Fermenting Temperature

Hey. I'm sure this has been asked, but I'm going to ask again.

I've got my fermenters in a cabinet in my dining room, mostly because its the only place I can keep them out of the way. However, I can seem to get the temperature down. The digital thermometer reads a high of 80 and low of 76 over the last 48 hours.

What kind of ill effects does this have on the fermenting process? Just wondering what to expect.

It depends on the yeast strain, really, since some strains can tolerate high temperatures better. That's still too high for any ale yeast strain, except for some saisons or possibly Belgians.

Most ale yeast strains will get fruity tasting at over about 72 degrees, and many will form "fusels" over 75 degrees. Fusels are "hot" tasting, and can cause headaches.

For your next batch, if you could put the fermenter in a water batch with a frozen water bottle, that can really drop the temperature.

Water bath is what she meant. I think I have a diagram somewhere.

Ya. I understand the water bath concept. I was hoping to avoid it. I opened the cabinet doors this morning and the temperature has already dropped to 72 which is the temperature of the house.

I just found an old, ugly chest freezer for $50 on craigslist. Could I convert it to a fermentor chest with a ranco controller?

Pierce said:

I just found an old, ugly chest freezer for $50 on craigslist. Could I convert it to a fermentor chest with a ranco controller?

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You sure can. $50 is a pretty good score. How big is is it?

Unless you have a basement that maintains a steady temp in the low to mid 60s, the best thing you can do for your beer is to set up a controlled fermentation chamber of some sort. It will cost a little up front and take up some space, but your beer will be far better and make it worth every penny.

Well it sounded like a 7 cu ft freezer, but someone else got to it first while I was cutting the yard and waiting for him to call back. Oh well time to keep looking.

My basement stays pretty cool during the fall, winter and early spring, but not so much during the summer. I will move my thermometer down there though and see how its doing.

Dang, that's too bad about the freezer. But I'm sure more will pop up.

But a nice controllable environment is great as you progress through the hobby. There's just so much you can do experimenting with different temps using just one yeast strain, yet there are so many other strains out there that work best at different temps all together. So, it's just a lot easier and more fun to push a few buttons on your temp controller to achieve the result you're looking for instead of fighting with mother nature, messing with swamp coolers, and all of that.

I've fermented my last few beers relatively hot and haven't really had any ill effects; it's not always guaranteed. A hefe, pale ale, and porter were all fermented in the mid to high 70s and i don't really detect any off flavors. Of course it makes perfect sense to play it safe and keep temps low, however. I'm probably going to stop pushing my luck this summer and get something set up soon.