How warm is too warm? Fermentation

I just checked the water temp in my swamp cooler and it was showing 72-74. I'm on day 5 of fermentation. The room temp is about 64. I had been adding ice bottles to keep the water cooler.

I'm worried that because the last 24 hrs its been warm that it may have some heating issues. Should I be ok? Bubbling looks like it has stopped so I know things were starting off well.

Really want to open up and take a look at it though....

What yeast are you using and what style of beer are you trying to make? It's a little warm for an ale yeast but it depends on the yeast and style.

Nottingham/ Stout. Meant to post that but got sidetracked by pizza. OG was 1.060

IMO, at day 5 you are good. It is best to control the temperature the entire time of fermentation but it is very important through the height of the active fermentation.
For the temperature find the range for your yeast. It might be listed on the package or you may have to go the MFG site. I always aim to the lower end of the range.

Yeah I had been going by the thermometer I slapped onto the side of the fermenter and it was showing 62-64... but thent he water was showing 72-74... So I decided to cool it down some more.

Looking forward to tasting it.

if your room temp is 64 why are you using a swamp cooler, my basement stays about 64 and i never have a problem keeping my fermentation temps around 66 to 69 at the most. all i ever use is a fan during the first couple of days when it is most active.
Nottingham is good from 57 to 72 but you wont have any problems, and fruity esters (and I don't think you will have much) will not be noticable in a stout) I am fermenting a stout right now with Burton ale yeast and I am counting on some fruitiness from it.

sok454 said:

I just checked the water temp in my swamp cooler and it was showing 72-74. I'm on day 5 of fermentation. The room temp is about 64. I had been adding ice bottles to keep the water cooler.

I'm worried that because the last 24 hrs its been warm that it may have some heating issues. Should I be ok? Bubbling looks like it has stopped so I know things were starting off well.

Really want to open up and take a look at it though....

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Something isn't right with one or both of your readings. If the room temp is 64 and the set up has been in the room for 5days and active fermentation is done the set up should be around the same temp as ambient by now as the temperatures would have equalized.

The room I ferment in is usually at 67 and in the summer when it gets to 69-70 I begin using a swamp cooler and ice if necessary but usually after active fermentation and no additional ice everything is generally equalized within 24-36 hours with maybe a 1-2degree difference.

I would check the calibrations of your thermometers. I could be wrong but I think something's off

Something is definitely not right. If ambient is 64 it is not possible for the swamp cooler to be at 74. Are you sure you did not mix them up? Ambient 74 and swamp cooler. at 64.......,

Used same thermometer for ambient and water temp. that's why i was confused as to why the water temp would be that much more than the air temp. Reason for initially using it was our unfinished portion keeps warmer than the rest of the basement due to the furnace/water heater being close. I would rather it be too cool than too hot. But it sounds like I should be ok since the initial fermentation has finished.

Do you have a fan blowing on the surface of the swamp water? It is the evaporation process that pulls heat out of the swamp water and cools it.

I used a $10 desk fan for the swamp cooler I setup a few weeks ago. I just set it on the edge of the outer bucket and leaned it on the inner budget.

the dehumidifier blows across it.

beergolf said:

Something is definitely not right. If ambient is 64 it is not possible for the swamp cooler to be at 74. Are you sure you did not mix them up? Ambient 74 and swamp cooler. at 64.......,

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That sounds more like it. My swamp cooler with two ciders in it has consistently been 10 degrees below ambient temp for about the weeks now.

sok454 said:

Used same thermometer for ambient and water temp. that's why i was confused as to why the water temp would be that much more than the air temp. Reason for initially using it was our unfinished portion keeps warmer than the rest of the basement due to the furnace/water heater being close. I would rather it be too cool than too hot. But it sounds like I should be ok since the initial fermentation has finished.

Click to expand...

You should be fine but I would still figure out why your readings are off so your fermentation temperature calculations are accurate as you move forward in brewing other batches. If the ambient really is 64-65 there really is no need to sue a swamp cooler unless you can't get your initial wort temperatures down to pitching temperature.

I think I figured out part of the issue. The dehumidifier was blowing directly onto my thermometer where I had set it to get the readings. And of course where I set it was right above the fermenter.