controlled freezer. Much less temperature swings and variations this way compare to ambient air. So if your water 58-60F I'd say your beer right there as well. You'll get nice and clean ales this way. Brew a Kolsch with 2565 it is perfect temperature for that strain.

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YMMV! I think different people get different results. I've checked my wort beer temp vs. water temp and I get about 4-5 degrees difference during the peak of fermentation. After initial fermentation is over I get about 1-2 degrees difference. I use temp probes and a thermowell (sometimes), which is how I know what my temps are...

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Yep. I let most of my fermentations kick off around 60, sometimes lower, in the cooler. I then let the fermentation slowly raise the temp ~5 or so degrees over a few days. Works great. I've had really good luck fermenting ales a bit cool, as have many others.

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I also prefer my results with colder fermentation temps. I have a buddy that says he ferments some of his american ale strains between 49-55F. He makes excellent beer, so it must work for him. I would have thought that was too cold, but I guess not. He does ferment for at least a month(or longer) on each batch, though. I'm more of a 2-3 week guy, myself!

Stauffbier said:

I have a buddy that says he ferments some of his american ale strains between 49-55F. He makes excellent beer, so it must work for him. I would have thought that was too cold, but I guess not. He does ferment for at least a month(or longer) on each batch, though. I'm more of a 2-3 week guy, myself!

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Id like to fall on the 2-3 week guy thing myself because of my insane impatience....

I bet I could drop that water temperature down even further on my next batch and experiment. I noticed the water stayed ~58 when I had a 2 liter in. I have since stated using only single bottles. Whats great is all the action thats happening in that carboy right now.

mikemet said:

Id like to fall on the 2-3 week guy thing myself because of my insane impatience....

I bet I could drop that water temperature down even further on my next batch and experiment. I noticed the water stayed ~58 when I had a 2 liter in. I have since stated using only single bottles. Whats great is all the action thats happening in that carboy right now.

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Yeah I usually only need to swap out 1 or 2 small water bottles maybe twice a day (sometimes 3 times when we have 105F+ temps)..

I'm super impatient, as well. I used to do 4 week primaries, but as my methods improved and my temps dropped I noticed that I didn't need as much conditionig time in the fermenter. Not that most all beers don't improve with time, but mine are very good to me as soon as they carb up. Sometimes as soon as 2 weeks..

Watching the action in a carboy is the best. I just don't get to see that these days now that I use a swamp cooler. Things are getting ready to change for me soon, because I finally scored a chest freezer about an hour ago. I've been looking for one for about 6 months!

Stauffbier said:

I also prefer my results with colder fermentation temps. I have a buddy that says he ferments some of his american ale strains between 49-55F. He makes excellent beer, so it must work for him. I would have thought that was too cold, but I guess not. He does ferment for at least a month(or longer) on each batch, though. I'm more of a 2-3 week guy, myself!

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That's pretty cool. Pun intended. I've played around with us-05 at pretty low temps, never that low, but it works great for me in the mid-high 50's. I've also taken 1272/051 pretty low with stellar results. I really haven't even noticed these beers taking any longer to fully attenuate that at normal (by my house, ~64 degrees) temperatures. The one thing I have noticed about both of those strains is that if anything, they get a bit citrus-y, maybe 'tart'.
Either way, no worries at all about taking most ale yeasts down to the low 60s or even mid-upper 50s.