Yeast question

stuknkrvl · Apr 26, 2015

So I just put my first solo batch of beer in my fermentor. I can't wait to taste it but I'm concerned about temperature. I used Wyeast 1450. The Wyeast website says the temp range for that yeast is 60 - 70 so I cranked my thermostat down to 68. Any lower than that and my electric bill is gonna be outrageous. Is this gonna be okay or am I worried over nothing?

h22lude · Apr 26, 2015

That is way too high. Fermentation causes a lot of heat. Can be up to 10° hotter which means your beer could be at 78°. You will most likely get off flavors. Cheapest way to cool your beer during fermentation is a swamp cooler. Google it for plenty of ideas.

flars · Apr 26, 2015

Add a fan blowing on the wet cotton towel, or sweat shirt, that is around your fermentor, sitting in the tub of water. The air flow will accelerate the evaporation rate providing more cooling. Plastic soda bottles of ice will cool the water even further.

stuknkrvl · Apr 26, 2015

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks for the advice.

BigFloyd · Apr 26, 2015

If you're going to be brewing much beer in Texas and have the room, a fridge or freezer plugged into an STC-1000 control box will be your most valuable piece of brew gear.

stuknkrvl · Apr 26, 2015

BigFloyd said:
If you're going to be brewing much beer in Texas and have the room, a fridge or freezer plugged into an STC-1000 control box will be your most valuable piece of brew gear.

That's on my list

brewshki · Apr 27, 2015

It was the first thing I did after making 2 mr beer batches in Southern California fall (which is as hot as summer) and it was the best thing I've done so far. I hunted for a while and got a $40 chest freezer from a secondhand store and the whole thing was no more than $100. That also counts buying a ferm wrap so I could heat and cool

MadHomebrewer · Apr 27, 2015

I'm down in FL and high temps had my first brews with some off flavors. I bought a cool brewing bag till I can get a chest freezer. You just put a frozen two litter in the bag with your fermentor getting low 60s to high 50s. One frozen two litter lasts me 24 hours.

http://www.cool-brewing.com/

I believe morebeer now sales them too.

BigFloyd · Apr 27, 2015

MadHomebrewer said:
I'm down in FL and high temps had my first brews with some off flavors. I bought a cool brewing bag till I can get a chest freezer. You just put a frozen two litter in the bag with your fermentor getting low 60s to high 50s. One frozen two litter lasts me 24 hours.

http://www.cool-brewing.com/

I believe morebeer now sales them too.

I see those as being quite useful for those who don't have room for an extra fridge or freezer.

The cost of the cool brewing bag, however, is significant enough that you can rig up a digitally-controlled chamber for not much more $$.

MadHomebrewer · Apr 27, 2015

BigFloyd said:
I see those as being quite useful for those who don't have room for an extra fridge or freezer.

The cost of the cool brewing bag, however, is significant enough that you can rig up a digitally-controlled chamber for not much more $$.

I agree they aren't cheap, but it was a lot less than a new chest freezer and temp controller for me. I did use one of those Costco insulted shopping bags for my one gallon batches prior to the cool brewing bag. It worked just as well but less convenient getting into.

stuknkrvl · Apr 27, 2015

I put my brew bucket in to a plastic tote, placed a couple bottles of frozen water in there, and covered it with a blanket. Dirty and cheap, but it's better than nothing. I'm off work tomorrow so I'll head to the store and get a thermometer strip I can put on the outside of my bucket to monitor my temps.

Thanks all for the advice. I'll keep you posted on the brew!

stuknkrvl · Apr 29, 2015

I think I actually got it too cold because the fermentation stopped! I took it out of the tote and it started bubbling again in about twenty minutes.

sowoah · Apr 30, 2015

It's kind of late to sweat the temps at this point. Most of the off flavors that you don't want are generated in the peak of fermentation. It's already happened. Just leave your beer as close to the optimal yeast temp as you can without making it too cold (you don't want to crash your yeast right now) and leave it alone for a few weeks. If you give the yeasts more time, they'll clean up some of the bad compounds that may have been caused by fermenting too warm. This is the best thing you can do for your beer at this point...

h22lude · Apr 30, 2015

I agree, I'd give it an extra week on top of what you were going to ferment it for. Maybe even two if you can. Give the yeast time to clean up will help a little. Also, let it sit at the higher range now to keep the yeast in suspension. When they get cold they start to slow down and flocculate.

stuknkrvl · Apr 30, 2015

It started warming up a bit today. Took it nearly 15 hours to creep up, but the thermometer is showing it's around 66 degrees right now, so I'm happy with it. I'm kicking myself for not getting a thermometer before I brewed, but nothing I can do about it now. Lesson learned.

Should I put it back in my home made cold box if it starts climbing too high, or just leave it alone and let it ride? I don't want to crash it down like I think I did in the first place, but maybe just a little while to keep it between 60 and 70.

I pitched it 4/26/15, was planning on racking it over on 5/9/15 (I know, everyone says secondary is unnecessary, but there's six pounds of pumpkin in the bucket). Should I leave it another week then, regardless of the temperatures? I'm honestly tempted to follow my original plans, but this is my first round and I don't want to make any big mistakes and I do appreciate all the advice.

flars · May 1, 2015

Hold the wort temperature at 66° to 68°F if you can. Take a SG reading in three days, and another three days later. You might be able to reach final gravity in that amount of time, and rack off the pumpkin about the 9th.

I would typically say give it some extra time in the fermentor after FG is achieved, but I have never worked with pumpkin in a beer. I don't know what the consequences more fermentor time would have.

MindenMan · May 1, 2015

MadHomebrewer said:
I agree they aren't cheap, but it was a lot less than a new chest freezer and temp controller for me. I did use one of those Costco insulted shopping bags for my one gallon batches prior to the cool brewing bag. It worked just as well but less convenient getting into.

And I thought I was the only one to get insulted by those damn Costco bags.

sowoah · May 2, 2015

stuknkrvl said:
I pitched it 4/26/15, was planning on racking it over on 5/9/15 (I know, everyone says secondary is unnecessary, but there's six pounds of pumpkin in the bucket). Should I leave it another week then, regardless of the temperatures? I'm honestly tempted to follow my original plans, but this is my first round and I don't want to make any big mistakes and I do appreciate all the advice.

The conditioning that you want will happen in the secondary too, so go ahead and rack it as planned and leave it in the secondary for at least two weeks.

ericbw · May 2, 2015

stuknkrvl said:
It started warming up a bit today. Took it nearly 15 hours to creep up, but the thermometer is showing it's around 66 degrees right now, so I'm happy with it. I'm kicking myself for not getting a thermometer before I brewed, but nothing I can do about it now. Lesson learned.

Should I put it back in my home made cold box if it starts climbing too high, or just leave it alone and let it ride? I don't want to crash it down like I think I did in the first place, but maybe just a little while to keep it between 60 and 70.

I pitched it 4/26/15, was planning on racking it over on 5/9/15 (I know, everyone says secondary is unnecessary, but there's six pounds of pumpkin in the bucket). Should I leave it another week then, regardless of the temperatures? I'm honestly tempted to follow my original plans, but this is my first round and I don't want to make any big mistakes and I do appreciate all the advice.

First time out and it's got 6 pounds of pumpkin? Jumped in feet first!

stuknkrvl · May 2, 2015

ericbw said:
First time out and it's got 6 pounds of pumpkin? Jumped in feet first!

Yep. Figured why the hell not. I was doing research for the recipe and I saw some that had even more than that.

I'll post pics and tasting notes when it's finished.

stuknkrvl · May 11, 2015

I racked it over to secondary tonight, tastes amazing right now. Gonna let it sit a week and check the gravity at least once more before I bottle it. Still holding it's temp nicely at 66 F.

Yeast question

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