Effect of temperature of fermentation?

how much is the temperature of ferementation going to affect my first batch? i'm brewing a pretty simple ipa, and i dont have the means to get the temp lower than around 75 degrees...i'm going to invest in a cooler soon, but in the mean time is there anything i can do to help with temp?

It's going to affect it a lot. Whether it will be drinkable is up to you to decide.

Temp IS really important, the warmer the ferment the greater the chance of off flavors...

You really don't have the means to dump some frozen Ice bottles into a tub of water with your fermenter in? Maybe with a t-shirt on top to wick it up?



Some folks even use a garbage can as their swamp cooler.

I've gotten my fermentations in the low 50's for the crucial firrst few hours.

Revvy said:

Temp IS really important, the warmer the ferment the greater the chance of off flavors...

You really don't have the means to dump some frozen Ice bottles into a tub of water with your fermenter in? Maybe with a t-shirt on top to wick it up?

Some folks even use a garbage can as their swamp cooler.

I've gotten my fermentations in the low 50's for the crucial firrst few hours.

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THIS

Everyone
EVERYONE
Has the means to maintain fermentation temps, I have a fermentation fridge but still use the old swamp cooler too.

I find a bin filled with water, a T-shirt over the carboy, (like Revvy above), and a fan blowing on the t-shirt works wonders, even without the ice bottles.

Not very many yeast stains will give favorable results over 75. Some people like Belgian yeast for IPAs--that might work. I like them clean and fermented in the low 60s. I use a chest freezer. It's just getting cool enough here that I might be able to set up my watter bath again for ales.

Here it is out in the brew shed last year with some frozen 2L bottles.

i wasnt aware that a tupperware with ice or frozen bottles would work i guess i do have the means...

and im extra glad i asked this because i sure as hell was about to mess it up

I bought a couple disposable aluminum 5 inch deep turkey roasting pans for around 3 dollars each at the grocery. I place the carboy in it, fill the pan with water, place two frozen water bottles in the water and then place a t-shirt over the carboy. The cold water wicks up the shirt and cools the carboy about 8 degrees cooler than ambient room temperature. I just top off the pan with tap water each day and change out the two frozen water bottles.

bluegrassbrewer said:

I bought a couple disposable aluminum 5 inch deep turkey roasting pans for around 3 dollars each at the grocery. I place the carboy in it, fill the pan with water, place two frozen water bottles in the water and then place a t-shirt over the carboy. The cold water wicks up the shirt and cools the carboy about 8 degrees cooler than ambient room temperature. I just top off the pan with tap water each day and change out the two frozen water bottles.

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Disclaimer: I've never fermented in a swamp cooler.


My guess is you don't even need the ice bottles. The cooling power of the swamp cooler comes from the evaporation of water off the t-shirt. Gaseous water molecules have a lot more energy than liquid water. When the water on the shirt is forced to go from a liquid to a gas it sucks energy out of the surroundings, which in this case is the fermenter. Adding a small fan blowing across the carboy will really supercharge the cooling power.