How to brew in a limited space apartment?

I recently moved to a new apartment with very little space and no way to control the temperature during fermentation. I have brewed a few times before but I am a little stumped with this one. Does anyone have any tips on apartment brewing in room temperature (about 70 F)?

Consider fermenting either under your sink or in the bedroom closet. 70'ish would be fine for most anything that isn't a lager.

you could put your primary in a rubbermaid tote filled with water to maintain temps.
I did this for the first 6 months when I was brewing in my Apt...had the Fermenter next to the TV across from my couch in the living room.

I am in one of those limited space apartments.. i am fermenting at room temperature, kept in my laundry room. My first batch has turned out great. I have a couple of friends that also ferment at room temperature. Granted I would like to control temps a little better, but with very little room to work with and two cats that love to make a mess, im fairly limited. I'm sure other ppl will disagree with me here, but I'd say you will be fine.. just try to keep your apartment ~70F or less, now that its cold i try to keep it around 68-70.

jiggs_casey said:

Consider fermenting either under your sink or in the bedroom closet. 70'ish would be fine for most anything that isn't a lager.

Click to expand...

Experienced apartment brewer here. I've brewed for years on a tight budget in a tiny apartment.

First, I think that if your ambient temperature is in the 70s, you are asking for off-flavors. If your ferm temp is +2-10 degrees (remember fermentation creates heat), you're most certainly fermenting at or above the upper range for ale yeast. In my experience, most of my summer beers brewed before I built a ferm chamber suffered from off-flavors due to hot temps, and my ambient temp was 72.

Just ask yourself: do I really want to spend all this time, effort, and money to brew a bad beer? Why even brew? I finally built a ferm chamber, check my sig for info. The one I built is big, but you could easily build a smaller one.

Alternatively, you can just do the swamp cooler/ice bottle thing for the first few days of fermentation.