whats best

most of my beers have had this off flavour, im putting it down to the temp of fermentation as thats 1 thing iv not really cared about and now figure i should, so what will hurt the flavour more, slightly too cold or slightly too warm, im living with my inlaws and until we get our own place i cant really choose where i put my fermentor so the beers not great, any tips for my next 1 about this?

my advice if you are new is all my beers had a very bitter off-flavor in the aftertaste (not good hops bitter, just bad). I let them sit for a month or more and they are fantastic now. My advice is to put them away and forget about them for a month and see if they improve

If you have to choose between 85 degrees and 60 degrees, choose the 60 degrees. Any cooler than 60 degrees, though, and you'll have trouble getting ale yeast working well.

If you can ferment at 50 degrees (just about 10 degrees above fridge temperatures) you could do lagers with lager yeast.

Consistent temps are more important than anything. If you start at 75 keep it there. Sharp rises and drops during the first 72 or so hours can have a negative impact. once fermentation starts to slow it is less important.

+1 on letting it age. It can be hard to do but it is amazing what an extra month can do.

search swamp cooler.

Is that an option for you? If so, this will work very well.

nope not an option, thanks, thinking of getting it to pitchin temp and pitchin then wrappin in insulation, is this ok

Wrapping in insulation will not keep it at a different temp from the room indefinitly but may slow down the change enough to help. I actually did this for some of mine as the basement started to warm in the heatwave I piled some blankets and such around the carboys. Don't know if it helped or not but sure didn't hurt.

It might not hurt to keep a pail or bottle of water near where you leaver your fermenter and brew your beer based on that temperature reading. I've also used a rubbermaid tub filled with water and a t-shirt or frozen water bottles to keep the temp in the range I wanted.

I have a big pot that i can fill with water and put the fermentor in, if the water is say 65 then the wort should be 65???

beermonster1985 said:

I have a big pot that i can fill with water and put the fermentor in, if the water is say 65 then the wort should be 65???

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over a long period of time that is safe to say HOWEVER fermentation creates heat which will kinda make that statement untrue. Also keep in mind how long it would take that liquid to reach the same temps. It would be hours and hours and hours.

Getting your temps down before pitching is most important. Many people place ice (or frozen water bottles with water in them) in the swamp cooler and keep swapping them out every 12 - 18 hours all the way through the fermentation. When it subsides and it is just sitting there aging, this is much less necessary and maybe even not necessary at all. This would work much better for you.

I just fill my bottles about 3/4ths of the way with water and then swap them out - well until i built my fridge that is ha ha

The the temperature inside a small 2-5 gallon fermenter will be about 5ºF higher than your surrounding air temperature, so if your room is at 72ºF the temperature inside your fermenter will be around 77ºF, which is just a shade under the maximum 80ºF temperature for a lot of ale yeasts.

Another reason for off flavors could be related to improper sanitization or contamination. After pitching my yeast I twist on the tops of the fermenters and don't open them again until bottling day. Every time you expose your fermenting beer to the atmosphere you increase the risk of contamination that can ruin your beer.

Screwy Brewer

of course i get the temp down 1st,, so ice surrounding the fermentor and keep swapping every12hrs? wont make thewort too cold?