blackbear219
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2011
- Messages
- 187
- Reaction score
- 2
First of all, I bottled my first batch yesterday!!! The taste test went pretty well and I'm psyched to try it in a couple weeks. The bottles are currently hiding in a closet. That batch got a little hot during fermentation but it is a Belgian so I think it will be okay.
After bottling, I started my 2nd batch...a blueberry wheat for SWMBO. I'm kinda worried about this one. It took me a long time to get the wort down below 80 degrees (about an hour, maybe a little longer). Once I pitched my yeast, I put it on the stairs down to the basement (darn near coolest place in the house) and when I checked the stick-on thermometer on the site of the bucket this morning, it read at 81-82 degrees. Uh oh. It is just SO hot out that I can't control it. I'm not going to spend too much time worrying about it, because its only this hot a couple days out of the year...but still, bad timing for me. I probably should have waited for the heat wave to pass before I cooked the next batch, but I was so excited to start my 2nd batch after bottling my 1st that I didn't even really think about it.
A couple questions:
--When you guys cool your wort...cover on or cover off? It seems to me that it would cool much faster without a cover so that the heat could escape, but that it would be risky to leave it open because of the chance of infection.
--I'm just doing my flavoring with artificial syrup, not real fruit, since this is only my 2nd brew. If my fermentation is too hot and puts off some bad flavors, could that stuff help mask it?
--I need tips for keeping my primary bucket cool in these heatwaves!! My only free bathtub is on the 3rd floor and it gets REALLY hot up there (it's an attic converted to a master bed/bath that we're not even using at the moment) so I don't think that will help much unless I was constantly cycling in new cold water, which is hard to do when I'm at the office.
After bottling, I started my 2nd batch...a blueberry wheat for SWMBO. I'm kinda worried about this one. It took me a long time to get the wort down below 80 degrees (about an hour, maybe a little longer). Once I pitched my yeast, I put it on the stairs down to the basement (darn near coolest place in the house) and when I checked the stick-on thermometer on the site of the bucket this morning, it read at 81-82 degrees. Uh oh. It is just SO hot out that I can't control it. I'm not going to spend too much time worrying about it, because its only this hot a couple days out of the year...but still, bad timing for me. I probably should have waited for the heat wave to pass before I cooked the next batch, but I was so excited to start my 2nd batch after bottling my 1st that I didn't even really think about it.
A couple questions:
--When you guys cool your wort...cover on or cover off? It seems to me that it would cool much faster without a cover so that the heat could escape, but that it would be risky to leave it open because of the chance of infection.
--I'm just doing my flavoring with artificial syrup, not real fruit, since this is only my 2nd brew. If my fermentation is too hot and puts off some bad flavors, could that stuff help mask it?
--I need tips for keeping my primary bucket cool in these heatwaves!! My only free bathtub is on the 3rd floor and it gets REALLY hot up there (it's an attic converted to a master bed/bath that we're not even using at the moment) so I don't think that will help much unless I was constantly cycling in new cold water, which is hard to do when I'm at the office.