Two questions - fermenting temps, priming sugar

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scottvin

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Question #1 - I have been fermenting my ales between 61-64 ambient temperature (I know that is low for ales). Am I doing any damage to the beer or will it just take longer to get started?

Question #2 - Once I boil the priming sugar solution, should I cool it down before mixing it with the beer?

Thanks!
 
That's actually perfect for most ales, a lot of people ferment too high, which leads to off flavors. With proper aeration and healthy yeast pitching rates, it won't take any longer to get started.

I keg, so i'll let someone else grab the last question.
 
I like to let the priming solution cool down to 70-75F just to make sure what yeasts are still in my clear beer aren't shocked by the initial high heat. some think it doesn't matter. I just think that since I'm thorough with everything else,might as well be picky here too.
 
I cool my priming sugar down to about 85 degrees. I figure the 5 gals of beer I rack on to it would cool it down the rest of the way.
I wouldn't put it in there at a high temp though. Like unionrdr said... You spend so much time on your beer you don't want to slack on something to screw it up. A quick ice bath will do the trick.
 
#1 As mentioned, 62-64 ambient is usually spot on. However, get yourself a sticky thermometer to put on your fermentor so you know the temp of your beer, not the room.

#2 Temp of your sugar solution doesn't really matter except that boiling hot liquid will burn you if you spill it, and it can actually melt the plastic of your bottling bucket. I cool mine.

A few yeast cells will indeed bite the dust if you rack on top of boiling hot sugar solution, but the racked beer will cool the solution incredibly fast. The yeast loss is not even measurable in five gallons of beer...

One of those things that there really isn't a wrong way to do it, just preference.
Pez.
 
Question #1 - I have been fermenting my ales between 61-64 ambient temperature (I know that is low for ales). Am I doing any damage to the beer or will it just take longer to get started?

Question #2 - Once I boil the priming sugar solution, should I cool it down before mixing it with the beer?

Thanks!

Q1 - No.
Q2 - Yes.
 
I put a sticky thermometer on a couple of my carboys/pails and the beer temperature is usually 1-4 degrees above ambient. In this particular case, the ambient was at 62 and the beer was at 66.

Thanks for all the replies!!
 

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