Fermenting ale in winter

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bertmurphy

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The cold weather season is quickly approaching and I wanted to get some ideas from you guys about maintaining proper fermentation temps when your fermentation vessel is (required to be) in a cold environment like a basement or garage. Right now its about 70F in Atlanta and having my pink foam fermentation chiller in the basement is no big deal. I just change out the ice every couple days and its fine. Once winter weather hits though the basement will be only slightly warmer than the outside temp. (which in Atlanta will be around 25-45F). My question to you guys is what are your methods of maintaining a consistent ALE wort temp when the outside environment is cold?
 
Assuming you can't put it inside, any ale should be able to ferment fine around 60, maybe even the high 50's, unless you are going for a very estery beer. You could probably put your fermenter in a tub of water with an aquarium heater in it if you are really stuck. Obviously, sticking in the back of a closet would be the easiest way.
 
You could probably put your fermenter in a tub of water with an aquarium heater in it if you are really stuck. Obviously, sticking in the back of a closet would be the easiest way.

I know I can always shove them in a closet and go on with life, but I want a bit more control over the temp than that. Also, I'm mainly curious as to what other people have built or modified to work around these kinds of issues (the "why didn't I think of that!" answer). I like the idea of the water and aquarium heater though.

Thats as cold as denver!

The weather channel says the average low is 29F and avg. high is 50F.
 
"The normal high's are in the mid 40's and low 50's, and the lows are in the low 20's and into the teens."

Denver winter temps from wikipedia. I never know Atlanta got so cold.
 
I use a plastic tub from Home Depot filled with water with an aquarium heater in it. I've never had any issues. Just to be safe, I use a temperature controller that I had instead of relying on the heater's internal thermometer.
 
My pantry is in the low 60's in the winter all the time. Best time to brew in Chicago if you don't have any 'fancy' temperature control equipment. :)

I'd just try to find a place in your house that is colder than the rest but has semi-stable temperature conditions.
 
I've a temperature controller. Works fine in the fridge for the summer. And in winter I can plug on a mini heater that get's placed in my dedicated fermentation chamber (fridge). Come on and off and maintains exactly the temp I want.
 
Right now its about 70F in Atlanta and having my pink foam fermentation chiller in the basement is no big deal.

Do you know the minimum temperature that your basement can reach?

If you are moving the fermenter into your basement for the foam and smell that can derive from the peak of fermentation, you can make that peak in the basement and than transfer the fermenter in your house.

I say so because a normal fermentation can raise the fermenter temperature of about 2°C (about 3°F), but it won't last for all the fermentation. You can pitch at 20°C (about 68°F), stored in the basement at and used an old wool cover to keep the fermentation temp. When the peak is over, the temp will lower, time to move it.

I know that this approach is very basic, but it's very unexpensive too and you don't have to built nothing, expecially if you live in an apartment on rent :D

Cheers from Italy :mug:
piteko
 
do you have a son of fermentation chiller type foam box? is it controlled by a temp controller?

I built a mother of fermentation chiller and was thinking about hooking up a small reptile heating pad to the thermostat for heat when it falls below 50 degrees in its current room..
 
I have an old fridge in the basement dedicated to fermentation. I have a dual temp controller on it. During the summer the controller handles the fridge and during the winter I have one of these:

http://morebeer.com/view_product/16674/

I tywrap it along the back of the fridge and plug it into the controller. Gives off enough heat to keep the ambient temperature where I want it. Last year the basement temps were in the 50s, and my Chimay clone was in the 80s.
 
The cold weather season is quickly approaching and I wanted to get some ideas from you guys about maintaining proper fermentation temps when your fermentation vessel is (required to be) in a cold environment like a basement or garage. Right now its about 70F in Atlanta and having my pink foam fermentation chiller in the basement is no big deal. I just change out the ice every couple days and its fine. Once winter weather hits though the basement will be only slightly warmer than the outside temp. (which in Atlanta will be around 25-45F). My question to you guys is what are your methods of maintaining a consistent ALE wort temp when the outside environment is cold?

This works for me. A 30 gal Rubbermaid tub, an aquaruim heater, submersible aquarium pump, and Ranco temp controller as the lowest temp the heater will maintain is 70F. I use a thermowell from Derrin at Brewer's Hardware and slip it inside the strap of one of the carboy haulers. I push the fermenters together so they both are in contact with the themowell.

In the winter ambient temp of the water on the floor is 59F so I have no problems keeping the temps in the 60's or above.


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How well does the bucket method (heating or cooling) work with plastic fermentation buckets? I ended up getting rid of my glass carboy when I moved.
 
How well does the bucket method (heating or cooling) work with plastic fermentation buckets? I ended up getting rid of my glass carboy when I moved.

I use Better Bottles (plastic) and last weekend I brewed. I transferred to fermenters at 76F. I had prechilled the tub to 60F using ice bottles. I placed the 2 BB's (I do 10 gal batches) in the tub and let them sit for 3 hours to cool further b/4 pitching the yeast. I sanitized the thermowell and placed it in one of the Better Bottles and surprised myself. The temp of the wort in the center of the BB was same as the water temp in the tub, 63F.
 
This works for me. A 30 gal Rubbermaid tub, an aquaruim heater, submersible aquarium pump, and Ranco temp controller as the lowest temp the heater will maintain is 70F. I use a thermowell from Derrin at Brewer's Hardware and slip it inside the strap of one of the carboy haulers. I push the fermenters together so they both are in contact with the themowell.

Ideally I would want to keep the carboys in an insulated container like an igloo. Has anybody done this? Maybe get a cylindrical igloo and cut a hole in the top so the airlock/cap can stick out? I'd imagine you could make a system of these with water circulating if you wanted to get real fancy, but by that time you might as well get a fridge.

Great ideas guys, the wheels are churning. Still torn between the fridge and water bath method though, and I'd like to reuse my son of fermentation box as well so I'm trying to incorporate that. I need to check out some prices.
 
I have a closet in the basement, I just throw a space heater with a thermostat in there and let it go. It barely ever clicks on unless I open the door a lot. My basement doesn't get much below 55 though unless I leave the doors going to the outside open for some reason. (I'm in Atlanta.)
 
I use Better Bottles (plastic) and last weekend I brewed. I transferred to fermenters at 76F. I had prechilled the tub to 60F using ice bottles. I placed the 2 BB's (I do 10 gal batches) in the tub and let them sit for 3 hours to cool further b/4 pitching the yeast. I sanitized the thermowell and placed it in one of the Better Bottles and surprised myself. The temp of the wort in the center of the BB was same as the water temp in the tub, 63F.

Great to know! I moved so no longer have my steady 65F basement to ferment in. I'll give this a try.
 
I have a windowless crawl space that almost never goes below 60 and above 70 year round. Not great in the summer, but fantastic for the other three seasons. If you don't have artificial temp control, I think you want to pick some place that has consistent temps.
 
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