It's hot. That much the east and midwest will agree on.
I'm itching to make my next brew, Beach Blond Ale, but it is just too hot to leave in my kitchen, or even my basement. My kitchen was at 80 yesterday, so I put my thermometer down in my basement, which feels cool, but it was hovering around 75 down there.
I'm looking to use Wyeast Northwest ale yeast, which has a range of 65 to 75, but experience tells me to not try to use it at the high end.
So how long would I need to keep the temps down around 70? I have two options for that. First, I have air conditioning in the bedrooms of my house, but they aren't usually on all day long. I could bite the bullet and leave it on for the few hours we aren't home, except that we just got the electric bill and it was extremely high already.
Second option would be to keep it in the basement in my giant cooler. I'd have to use ice bottles to lower the temp, and that would involve checking it all the time. I'm not going away until next weekend so I could do that from Sunday (today) to next Friday. I could probably keep the temp at the low end doing this, but how low can I go? Would a towel wrap with evaporation work with the basement at 75, or is it just too hot?
So how long does it need to stay down? Does it need to secondary at 70 or would it be OK at a higher basement temp of 75 or so? Do I need to keep it down in the primary the entire time, or once the krausen falls I can stop worrying?
I'm itching to make my next brew, Beach Blond Ale, but it is just too hot to leave in my kitchen, or even my basement. My kitchen was at 80 yesterday, so I put my thermometer down in my basement, which feels cool, but it was hovering around 75 down there.
I'm looking to use Wyeast Northwest ale yeast, which has a range of 65 to 75, but experience tells me to not try to use it at the high end.
So how long would I need to keep the temps down around 70? I have two options for that. First, I have air conditioning in the bedrooms of my house, but they aren't usually on all day long. I could bite the bullet and leave it on for the few hours we aren't home, except that we just got the electric bill and it was extremely high already.
Second option would be to keep it in the basement in my giant cooler. I'd have to use ice bottles to lower the temp, and that would involve checking it all the time. I'm not going away until next weekend so I could do that from Sunday (today) to next Friday. I could probably keep the temp at the low end doing this, but how low can I go? Would a towel wrap with evaporation work with the basement at 75, or is it just too hot?
So how long does it need to stay down? Does it need to secondary at 70 or would it be OK at a higher basement temp of 75 or so? Do I need to keep it down in the primary the entire time, or once the krausen falls I can stop worrying?