Battle against airlock activity!

how long have you let this sit now? i'm asking because i got tired of reading and just jumped to the end. i was letting all my brews sit for two-three weeks before. i talked with another brewer at work who has been doing it for years now and he said let it sit for at least a month in the primary. the last two brews i have done i have let sit over a month in the primary. i bottled one last night that smelled great when i pulled the lid off it. it has about 3 or 4 different hops in it and smelled just out of this world. i have another light beer to bottle today and more brewing supplies coming in off the fedex truck from midwest today.

i think i'll move away from wheat and back to just lighter beers for awhile and see what happens for myself.

You might want to look into a swamp cooler to stabilize the temps during fermentation. The big containers are like $5-7 at walmart or target. They are normally used here for cooling, by adding ice and or evaporation, but I've found that they also keep the temp stable at or around room temp if you don't add ice or anything. And when fermentation gets rocking, you won't get a big rise in internal temp. The temp of the swamp cooler water will change slowly even as you get relatively big swings in your ambient home air. It really seems ideal on your case. If you come home and find the water/fermentation temp too cool for your liking, you can remove some water and replace it with warm/hot tap water and swirl it around.

pj_rage said:

You might want to look into a swamp cooler to stabilize the temps during fermentation. The big containers are like $5-7 at walmart or target. They are normally used here for cooling, by adding ice and or evaporation, but I've found that they also keep the temp stable at or around room temp if you don't add ice or anything. And when fermentation gets rocking, you won't get a big rise in internal temp. The temp of the swamp cooler water will change slowly even as you get relatively big swings in your ambient home air. It really seems ideal on your case. If you come home and find the water/fermentation temp too cool for your liking, you can remove some water and replace it with warm/hot tap water and swirl it around.

Click to expand...

Good point, but a room temp range from 59-66F don't really change the wort temp a lot... I did not have a strip thermometer in this particular batch but the ones I had in the past showed that the actual wort temp don't change much at those given temp ranges.

I'm too new to draw on a lot of experience but my first batch was granted a big 1.086 beer, but with us-05 in 66F ambient, the strip (confirmed by IR) got to 74F when it was really going before I put it in the swamp cooler and I just don't want that happening again. I just want more control and to know instead of guess what's going on. I guess maybe different yeasts and gravities are different or even something as simple as having it on a cold floor vs the carpet I had could all make a difference. I was just suggesting it as a very easy and cheap way to make sure your temps are stable. (Also not in relation to your OP which seemed solved, I just saw that you say your home temp fluctuates a lot daily so keeping fermenting beer in a swamp cooler would reduce any fluctuation effects in addition to curbing any temp rise during the active fermentation). Happy brewing either way