Moldy Basement vs. High Temps

Yesterday I brewed up a new batch of German-style wheat beer (using White Labs WL300 yeast), and it's my first time brewing during the summer in a non-air conditioned house. I'm a bit concerned because the temperatures this time of year can be rather high (it's in the 60s right now - raining, but forecasted to be in the upper 80s later this week) which doesn't seem ideal for brewing a good batch of beer. I was thinking of putting the fermenter in the basement, where temps are consistently in the upper 60s or lower 70s, but it's pretty dank and moldy down there, so I am concerned about contamination. I am using a closed fermentation system (standard plastic bucket with a tightly sealed top and airlock), but still, having a bunch of mold growing around my beer makes me uneasy.

Does anyone have any opinions about what I should do? Which is more likely to yield a good batch of beer: storing it upstairs and subjecting it to potentially high temps or storing it in the moldy basement? If it matters, I plan to rack into a glass secondary after a week or so, then bottle two weeks or so after that. Any time I open up the fermenter for racking/bottling/SG measurements I would of course do it upstairs away from the mold.

I normally brew outside. Keep my carboy in a 6 gallon pail so its easy to carry downstairs. put my stopper and lock in outside. My basement seems moldy or musty, and damp too. Never had a problem with wierd things goin on in there. (not yet)
just keep everything your beer touches clean i guess.

I would go with the basement. Your sealed fermenter should be fine in that environment.

if the dank basement bothers you do a search for "swamp cooler" all the info you need to cool your primary

I have fermented, secondaried, and bottled in my very dank, moldy basement ever since I started.......probably 35 extract batches and my first AG batch, brewed just yesterday. I haven't had a bad batch yet, and don't expect one, as long as I practice standard cleaning and sanitizing techniques.

If you don't want to risk the basement (though if you keep it sealed the whole time and move it out of the area, and spray it with sanitizer before opening it to take grav readings) you could do a swamp cooler upstairs.

I have gotten my swamp cooler down to 57 degrees. And that was with a ton of frozen waterbottles.



The water bath was 57 degrees, but the temp strip on the big fermenter was a few degrees higher..

THe t-shirt acts as a wick, and you can add a fan blowing over it as well...

The French drains in my basement make it naturally damp and dank, and it is where all my batches are fermented and conditioned. No contamination.



Those who know me will recognize this to be an older pic, because I've stopped using airlocks in favor of foil caps.

RDWHAHB.

definitely go with the basement. Your fermenter should be sealed from airborne bacteria and mold spores. Too high of ferment temps have given my beer horrible off flavors and produce fusel alcohols, im pretty sure?

Clean the basement, lazy...

Seriously though, if I had a basement, I'd drywall and finish at least a little part of it for fermenting and storage of beer.

Thanks for all the replies. The consensus seems to be that fermenting in the basement isn't a problem as long as it's a closed system, so I'll just keep it down there.

Gremlyn1 said:

Clean the basement, lazy...

Seriously though, if I had a basement, I'd drywall and finish at least a little part of it for fermenting and storage of beer.

Click to expand...

If you ever lived outside of southern California, you'd understand that may not be possible.

Some basements are just simply damp and/or wet in other parts of the country. Drywall in my basement would become a haven for black mold, which makes for sick living conditions. And yes, I have a dehumidifier!

We don't get basements... I think earthquakes aren't friendly to them. I've seen a lot of finished basements in the north east, but I've never been to the midwest.

It seems "modern" basements get to be drier. Mine is almost 100 years old - never designed to be dry.

It's a freakin' dungeon of damp. The spiders and centipedes seem to like it though.

Anyhow, if some mold forms on the bucket (usually on the drip of wort you didn't see to wipe up), just wipe it off with a clean rag and sanitize as you see fit before opening the vessel.

I'd rather deal with some minor cleaning than major off flavors.

I too have a 100 year old wet basement, it actually has gutters along the walls, I ferment in it always with no problems so far. I vote for the basement.

all depends on where you live in the NE my last house had a spring that flowed from the garage in the basement out the driveway to the road every spring. And the weird thing was it came out of different places almost every year. The house I live in now the basement is finished and bone dry.
older pictures now has the kegerator and a flat screen TV this is the man cave

I live in the midwest and finishing a basement here is not a good idea. We go through a sump pump every yr and a half (ones rated for 3+ years) due to burn out (because they work so hard). That being said, my basement is damp and I have never had issues w/ contaminated batch. I say go for the basement.