N00B Questions

Hello All,

I just brewed my first batch of beer (english brown ale) which is bubbling in primary, but I had a couple of questions. I felt okay at first, but I'm getting a little paranoid after exploring a few of these threads.

1) My apartment doesn't seem to get much cooler than 73F. It's pretty constant, but I know that's warmer than ideal. Is it going to be a big problem?

2) I re-hydrated the dry yeast, but after I added the wort to the fermenter, I stirred in the yeast to the mix....um....quite vigorously. It seems that you're supposed to aerate the wort BEFORE you add the yeast. Does heavily agitating the yeast AFTER adding it to the wort cause big problems?

Sorry to be such a N00B. I am going to RDWHAHB.

I would honestly try to get the fermentation temperature down in the future. Putting your fermenter in a simple ice chest filled with cool water and ice will go a long way in maintaining a cool temperature.

As for the yeast. RDWHAHB. It will work just fine.

Welcome to the obsession! You'll be fine in both cases. The only thing to watch is that you'll most likely have an agressive fermentation due to the higher temp. Just keep an eye on it, you'll be fine.:rockin:

I agree that 73 is not ideal. Also, if that is the room temp, your wort/beer is probably a bit warmer as the fermenting process gives off heat. I learned the hard way on this and here is what I now do: similare to what McKBrew said I use a SWAMP COOLER - you can go to Wal Mart, or Home Depot or Lowes, try Wal Mart first, and get you one of these buckets they call muck buckets. They are tubs about half as big as a garbage can with rope handles. Put your fermenter in there and fill the bucket with water until the fermenter almost floats. This alone will drastically help dissipate the heat. What I do next is fill a bunch of former water/coke/gatorade bottles up with water and freeze them. Every morning and every afternoon, I switch out the frozen bottles with new ones. By doing this I try to keep the water temp in the bucket at around 65 (more ice will make it colder). If the outside temp is colder, my water stays colder, and vice versa when the outside temp rises. It does this even though we keep the AC on a constant setting, I don't know why. I am in Houston so in the summer months I have to be very diligent with my ice rotation. You can also put a fan blowing on the bucket to further help dissipate heat.

My first batch of beer I didn't do this. I just plopped the fermenter down in the corner of the den. Then a few days later, a hurricane hit and I lost power for 17 days. I had no AC to control the temp at all. I am talking temps eventually in the 80 degree range and higher inside my house. It pretty much messed up my beer. It had a funny taste and some kick-ass fusel alcohol that will give you a nasty headache. This was an extreme case and I'll bet your beer is fine as 73 degrees is not that bad. Just consider getting it in a swamp cooler soon.

One day I want to build a fermentation chiller but for now its the swamp cooler.

Hey, from what I've seen of the weather lately in Chicago, why not just put it out on the back porch?

Also I agree with McKbrew about the yeast. Shouldn't be a problem.

Dennis

Thanks for the tips everyone. I will try to get a makeshift cooler made today to get things down a notch or two.

I didn't stick the fermenter outside, as I'm pretty sure -7 (like it was last thursday) will have a negative impact on my yeast Today feels nice and it's still in the 20s.

Cheers again everyone

+1 on the cooler suggestion. I'm in the same boat as you, the closet that I store my fermenters in is about 70-72 most of them, so I just throw them in a big cooler that I have. I've found that a single ice bottle is more than enough to keep the temps a few degrees cooler... Don't do what I did the first time, I threw like 6 water bottles in before I went to bed, woke up and my fermometer was reading 59. I've given up on using water bottles, instead twice a day I just emtpy a tray of ice-cubes into the cooler. I guess this uses more water but oh well, I don't have to worry about a frozen water bottle falling out of the freezer and hit SWMBO in the foot (learned that lesson the hard way).

Can you turn the thermostat down at all??? I would friggin roast if my apt. was 73* all the time.

I live in an apartment building in Chicago and our temp in controlled by radiators, so sadly, I have no say in the internal temp. I could move it to a cooler area, but one that has more flux in the temp throughout the day (like by a window). Also, right now I have it shut away in a cabinet so the cats don't fuss with it.