Temperature for beer throughout its life

Ok, I live in Hawaii. It's 72-75 in my house all the time. No way around it. Right now I have a mini fridge that can fit one, just one five gallon bucket for fermenting. The three stages that I can control temp are:

1. Primary fermentation
2. Secondary fermentation
3. Bottle conditioning

I'm assuming 1 or 2 is the most important, care to share. Chances are I'll only have 1 batch going at a time but I may want to over lap some. So is it more important to have an ale at ~60 degrees for primary or secondary? Also how important is it to be around 60 while it's carbonating in the bottle?

Also if I can get my fridge to be around 60 on it's own do I really need a temp controller?

Primary ferm. is the most critical for maintain temps. I will ferment my brews at 65-68 if i can. Since there is little to no fermentation taking place in the secondary the temps are not as critical. I have bottle conditioned at around 70 or higher and have had no poblems. someone else my disagree but i would not suggest fermenting at 60 and i kinda doubt that your fridge can maintain that high. It's getting down to the 40s where i live now, but in the summer i put a windown a/c unit in one room of my house and it would maintain a steady temp at whatever i want. I would suggest that if you want to ferment multiple batches simultaneously.

thrstyunderwater said:

The three stages that I can control temp are:

1. Primary fermentation
2. Secondary fermentation
3. Bottle conditioning

I'm assuming 1 or 2 is the most important, care to share.

Click to expand...

There are a few yeasts that can work OK at your temps, but only certain yeasts and certain types of beer. Beyond the fridge, you can also use a wash basin with ice thrown in every now and then, or the wet t-shirt and a fan trick... 72-75 isn't high enough to be a big barrier.

Having said that, the most important time to control temperature is between when visible fermentation begins and the krausen falls. Before bubbling, 75 is actually a good temp to get yeast reproduction going, and once the krausen falls it's good to control temps, but less important. Obviously some styles like lagers really want good temp control for longer, but you won't get the same problems from having a warm secondary/lagering as you would for a warm primary.

I would say between 60-70 (depends on style and yeast) for primary. I don't secondary but if you did by then temp isn't that big a factor.

as for bottle ocndition I do room temp which is about 76 here. the colder you have it the longer without carbonation you will go

Anybody else?

That about sums it up. Primary fermentation is the most critical. I will usually take a beer out of my fermentation cabinet after it's been in there for 2 weeks if I have another beer waiting to go in.

Definately wouldn't try to ferment every beer at 60F. I know Nottingham and Pacman will both work at those temps, but majority of ale yeast will want to take a nap at that temp.

Bottle condition is the one I would worry least about followed by secondary (which I don't do).

Try the tuperware with water, ice and tshirt trick. You can get under 70F with that method.