Temperature

I am not necessarily a newbie (I have a couple dozen batches under my belt), but this is my first batch in my new apartment. The building is steam heated and I am on the first floor so all the pipes are directly underneath me, so I have my heater turned off, but my apartment still sits at about 75-80 degrees in the winter (I live in MN). So my fermentation is sitting at 75 degrees for a Dry Irish Stout. I have read that Ales are pretty forgiving up to 80 degrees. I dont really want to open a window and cool my entire apt because I do not want to cause the temp to flucutate extremely. Any suggestions or is this just going to have to be an experiement to see how fermentation goes at the higher end of the temp spectrum? The vent is bubbling like it should, there has been a little bubble over because the water in the vent is now beer colored, but its been 3 days and its still bubbling.

Thanks,

Matt

Put your fermentors in a tub of water, be it your bath tub (if you have an extra) or just a plastic tub from the hardware store. Fill with water (maybe even add a little ice to it every couple of days) and that should help you keep the temp down to the high 60's, low 70's.

A tub of water will definitely work. I was able to keep a fermenter at 68-69F in a 78-degree apartment with a tub of water and a single 24oz bottle of ice (which I changed every 8 hours or so). You could do better with more ice, obviously. Although after 3 days, you might already have some funky flavors. Still wouldn't hurt to cool it off.

Wrap a wet towel around the carboy and put a fan on it - should cool it down 5 degrees at LEAST in the dry winter air.

75 is a little high, even for ale. I'd say let this one ferment out and see how it does, worst case scenario you'll have some fruity off-flavors. Going forward I would suggest you do something to keep your temps down. I have found that an Igloo Ice Cube cooler filled with frozen water bottles works very well; all I had to do was fashion a new lid out of polystyrene board (Yooper has some pics still I think). You could also build a fermentation chiller.

Simplest thing, just wrap a couple of old t-shirts or a towel as previously suggested around the carboy and keep them moist. It will stay much cooler than room temp.

I have a mini fridge that I think I may use as part of the fermentation chiller. I have a good Idea on how to convert my walk in closet into a chilling room. As for this batch I opened up a vent from the outside in the room that contains the closet its sitting in and am pumping in some cool air through that. I am going to bottle it after 7 days and then let it sit and build the chiller before I brew my next batch.

Oh and I brewed monday night and its wednesday morning, so it has really been three days. Its only been a day and a half.