Cold House in Winter - Need some ideas

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Rich711

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Hi fellow brewers.

I am still fairly new at this, one batch finished, a second batch conditioning in the bottles and a third batch sitting in the secondary fermenter.

I have a temperature problem in the winter, my basement gets very cold and a good part of my house gets quite cold. I am an expatriated yooper, so the cold temps were no problem for me until the long winter came after I started brewing.

My home does have some warm spots, but that necessitates moving the beer around and up and down stairs for fermentation and carbonation. In the addition to having to lug the brew pales and carboys around, this situation also has the disadvantage of causing my brew to get churned up at just at the wrong times like just before transfer to the secondary fermenter or just before bottling.

I hope to put the entire operation in the basement, but that will be a project requiring a fair amount of cash and time.

Any ideas on how to circumvent this problem, other then waiting for the spring?

Rich :mug:
 
At the point you're at a fermenation chamber may not be the best bet for you. But if you're serious about the hobby and are in for the long haul it might be an excellent option. You need to find a mini fridge thats large enough to accommodate a primary fermentor. Often you can get these cheap (or free in my case). That will obviously cool. Something like a seed germination mat will heat (I had one already). You then need a two stage digital controller allowing it to control cooling or heating (I have a A419 from Johnson controls, $80).

Now you can ferment at whatever temp you want. Lagers in the summer. Ales in winter. No restrictions, just some $$.

Brew belt will work too, but I wanted to be able to brew in the summer which I could not this past year.
 
My house is cold as well, unless you are close to one of the wood stoves. I use the basement fermenter for lager (48f) this time of year, and the bathroom closet for ales. The bathroom closet is right behind the furnace room (propane runs at night) so it stays fairly constant... about 60 to 63F a little low and slow so I leave them for 28 days at least.
So beyond the brew belt and blankets, find the most place with the most consistent temperature and leave them there.
Good Luck
 
a short, yet shameless plug of one of my own threads

Particularly if you're a bit handy and like building things, a fermentation chamber can definitely be a fun little project that can, as solbes pointed out, let you ferment at any temperature year round...

I just finally added a heating element to mine, and couldn't be happier with the results thus far for both heating and cooling fermenters!
 
I ferment in my basement, ales in the summer at 65F and lagers in the winter at 50F. I don't try to fight it, I just plan accordingly. That said I can bring beers upstairs in the winter for a little warmer temp if I want it (same goes for summer I guess), and I just put together a fermentation chamber so that I can control temps if I'm wanting something specific that the time of year doesn't allow.

If your not looking to move beers around, and don't want to spend the cash to get a chamber going then you have to work with what your brewery gives you
 
NEKvt said:
I ferment in my basement, ales in the summer at 65F and lagers in the winter at 50F. I don't try to fight it, I just plan accordingly.
Click to expand...

+1 on that, im going to brew all kind of "regular" beers in spring and fall and belgian in summer
I dont brew in winter (cant get running water in my garage) but i wanted to try California lager yeast (i think perfect at 55-65F to get lager profile), maybe in March will have a chance.
 
To get some heat you can always buy a cheap plastic tub/bin (I got one from Walmart for $6), put water in it, add your carboy, and drop in an aquarium heater. Then won't have to move your brewery around or spend too much.
 
I'm having similar issues and no budget for temp control gadgets, so I'm brewing with cold tolerant yeasts- currently. The Wyeast Scottish Ale (1728) goes down to 55F.
 
cciszew said:
my question is how cold is cold?
Click to expand...
I had to wait until we got some cold temps so I could measure the actual temperature of my basement. It went below the 20s this week and the basement is now 60 degrees F. During a prolonged sub zero cold snap, I am guessing the basement gets to the low 50s. I will be recording temps this year.

So if my Ale is fermenting in colder temps, it is probably fermenting slower. If the normal primary fermentation time is 2 weeks at normal temperatures, does that mean I should let the beer sit in the primary fermenter for a longer period of time in the lower temps? Is there any relationship like 3 weeks for the low 60s and 4 weeks for the low 50s or something like that?
 
And thanks for all the ideas. I can now see that I will eventually be able to conduct all my brewing operations in the basement. I have some surplus building materials, so I am partially ready to take on some brew house projects.
 
Rich711 said:
So if my Ale is fermenting in colder temps, it is probably fermenting slower. If the normal primary fermentation time is 2 weeks at normal temperatures, does that mean I should let the beer sit in the primary fermenter for a longer period of time in the lower temps? Is there any relationship like 3 weeks for the low 60s and 4 weeks for the low 50s or something like that?
Click to expand...

Stop doing that, right this instant! :mad:

Seriously, trying to figure out an arbitrary timeline for fermentation, at any temperature, is something of a fool's errand. The yeast are done when they reach FG, and that duration depends on a LOT of things. Yes, temperature is a factor. But so is OG (the more sugars there are to ferment, the longer it's going to take). So is the specific strain of yeast you use (some start up really slow, some take off really fast, some are done before you know it).

Now, as a couple folks have pointed out, if the ambient temperature is 60-ish, during primary fermentation your beer will be in the mid-60's, which is ideal for many, if not most ale strains. Yes, it's likely to take a little more time than it would if you had it fermenting in the 70's, but with all the other factors there, it's hard to pin down what "a little more time" is exactly.

Let the beer go, and let your hydrometer be your guide as to when fermentation is complete.

That said, definitely keep an eye on your beer, if you're fermenting an ale, should the temperatures drop into the mid to low 50's. At those temperatures, a lot of ale strains will go dormant before they're done fermenting, so you might wind up with stuck fermentations. Consider trying a lager when they temps get down that cold, or pick up something like a brew belt or heating pad to keep the fermenter in the 60's while the ambient temperature is down lower.
 
My house is super cold too. Part of the reason my first batch of beer failed, and this second time around I nearly botched it again with cold temps! And since there simply isn't a part of my house that stays an even 60 degrees, I slapped together a quick incubation chamber. Since I'm super frugal and this was a last minute rescue operation, this is what I came up with:

- 1 big box from the recycling center --free
- 1 base from an old food dehydrator (from goodwill) -- $5.00

tools needed:
pen
knife

It doesn't look pretty, and I have to check the box now and again...but it's fermenting actively!

IMG_20120104_104007.jpg
 
TyTanium said:
+1 If you're in the low 60's, you're good to go for most ale yeasts. Personally, I wouldn't add heat till you drop to the 50's.
Click to expand...

+1 ! Don't forget fermentation is exothermic so you WANT it to be cooler than your target ferm temp..

I suck at Fahrenheit (Aussie Expat) but I liked to keep my ales lower than 19ish C
 
cyclogenesis said:
+1 ! Don't forget fermentation is exothermic so you WANT it to be cooler than your target ferm temp..

I suck at Fahrenheit (Aussie Expat) but I liked to keep my ales lower than 19ish C
Click to expand...
"exothermic" - I did not know that when I started brewing. My last batch had a fast fermentation cycle and I noticed the warmer beer temperature. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
 
NEKvt said:
I ferment in my basement, ales in the summer at 65F and lagers in the winter at 50F. I don't try to fight it, I just plan accordingly. That said I can bring beers upstairs in the winter for a little warmer temp if I want it (same goes for summer I guess), and I just put together a fermentation chamber so that I can control temps if I'm wanting something specific that the time of year doesn't allow.

If your not looking to move beers around, and don't want to spend the cash to get a chamber going then you have to work with what your brewery gives you
Click to expand...

Same goes for me. I ferment beers based on the temps. Ales when basement is warm, lagers when cool. I lager in the garage where it is around freezing. If I get a hankering for an ale in the winter, I bring the bucket upstairs.
 
stratslinger said:
Stop doing that, right this instant! :mad:

Seriously, trying to figure out an arbitrary timeline for fermentation, at any temperature, is something of a fool's errand. The yeast are done when they reach FG, and that duration depends on a LOT of things. Yes, temperature is a factor. But so is OG (the more sugars there are to ferment, the longer it's going to take). So is the specific strain of yeast you use (some start up really slow, some take off really fast, some are done before you know it).

Now, as a couple folks have pointed out, if the ambient temperature is 60-ish, during primary fermentation your beer will be in the mid-60's, which is ideal for many, if not most ale strains. Yes, it's likely to take a little more time than it would if you had it fermenting in the 70's, but with all the other factors there, it's hard to pin down what "a little more time" is exactly.

Let the beer go, and let your hydrometer be your guide as to when fermentation is complete.

That said, definitely keep an eye on your beer, if you're fermenting an ale, should the temperatures drop into the mid to low 50's. At those temperatures, a lot of ale strains will go dormant before they're done fermenting, so you might wind up with stuck fermentations. Consider trying a lager when they temps get down that cold, or pick up something like a brew belt or heating pad to keep the fermenter in the 60's while the ambient temperature is down lower.
Click to expand...
Ok - I got that. I have been told that you should minimize disturbing your beer while in the fermenters. So - after your fermentation has slowed to the point where there is no more bubbling in the air lock and after you have hit your minimum primary fermentation period, how often should you check your specific gravity? Once a week? If the gravity has not moved in a week, is that time to rack to the secondary fermenter?

I have 3 batched done and one in the primary and the beer is pretty good, but I am still doing a lot of guessing. Guess I am lucky so far.
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned Kolsches and Alts yet. Both of them ferment well in the high 50's to low 60's.

Obviously the more you can control the temperature the better, but plenty of people brew with the seasons.
 
My house is cold too and my ales ferment and condition just fine. I'll occasionally have to move a fermenter close to a vent after about a week so that it'll warm up a bit and finish, but I've never had any real problems..
 
The heat wrap also works great that you can ramp the temp near the end to make sure the yeast fully ferments it out and cleans itself up. You can ferment at 63 for a 5 days or so, then ramp it a degree a day for another week. Having a constant temp is ideal compared to putting it near a vent that will drive the temp up and down.
 
Maybe experiment with different yeasts? I brewed an English Brown with Nottingham yeast, basement was in the 60s the first week of fermentation. The last 3 weeks it was around 55. Super clean and finished out at an 1.010.
 

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