Raising fermentation temperature with a space heater?

I pitched my yeast too cold last night and this morning I woke up and the temperature is a 64. I only have my thermostat set to 65 and the fermenter is in a side bedroom which is cooler than the rest of the house. I have a blanket wrapped around the bucket and a space heater in the room (not blowing directly on it). The space heater has a thermostat on it set to 70. Is raising the temp from 64 to 70 too much? Does this sound like a good plan?

64 actually sounds perfect for most yeast strains. Do you have a stick-on thermometer on the side of the bucket so you can turn the heater off when the wort gets to 68 degrees?

Yooper said:

64 actually sounds perfect for most yeast strains. Do you have a stick-on thermometer on the side of the bucket so you can turn the heater off when the wort gets to 68 degrees?

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Yes I do. I'm using English Ale yeast (White Labs) The vial says to stay between 70-75

linusstick said:

Yes I do. I'm using English Ale yeast (White Labs) The vial says to stay between 70-75

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Those vials always say to pitch between 70-75! (to compensate for underpitching, since they really don't have enough yeast in the vial to get to optimum pitching rates).

But take a look at White Lab's own website and the instructions on that yeast:

WLP002 English Ale Yeast
A classic ESB strain from one of England's largest independent breweries. This yeast is best suited for English style ales including milds, bitters, porters, and English style stouts. This yeast will leave a beer very clear, and will leave some residual sweetness.
Attenuation: 63-70%
Flocculation: Very High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-68°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp002.html
There is more information at that site, and even a link to Chris White talking about that strain.

I'm fermenting a IIPA with this strain right now and it's at 63 degrees. For beers that I want a low ester profile, I keep it between 62-65 for the first half or so of fermentation. Then I boost towards 72 at the end.

If you want a bit more esters and fruitiness, you can attempt to boost to 68 or so. Personally I'd rather have a beer slightly lower because once it's up, it's hard to bring it back down.

When you're mentioning the temps, are they room temps or the temp of the fermenter? I would try to keep the temp in the fermenter at 64F, which may mean keeping the room at 59-60F. The fermentation itself will raise the temp inside as much as 5-8 degrees. If you raise the ambient to 70F, you could be fermenting at 76F and that will give you some off flavors.

Are the temps your referring to during active fermentation or does it matter once active fermentation has stopped what the temp is?

I'm talking about the temperature of the wort during active fermentation.

Yes it's true that fermentation creates heat, but you can't make blanket statements like "it's 5 degrees above ambient." I've found that when my basement is about 57 degrees, my wort will stay at pitching temp for about 3 days. That's pitching at 62 or 65 or 68 - doesn't matter. But on about the third day is when I have to start using a heating pad to raise the temp.

I think too many people just assume their fermentor is at the right temp. Put a thermometer on there so that you don't have to lie to yourself.

I would add one wrod of caution from exprience. When using a space heater and wrapping in a blanket watch your fermentation temps. I had a blacl IIPA not long ago take off on me and the ambient tempwas 78-80 dgrees so I am guessing the internal temp was close to 85.

I don't think I got any off flavors becuse this is one of the best beers I have made to date.

Yeah, I'm using a heating pad (the kind for injuries) that has a low-med-high setting. The first time I used it I was overzealous and jacked it up too quickly. Then I came down the next day and the wort was at about 74. It wasn't bad but it was a little fruity. Sure fermented quickly, though.

Really, I've learned that so long as the beer looks like it's still fermenting (bubbles and crap moving around in the carboy), you really don't have to worry about raising the temp. It's when there's very little happening in there that I slowly start to ramp up... and this time I spend at least an entire day at low, then medium, then high.