How do you go about keeping a constant fermenting temp.

I recently set up my first kit and have an Oktoberfest Ale in the fermenter. In order to make a temp buffer i set the fermenter in a 30 gallon tub and filled it with 73 degree water i then put the lid on the tub and covered the a cloth the help block sunlight. it seems to help avoid any sudden temp changes, but i was wondering if there was a better way of going about it. I live in a small apartment and dont have the room for a large object, such as a refrigerator, and will have a hard time convincing my wife to agree to any more large purchases "for beer". thank you for any inputs

Frozen bottles of water and pointing a fan towards the tub will help.

The weather outside is 68-73 degrees all week and we have the windows open in the apartment, so the fermenting temp is about right, i just dont want to have a temp change if it cools off at night and shock the yeast. we of course shut the windows at night, but the apartment still cools off a little at night.

Short of a basement or a dedicated fermentation chamber (fridge or somesuch), that's about it. ou can put frozen water bottles in it to drop the temperature, or a fish tank heater to raise it.

What kind of yeast are you using?

i didnt think of a submersible fish tank heater. i am using white labs yeast. i really dont know much more then that. it was what was recommended by someone with much more experience then me for what is was trying to brew.

RascalKing said:

i didnt think of a submersible fish tank heater. i am using white labs yeast. i really dont know much more then that. it was what was recommended but someone with much more experience then me for what is was trying to brew.

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The yeast manufacturer's websites are great for info on each yeast. For example, for White labs, I often use California ale yeast. Here's the page from that: http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp001.html

I almost always ferment at the bottom range of the "optimum" temperature, or sometimes lower if I'm very familiar with a certain yeast strain. I rarely (if ever) ferment at 70 degrees or higher.

im pretty sure that is the yeast im using. I read somewhere that fermenting higher on the optimum scale make the beer flavors bolder (keeping in the optimum scale of course), and that is what im looking for. is that advice worth anything, or just bs?

Fermenting at higher temps makes Yeast created flavors bolder. It will have the side affect of making hops and malt flavor's less bold by comparison.

we had a "heat wave" over the past few days and i reached i max temp of 80F. i tried adding ice but ended up jsut switching out the water in the tub to gradually lower the temp to back within the optimum band. i enede up being outside the band for a good portion of the day. how bad would you say the off flavors in the beer will be. my airlock is still bubbling so i am sure the yeast is still alive and kicking.

You'll be fine.

Perfect fermentation temp control is my holy grail. My setup keeps evolving (and the damn seasons keep changing). My aqarium heater works great when I need to ferment above ambient temps. My son of fermentation chiller works great when I ferment below ambient temps. The tricky part is controlling temps that are around ambient. I'm still working on that one...

aquarium heater! genious!

I use a rubbermaid container and a t-shirt to keep my temps down. I read it somewhere here on HBT. I just get a big rubbermaid storage container, fill it with about 3 or 4 gallons of water, and put the carboy in it. Then I soak an old t-shirt in the water and drape it across the top of the carboy, kind of like it's wearing the t-shirt. Keep the bottom of the t-shirt in the water. When the heat of the fermentation evaporates the damp shirt, the water will wick its way up the sides, keeping it cool. And the shirt provides protection from light as well. I only did this for my last three batches, but my temperatures were about 6-8 degrees cooler than before I did it. I imagine if you used an aquarium heater with this, you could manage even greater control over your temperatures if you were targeting something specific.

As for me, I'm still experimenting with different flavors of beer. I have yet to make the same batch twice so I couldn't tell you what the ferm temp does to the flavor first hand. When I get to that point, I'm sure I will find some way to control to a very tight temp range.

I use the aquarium heater method as well, but I'm blessed with a basement that stays right around 63 year round. Heating is easier than cooling.