Temps are pretty high

Right now my fermenters are 11 degrees above the ambient air temperature.

Beyond all the other BS that went wrong on this beer, I am now dealing with this. I'm using Nottingham Yeast and I know I'll probably have some off flavors (or pretty much guaranteed off flavors).

Here's the question, apart from a fridge what's a great way of bringing down the temp?

Also, is there anything else I can expect from fermenting 11 degrees above the suggested fermentation temp?

Thanks for any advice, I really appreciate it.

Water bath... I've seen other people post that with decent results. Locally I typically have the opposite problem so I can't attest to it personally.

Chuck_Swillery said:

Water bath... I've seen other people post that with decent results. Locally I typically have the opposite problem so I can't attest to it personally.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I've been putting some cold packs between the two fermenters, but it hasn't touched the temp. I'm going to throw a couple cold wet towels around them and see if that helps.

I just brewed a batch and had trouble keeping the temp down. I filled up my bathtub with water, threw a t-shirt over my fermenter, and had a fan blowing on it. I froze some bottles of water and threw them in there as well, and now my inside-fermenter temp is reading 66 with an ambient temp of 78.

Water baths are where it's at!

If the air is dry in Plano right now, the wet towels trick should work. I would recommend pointing a fan or A/C at it and keeping the towels wet (this requires 2-3 wettings per day). I can ferment my ales at 62 this way, and if I chill them before fermenting, I can maintain Cali Commons at 58 for at least a week.

I'm definitely going to have to use the water bath trick. After the main fermentation was finished the temps leveled at 72 (which is still a touch high). I think the damage was already done and moving it to the upstairs bath is too much for me to handle.

I will start my next beers in the water bath though. I always run at the higher cap for yeast temps, and I think this will alleviate a lot of my problems.

Thanks again for the advice.