Temperature Control - (fermentation)

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bulleitb

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I am brewing a Hefeweizen today using the white labs hefeweizen yeast. My mini fridge wont go any higher than 57 degreees but if I turn it off it gets up to like 80 degrees. I know I can buy an external controller for the fridge but I havent made that investment yet. The question is what temp should I ferment this at? 57 or 80? I know neither is ideal but Im haveing a hard time making the decision on my own and need help from you guys.
 
I understand that thats where it should be but I dont run the AC when Im at work during the day and since its like 95 degrees outside right now it gets really hot in my apt. So its either 80 (room temp) or 57 (in the fridge). Thats my dilemma
 
I don't know if this will be bad for the fridge but you could buy a house light timer for ~10 dollars and plug the fridge into it. Set the fridge for the coldest temp and set the timer to only run for 30 min a day. The fridge should stay below 80 degrees but not by much. It would run and cool the fridge for 30 min cooling it down and the insulation would keep it cool until the next cycle. Keep a thermometer in there and play with frequency and duration of the cycles until you get the temp you want. It wouldn't be amazingly constant but certainly good enough for the price.

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I understand that thats where it should be but I dont run the AC when Im at work during the day and since its like 95 degrees outside right now it gets really hot in my apt. So its either 80 (room temp) or 57 (in the fridge). Thats my dilemma

Well, neither one of those will work with a hefe yeast. You could put the fermenter in a big cooler with water and frozen water bottles in it to try to get it to 65 degrees.
 
Put your carboy in a cooler and add ice as needed to maintain 67F and you will make a good hefe. Go over 70F and it may not be so good. Is that yeast German WLP300 or American WLP320. The German one will make way too much Bananna esters above 70F.
 
+1 on these ideas. I did it with my german ale. I actually put water into my brew kettle with a large piece of ice which I made in old ice cream buckets. I set my plastic fermenter in it. Worked well.
 
I am brewing a Hefeweizen today using the white labs hefeweizen yeast. My mini fridge wont go any higher than 57 degreees but if I turn it off it gets up to like 80 degrees. I know I can buy an external controller for the fridge but I havent made that investment yet. The question is what temp should I ferment this at? 57 or 80? I know neither is ideal but Im haveing a hard time making the decision on my own and need help from you guys.

ferment at 57 and use a strain like german ale or california (steam beer yeast) ale... they will do great...
 
I am brewing a Hefeweizen today using the white labs hefeweizen yeast. My mini fridge wont go any higher than 57 degreees but if I turn it off it gets up to like 80 degrees. I know I can buy an external controller for the fridge but I havent made that investment yet.

I am a Cheap Bastid and I think the investment in a $50 controller (Johnson, in my case) was a great investment. If you can spare the cash I'd get one on order. Makes brewing in Texas easy in summer (instead of being heartache).
 
The German one will make way too much Bananna esters above 70F.

Too much banana ester in a hefe? That's crazy talk! ;) I purposely fermented my last hefe at 70F+ to get more banana notes!

Until you get a controller for your fridge or try one of the other solutions mentioned here, how much would it really cost you to run your home A/C for a few day while you're at work? Close off the registers and doors to all rooms except for the one the fermenter and thermostat are in. You'll then only be cooling that one room. I can't imagine you'll be using all that much energy.
 
I live in southern indiana, It's been hot here since mayish. I keep the house whatever temp that i want. and have a cheapo walmart window a/c unit i keep in one room and it keeps it 68 no problem, then you can store all the fermenters tha you want and not have to use a fridge. My question is that I'm fermenting a belgian amber right now and i realized that wyeast called for 68-78 degrees for fermentation. I was letting it get down to 64 on some days (rarely as high as 68). my first belgian, will this effect the taste?
 
I tasted it last night when i took a reading, it was 1.014...i didn't care for the taste at all! maybe it just needs some time to mellow out...not sure. what do you all think?
 
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