ca common help

I brewed a ca common this wknd. The recipe says it is best fermented between 58-63 degrees. The thermostat in my house is @ 70, so I have the primary in the garadge. It is 58 degrees.
Here's my delima.... right now its in the high 50s to low 60s outside. The next wk it is suppose to drop into the high 40s with lows in the 20s. My garadge is insulated so I'm guessing ( hoping) it will stay in low 50s.
Does anyone have an idea about how to insulate the fermenter...or any other good suggestions? Thanx

Helllo brewing nation?

Build a SFOC or get a heating belt/wrap for the fermenter. Some people use a reptile heating pad under the femrntor. Could always use a spare coat to wrap around the fermenter.

Edit: How much longer do you think it has to finish active fermentation?

A water bath is pretty good for regulating temps too. You can use hot water bottles or cold water to regulate the temps, it'll take more energy to raise or lower the temp too than just the fermenter being on its own. I'm doing this with a Ca Common in my primary right now.

I actually ferment my CA Commons at about 55F. Matter of fact I just scored a 37 in a competition with one fermented at that temp. Back when I first started brewing beer, I fermented a couple in the low 70s, I won't be doing that again.

If you can just keep that beer in the mid 50s or so until most of your fermentation is over you'll be fine. This should happen in 3-7 days. At that time you'll want to warm the beer up for a diacetyl rest. In other words you could move it to room temp for a couple days. After that my advice is to chuck that baby back out in the garage for a few weeks to lager it, just make sure it doesn't freeze.

Thanx gentleman. I am gonna wrap a sleeping bag around it...and try that. If not I will see if I can find something big enuf for a water bath, if need be. It was put in fermenter on sun. So basically we are on day 3. Probably leave it in primary for 10 days then rack to secondary. It was still 57 in the garadge this morn. Whew! Lol

If you want to secondary that's fine, but many of us on this forum don't subscribe to that idea anymore, unless we are doing fruit editions or something special. I don't even secondary when I lager, unless I'm going to be lagering for more than say a few months.

Don't miss the diacetyl rest, when fermentation slows down, let's say it's bubbling once every 30-60 seconds, bring it in the house to room temp for about 48 hours. Diacetyl can lead to some pretty bad off flavors.

I don't usually rack my brew either (thanx to a bunch of good advise on here) but I had a bunch of floaties in my beer during the boil. Dunno from what. Maybe one of my socks or the hops in them???
So...I wanted to try and clear it up a bit. I will make sure I bring in the house after about 7 days. How long do u normally lager for? I was hopin to bottle this in 3 wk.s and have conditioned in 6. Thanx for your advise. This is only my 5th batch and 1st ca common. I appreciate the help. Cheers!

If you can guarantee the ambient temp is going to be below your target temp, put it in a water bath (rubbermaid, whatever) with an aquarium heater with a thermostat. Classic poor-man's incubator, $13 on amazon. The water bath will help buffer temp swings, too. I'm doing this with my next saison but I used to do it all the time in mycology.

Racking to a secondary won't necessarily help it clear any better believe it or not. I've personally never done a side by side test so that is just my opinion.

Polyclar is a chemical I've used to help clear up chill haze a lot in beer, I recommend it all the time to people on this forum. Gelatin can also be used, as well as many other finnings.

I've lagered beer for as little as a week, and for up to 6 months. I think 4-6 weeks is about the magic number but hey I understand you wanna drink the stuff! If you can wait 3 weeks that would be good. Oh, and it will get a LOT clearer in those 3 weeks than you might think.

Garadge is staying @ 55 degrees....whew! The bubbling has stopped in the airlock. Probably bring in house tomorrow for diacytal rest and rack on sun. Then back in garadge for 2 weeks. I wouldn't rack it, but I want to brew again next wknd. ;-)