How to tell the temperature on fermentaion.

Ok so I live in philadelphia and right now its kinda cold and rainy and my beer is in the basement. I'm curious of the best way to actually tell the temperature of your fermenting beer. So do I buy a thermometer to put on the outisde of it or is there something else I can buy to tell...

They do make stick on thermometers that are fairly accurate. You should be able to estimate the actual temp with one of those and knowing the ambient temp in the basement. I believe the fermometer people have a chart to tell how close it is on their site.

carnevoodoo said:

They do make stick on thermometers that are fairly accurate. You should be able to estimate the actual temp with one of those and knowing the ambient temp in the basement. I believe the fermometer people have a chart to tell how close it is on their site.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry my beers are in bottles not fermenting container. I used one of those sticky thermometers for when i was cooking the wort and it didn't work at all...

Probably the easiest and cheapest thing you can do is buy a cheap refrigerator thermometer. They cost a couple of bucks. Then just hang it somewhere in your brewery to check the ambient temp in the room. You can assume that your beer is a few degrees warmer than this during fermentation. Keep in mind, you don't really need a dead on temp for ales. You just need to make sure that your temp is in the acceptable range for the style of yeast you are using.

Otherwise, you need a thermowell with a stopper and a temp probe so you can stick the probe down into the beer while it is fermenting.

jonbomb said:

I'm sorry my beers are in bottles not fermenting container. I used one of those sticky thermometers for when i was cooking the wort and it didn't work at all...

Click to expand...

What do you mean, it's in bottles? You boiled the wort, pitched the yeast, and then bottled right after that?

Thats what i figured. I mean a basement is usually warmer then the main floor on a home anyway and its near my hot water heater so that might give it some more heat I just don't want my basement to maybe get below 50 cause the temperature around here has been up and down the last few days...

weirdboy said:

What do you mean, it's in bottles? You boiled the wort, pitched the yeast, and then bottled right after that?

Click to expand...

if so ... BOOM

weirdboy said:

What do you mean, it's in bottles? You boiled the wort, pitched the yeast, and then bottled right after that?

Click to expand...

No i fermented it I put the wrong wording in the title . It was done fermenting I skipped secondary and went right to bottling.

Really?? My basement is like 10 degrees colder.

I took a digital thermometer, the type for meats and such with a probe. I stuck the probe in a jar of water with a small hole cut in it for the probe to go through and to keep the water from evaporating. I also added some bleach to keep the nasties from growing in there. Keeps a temp of liquids in that room.

Works very well!

a basement is usually cooler than a top floor.
But I'd just buy an indoor/outdoor thermometor and place it as close to the bottles as possible.
I use one during fermentation that has a suction cup I stick to the side of the bucket. I just keep the room temp in the 65-72 range in the room. (my yeast says temp should be 60-75 range)
I didn't really worry about it while they were bottled, but mine was an ale? Maybe I'd be more concerned if it was a lager perhaps.

huh my basement is usually warmer. I'm about to just keep them in my closet where it stays warm all day...