Disturbing my beer during fermentation

Only on my second batch. I live in MS and the temp can get pretty high in my apt. on any given day. I felt my first beer fermented at too high of a temp so I rigged up a cooler to set my fermenting bucket in. Problem is I cannot read the temp strip on the side of the bucket without picking it up about two feet (its a cube ice chest). Will doing this during fermentation possibly disturb it and cause any problems? Just wanna be able to monitor my brew temp but am worried my set up may cause problems.

Well first, don't worry about monitoring the temp strip constantly, it's not crucial to be dead on a certain temp in a swamp cooler, just within a low range.

You also really only need to maintain the temp for the first 3 days of active fermentation (if there is a 72 hour lag time before that that call it a week to be safe) after that temp control is not crucial.

Secondly if you've kept your fermenter sealed and the co2 bed intact moving it around won't harm it within reason. You just don't want to get it sloshing too much that you incorporate oxygen and will hurt your beer. You're beer's not that week.

But really just at this point, just relax and let the yeast do it's job, you don't need to hover.

you'll just stir up some trub. It won't cause any real issues unless you really slosh it around. Before bottling or transferring try to leave it alone for at least a week for the yeast to compact

You'll be fine. I drove 4 hours from Indiana to Michigan with my full fermenter riding shotgun in the front seat of my truck. It was fermenting like mad with all that sloshing, and still tasted great!

Good to know. Thanks everyone for your replies.

It just started fermenting last night. It took 72 hours to start but it finally did. My main concern was that I may be keeping it too cold. I'll relax and just make sure my water around it is cold and not room temp and I won't worry too much after that.

stick your floating thermometer in the water of the cooler. Keep that water around 65* for the first few days... Then let it warm up a degree or two... that rise will really help the yeast attenuate.

If you do a search, there are a lot of other ways to help keep things cool. I've heart the wet t shirt with a fan helps some...

JSomps6 said:

I've heart the wet t shirt with a fan helps some...

Click to expand...

It usually does.

heart... heard... freudian... I heart a good wet t shirt though

I had the same issue - couldn't read my stick on thermometer without lifting the bucket out of my Igloo cooler "fermentation chamber", so I bought a Thermo Sensor (aquarium thermometer - $12.48) from my local Pet Supplies "Plus" and embeded the sensor into a piece of insulation sheeting. I taped it onto my bucket below the 5 gallon mark so the sensor touches the bucket. The display sits on the lid of my bucket. No more lifting!

Haha. Forgot about my thermometer. I'll try that it should do the trick. Thanks for the tip.