Fermenting temperature

I just made my first beer. My fermenter was in my basement and it didn't go below 80degrees practically the whole time. So my pale ale now tastes like bananas. So can I have some help on getting the temp. right. That was the coolest place in the house and I don't have a spare fridge to control it. HELP

Swamp cooler. Basically a larger container with water. Do not submerge your strip thermometer if you have one on your fermenter. Change out frozen bottles of water as necessary to keep the wort under 70 degrees. I like to go toward the lower end of the yeasts range - typically low to mid sixties.

The swamp cooler works great but when you tire of changing frozen water bottles every 24-36 hours, pick up a chest freezer on craigslist and an STC-1000 temp controller for $20 and you have a temperature controlled fermentation chamber.

It won't beat the chest freezer but check out the Cool Brewing fermentation cooler. Works really well and won't make a mess like a swamp cooler can.

kh54s10 said:

Swamp cooler. Basically a larger container with water. Do not submerge your strip thermometer if you have one on your fermenter. Change out frozen bottles of water as necessary to keep the wort under 70 degrees. I like to go toward the lower end of the yeasts range - typically low to mid sixties.

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Plus 1 on this. It is not ideal but it is easy and inexpensive and does a really good job of controlling temps so that makes it worth the effort. I also agree that I prefer fermenting on the cooler side of the temperature range usually around 62 -64 degrees depending on the yeast strain. You can also buy an aquarium heater if you need to raise temperatures in your swamp cooler.

If you need ideas on how to build a swamp cooler just google swamp cooler. There are tons of them out there.

If you can handle a little more expense then a chest freezer with a two stage temperature controller if a great way to go. Just set the temp and forget it. The controller does all of the work for you.

Good on you for paying attention to your fermentation temps because it will be a great step forward in the quality of your beer.

Thank you for all the help I may use the swamp cooler for a batch or two and eventually buy a chest freezer in the near future