newbie seeks advice

Hello, first post here and my first 5 gallon of extract brew (american pale ale) from a Brewer's Best kit is in it's 6th day of fermentation. I understand it's best to keep the beer at at constant temperature during fermentation. Here's my question, I have limited space to store my 5 gallon fermenter so it's in the corner of my kitchen in a shaded corner. I have avoided using the oven in the kitchen in the last week to keep the temperature steady while the beer is fermenting but this isn't gonna fly with the wife in the long run. I'm curious to know if using the oven and having the temp in the kitchen change for a few hours during cooking/baking etc. will affect the fermentation in a bad way. I would like to keep fermenting in the kitchen in the future if possible because it's the most convenient place in the house. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks, James

You need to determine how much of an effect using the stove is having on your kitchen temperature. Unless your kitchen is very small and poorly ventilated, I don't think it will affect it that much. Look at some methods to keep your fermentation temperatures down, such as a rubbermaid tote with some ice water or try one of the methods outline in the Wiki.

And welcome to the forum!!

I should add, the kitchen is of medium size. I plan on getting a thermometer for the wall so I can get a reading of how much the oven changes the temp in there but if I had to guess, it feels like it heats up roughly 5 degrees or so. Thanks, James

5 gallons of water changes temperature very slowly. A rise in air temp for an hour will probably not even change the temp on your fermenter... 1° tops.
The bigger question is, what is your kitchen temp on average? If you keep your house in the low to mid 60's, you are great, but that would be too cold for me.
Don't panic if you are fermenting in the mid 70's. It's not ideal for most beers, but it'll probably still come out great. Definitely look around here and see the many creative ways to lower fermentation temps.

One of my favorite brewing tools is a stick on thermometer. You just stick it on the outside of the carboy or bucket, and it tells you the temperature of the beer/wort. Ambient temperature is not really an accurate gauge of the temperature INside the fermenter. Those stick on thermometers are available in your homebrew supplies store, or even an aquarium stick on thermometer from Wal-mart will work.

Thanks for the feedback and advice guys. I do have the sticker thermometers on my fermenters and it seems to stabilize between 73-75 degrees. I know that's usually a big high but the instructions for my american pale ale says to ferment between 72-75 so I think I'm ok with this batch but I'm concerned for future batches. When we use our oven our kitchen seems to heat up fast and then subsides after 90 minutes or so. I have much to learn and I've started reading on this forum of the different ways to obtain a cooler fermentation. More newbie questions to follow.

My very first batch of beer, an IPA Kit, got up to like 80 during fermentation. I lived in the desert and my house got warm. It came out fine. Take a deep breath and relax your beer will be fine.

JamesJ said:

Thanks for the feedback and advice guys. I do have the sticker thermometers on my fermenters and it seems to stabilize between 73-75 degrees. I know that's usually a big high but the instructions for my american pale ale says to ferment between 72-75 so I think I'm ok with this batch but I'm concerned for future batches.

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73-75 is fine for California Ale or similar clean ale yeasts. It's a bit warm for a yeast like an English Ale or Irish Ale, which would give off too many esters and diacetyl over 70. If you do a Belgian you'd be right on the money at those temps.

- Eric

If it is the 70-75 range now a water bath should easily get the temps lower. It won't be affected quite so easily by fluctautions in the kitchen either but it will take up more room.

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