runaway Ale temperatures.

I am good at making lagers. chest freezer and temp control. but what do you guy suse to keep the ales from running away?

I had my room perfectly dialed in to 64 so i figured my Belgium quad would be ok in there. I checked it this AM and the liquid crystal is running at 72-74. high range for this t58 yeast.

Do you guys chest freezer and cool your ales too?

I put everything into the chest freezer because even now during the winter we need to run the AC to keep it below 76 in the afternoon. I just have to cycle beers or completely lock up the freezer to lager.

Using air conditioning to control fermentation temps gets very expensive, and it's not usually successful (because fermentation is exothermic). I use a temp-controlled mini fridge for both ale and lager fermentations, as well as lagering. Before that, I used an insulated fermentation chamber.

do you control the temp of the air around the beer? or do you put the temperature probe against the carboy itself?

Elfmaze said:

do you control the temp of the air around the beer? or do you put the temperature probe against the carboy itself?

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You put the probe against the carboy itself.

I have the stick-on thermometers on my carboys. They sit in igloo icecube coolers . In the summer I use about a two gallon water bath and frozen water bottles to control temps. In the winter I can get by with just one or two frozen water bottles sitting in the bottom of the cooler.

As you discovered, even with ambients in the mid to low 60s, ale yeasties can rapidly heat things up.
Pez.


EDIT - I fashioned covers for the coolers, and you would be surprised how steady you can keep fermentation temps with this low-tech method. Found the coolers a few years ago on sale at Target for about 20 bucks. If you are interested, make sure you get the kind without wheels, otherwise there is a large ridge inside the floor ofj the cooler.