I have to go to - the Basement!

I don't have any equipment to control temperatures, don't even have air conditioning. I've always just waited til the weather seemed all right & fermented in the dining room.

I thought I waited long enough. I started my yeast starter last week and shortly thereafter was informed that this week was going to be in the 80s. Yuck.

You see, this is a 130 year old house. Got from the old HUD program for a song. Most of it is great. But the basement......

This basement is the place you see in any movie where the audience is yelling "Don't go down there!" You wouldn't be surprised to see a guy in a hockey mask waltzing with the Giant Rat of Sumatra. Psycho guy next to a corpse in a rocking chair. Spiders the size of a Hummer. I don't go in the basement.

The ale is now in the basement. 66 degrees morning and night.

S#*^t!!!!!!!!

I guess I'd better clean it. I'm going to be using it again.

I wouldn't worry about those things hurting you... just keep feeding em the beer and they'll leave you alone... Now, if you cut em off, or you just get plain stingy with your beer.... don't be surprised if they come out of the basement to have a talk.

I've heard of folks inverting a pint glass and setting it over the airlock to keep curious critters away. Might be a good extra step because, If there are mice, those little b@stards can get into just about anything they want to. Or a metal garbage can with a lid.

Might be time to invest in a fridge if the basement is so scary You could even lock it in order to keep the masked man at bay.

This thread reminded me of this super-epic thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/strange-find-135050/

I've been brewing in the basement all year long, since I started! it's perfect! dark to keep UV light away from the yeast, and a fairly constant 66-68 degrees, no matter if the AC is on or not!


but then again, my basement is a pretty nice "man-cave" fully finished/carpeted walk out, huge couch with huge screen TV, 7.1 surround system, a full bathroom with a shower/tub combo, and a separate workout/hobby room with the weight bench, hobby table, gun safe, etc.

I have 2 batches in fermenters aging right now, 2 batches aging in bottles, and one batch in "consumption" stage. ...although it's almost gone, so I might be cracking open a bottled batch a week early!