Does anyone brew during a cold winter?

Hi Guys,

Where I am we are going through some very cold weather (it was -3c this morning) and the house is quite cold.

I just measured the temp of my latest all grain and it's at 17c.

This is too cold for a good fermentation?

Should I invest in some way of keeping the liquid warm? My local HB shop sells warming jackets for the FV.

It would really depend on the yeast you are using, I just brewed a cream ale with nottingham yeast at 56F which is 13.333C and it turned out great, really clean. Check the yeast website for the fermenting temp range.

Ive tried to build my supply up, because I dont feel like freezing my butt off this winter.

Pwntang said:

Hi Guys,

Where I am we are going through some very cold weather (it was -3c this morning) and the house is quite cold.

I just measured the temp of my latest all grain and it's at 17c.

This is too cold for a good fermentation?

Should I invest in some way of keeping the liquid warm? My local HB shop sells warming jackets for the FV.

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Boy I wish durning the winter we get a couple days in a row above -3*c, we had a 2-3week stretch were it didnt get above -13*c and our low was around -29*c the whole time. But Im going to be brewing some lagers since my basement will stay in the low 50's

Winter is when I brew lagers. Close off the heat duct to the back bedroom and it will maintain between 45* and 50* F.

There are two cheap things you can do to maintain ale temps:

Strap a heating pad to the side of the carboy.

I put my carboy in a larger bucket of water. I then put an aquarium thermometer in the bucket.

both ale and lager yeast will work at the temperature, but slowly. Likely Ale would work better. It would easy to bring temperature down in an outside wall closet, or up next to a heat duct.

Or pitch both and see what happens.

I checked my yeast and it does say that it needs to be between 20c and 24c so in this case I think I need to bring the temperature of the liquid up.

Perhaps the heating pad will be a good move as suggested.

Pwntang said:

I checked my yeast and it does say that it needs to be between 20c and 24c so in this case I think I need to bring the temperature of the liquid up.

Perhaps the heating pad will be a good move as suggested.

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I think 20C is actually on the high end of most ale yeast strain's fermentation temperatures. If yours says 20-24 is optimum, I would question the type of yeast you're using. If it's Coopers or Munton's, I'd throw it away and get a good brand of quality yeast.

Yooper, that is some serious restraint for not scolding this "islander" for claiming -3C is a "cold winter", LOL

Randar said:

Yooper, that is some serious restraint for not scolding this "islander" for claiming -3C is a "cold winter", LOL

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Haha- it's actually quite warm here lately. It was up to -8C today, and only snowed a few inches. I'd be happy if we got up to -3C again before March!

Winter is fabulous for me. I set my fermenters in the mudroom and the temp is rock solid at 66-68 degrees. My crawl space (the summer fermenting location) is about 62, and 1056 yeast just loves it in there. Summer is more of a PITA for me.

Winter is when I do most of my brewing.

Hell yeah, winter is prime time. The colder the better. Don't use a heating pad.

Yooper gets those warm coastal currents, not like we have down here on the frozen tundra.

You can do this in winter...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/what-i-thinking-165148/

looking forward to doing partial boil extract batches this winter. will place boil kettle in another larger kettle fill it with ice water and place it on my deck. should get me to pitching temperatures quickly

come visit us brewers in the great white north. It's winter hear half the year.

I brewed a batch of all grain in my garage 2 weekends ago. -21*C. Not a lot of fun, but that was the only weekend I could squeeze it in, and I'm running out of beer.

Thankfully I ferment in my basement, and have a fridge I can keep at 18*C for fermenting.

Lager, lager, lager! Schwarzbier, yes!

Doesn't get much below freezing around here, but in the winter the brewery is just right for fermenting lagers and the garage is great for lagering them.

I brew my ass off all winter, (i'm in FL). Winter time is easy to control fermentation temps with out special equipment lol

I quit when the garden hose freezes. Most of my brewing is done in the spring and fall.

I have a small bathroom that is my fermenting room. In the winter, I keep it closed off and put a small electric heater in there. This lil' heater has its own thermostat, and I just let it maintain the temp where I want it.

IMHO, it is much easier to keep a consistent fermenting temp when your brewing space wants to be too cold, because it is easy to apply spot heat. Spot cooling is a lot tougher.

Brew on.

It will be my first BIAB brewing this weekend -14 C for high on Saturday, brewing on deck. Chilling wort in snow will be a breeze :rockin: but keeping temp steady during mash will be a problem I imagine

Over a foot of snow has fallen since this (my last brewday). Once I dig out, I'm going to run another batch. She is getting a little chilly right now with overnight lows hovering around -20, but its better than the nastiness of a -40 mid January eve.

Low of 51 this morning and that is the coldest it has been since March. I would be going nucking futs if I had to deal with such ridiculously cold weather.

I do all my brewing for the year in the winter or early spring. As said, I can easily warm the wort up more than I can cool it down.
First brewday of the season will be this weekend, first all grain, so fingers are crossed that everything comes at least close.

I *LOVE* brewing in winter time! Less people in my neighbor's backyard to be loud and ruin my brewing experience. That, and temperatures inside the house are favorable to all sorts of fermentation (lagers-ales).

As everyone's been saying, winter is a WAY better time to brew. Throw an aquarium heater into a tub of water and drop your fermentor in there and you'll be fine. Much easier to raise temps than lower them.

I gotta say that I am not a fan of winter brewing. That tap water is COLD when it's freezing out. Good for wort chilling, but bad for just about everything else. Brr!

I have a fridge with a heating pad in it for fermenting, so controlling ferment temps isn't the issue for me. It's the actual wort cooking that gets uncomfortable if it's too cold (or too hot for that matter)

Yooper said:

I think 20C is actually on the high end of most ale yeast strain's fermentation temperatures. If yours says 20-24 is optimum, I would question the type of yeast you're using. If it's Coopers or Munton's, I'd throw it away and get a good brand of quality yeast.

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Complete nonsense. Coopers is a good quality yeast.

paraordnance said:

It will be my first BIAB brewing this weekend -14 C for high on Saturday, brewing on deck. Chilling wort in snow will be a breeze :rockin: but keeping temp steady during mash will be a problem I imagine

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I've read on here that trying to cool your wort in the snow really isn't a good idea (assuming you mean put the kettle IN snow.) Snow is a great insulator and it will take forever to chill. If you meant putting snow in the actual kettle, then disregard this post!

I don't brew a lot during the spring and summer because of other interests. All of them outside and away from the house!

During fall and winter though, it's game on! Not a fan of the cold weather by any stretch but, there's something about hanging out in the garage with the space heater going and the smell of wort in the air! The basement smells like a bakery for a few days as well...

Airborneguy said:

As everyone's been saying, winter is a WAY better time to brew. Throw an aquarium heater into a tub of water and drop your fermentor in there and you'll be fine. Much easier to raise temps than lower them.

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Don't know why I never thought of that, but that is a great idea. I'd like to bump up the ambient in my crawl space to about 65-66, since the SWMBO kinda bitc....uh, complains about the fermenters in the mud/utility room.

SeaBass512 said:

I've read on here that trying to cool your wort in the snow really isn't a good idea (assuming you mean put the kettle IN snow.) Snow is a great insulator and it will take forever to chill. If you meant putting snow in the actual kettle, then disregard this post!

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Set it on the back porch with a lid on at 10 degrees F and it will cool in a few hours. I've done it.

If you set it on a snowabnk though it would probably melt the snow and tip over.

Having chilled in the snow, as long as you keep stirring, and moving snow against the sides of the pot, you can be down to temps in 20 minutes. Its a bit of work, you can't just 'set it and forget it' but it works if you do.

I do everything outdoors, brewing and fermenting. This is the best season for me because the weather is just getting down to where my chest freezer doesn't have to run (it's outside).

Winter brewing is one of my favorites. I brewed a batch today and the temp was 1°C 34°f. The groundwater temp was 50.3°f. It probably took a little longer to get to mash temp but the chill went very fast. Hoses are harder to rewind though.

Yeah, I'll tough it out brewing through the winter, even if it means I have to put socks on every now and then.

I think winter is the best time to brew. I brew in my garage and in the summer it gets too damn hot in there. Not to mention I LOVE having water temps in the 40's. Makes chilling my wort a breeze. This summer my average water temperature was 80 and so I had to buy a $3.00 bag of ice every time I wanted to brew. It was such a pain in the @ss.

I brewed 10 gallons today and i dont think it got above 35°. Nothing real bad. My regular outside hose that i would use for chilling was frozen 2 weeks ago. I just use my RV hose in the winter. Well water is fantastic in the winter for chilling lagers to 50°

I just started brewing a few months ago and realized I had to ferment down in the parkade storage lockers because of the temps. They were in the high 20's Celsius back in September in the apartment. I was disappointed at the time because the parkade is heated in the winter and I didn't think I would ever be able to lager. However.... I checked the temperature the other day and it sits perfectly at the lower end of the lagering temperature range! Woohoo!

I think what a lot of brewers do is brew what the season allows for. When cold lager!

cklages said:

...you can't just 'set it and forget it' but it works if you do.

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Tried that before, just set it in a pile of snow. It took about 3 1/2 hours to cool down. As mentioned in another post stirring probably would have helped.