How Long do You Leave Pacman at 60 Degrees?

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ultravista

ultravista

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When you ferment with Pacman, how long do you leave it at 60 degrees?

I'm using a large tub and swapping ice packs a few times a day to keep it around 60 (+/- 2 degrees). The ambient temperature in the house is about 72 right now; there's about 5 gallons of water in the tub so it takes a while to move upwards.

Is there a typical schedule for keeping it at x degrees for x days then bringing up to ambient temps?

What is your process when fermenting with Pacman?
 
I keep it at sixty pretty much straight through, but then again I'm not wrestling with ice bottles. Temperature control is going to be most important in the first four or five days, and still somewhat important until your beer hits FG. After that, you'd probably be okay at 72 (but not 90).
 
MalFet, I do have a keezer which I may use for the next batch - much easier than swapping ice bottles / packs several times a day.

However, I have kegs and bottled beer in there; I will have to bring the kegs and bottles up to 60 degrees for the duration of the ferment.

How do you manage temperature and do you have suggestions of how to best utilize the keezer while it also maintains the kegs and bottles? There doesn't seem to be an easy solution.

The house is about 70 degrees at the moment and will be throughout the summer when the AC kicks-in.
 
ultravista said:
MalFet, I do have a keezer which I may use for the next batch - much easier than swapping ice bottles / packs several times a day.

However, I have kegs and bottled beer in there; I will have to bring the kegs and bottles up to 60 degrees for the duration of the ferment.

How do you manage temperature and do you have suggestions of how to best utilize the keezer while it also maintains the kegs and bottles? There doesn't seem to be an easy solution.

The house is about 70 degrees at the moment and will be throughout the summer when the AC kicks-in.
Click to expand...

Some people have jury rigged cold air ducts to go from their keezer to a insulated box. Personally, I just use a mini-fridge. There are plenty of insulated builds on the forums here, depending on how ambitious you want to get.
 
Do you have any suggestions on how to dual-purpose my keezer? If fermenting for three weeks @ 60, the kegs and bottles will get quite warm.

Unless I go with another refrigerated box and face the wrath of my wife and her "dumb hobby" speech(s), I don't know what else would work.

Maybe a cooler (like Yoopers) to insulate the water and retain some of the cold.
 
ultravista said:
Do you have any suggestions on how to dual-purpose my keezer? If fermenting for three weeks @ 60, the kegs and bottles will get quite warm.

Unless I go with another refrigerated box and face the wrath of my wife and her "dumb hobby" speech(s), I don't know what else would work.

Maybe a cooler (like Yoopers) to insulate the water and retain some of the cold.
Click to expand...

If you've got space in the keezer, stick a fermwrap on your carboy, stick your carboy in a neoprene jacket, and stick the whole thing in the keezer. It sounds strange to have a heater inside a cooler, but it's actually a lot less inefficient than you'd think.
 
I get it, maintain keezer temps, heat the carboy to bring it up to fermentation temps.

Fermwrap will bring it up 20 degrees?
 
All good ideas. Another thing to consider is that Pacman is a REALLY versatile yeast. It's been known to perform well as high as 80° and as low as 40°. It's a great strain of yeast that is nice and neutral and is just a freak when it comes to surviving in different temperatures, and that's why Rogue uses it for pretty much everything. I've just recently recultivated it and made it my "house" strain.
 
I graduated to a fridge with a Johnson A419 controller.

My latest batch with Pacman has been fermenting @ 60 degrees for 8 days. Very little signs of fermentation, a little off-gassing but no airlock movement.

Would this be a good time to take it to 70 degrees and for how long?

I am leaving on the 28th for two weeks. I would like to have it in a keg before leaving.
 

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