Warm Secondary?

So I live in Phoenix, and it's hot here. It's going to be 105* all week, and we're almost in october. No one has basements (ground is rock hard), so there really isn't a 'cool' spot in the house. The ambient temps in my house are around 75-82. Which leads to my question:

I have a mini-fridge with a temp controller that is dedicated as a primary fermentation chamber. It's about the only way I can get consistent ale-temps during any time other than 'winter', but this means I can only have one batch going at a time.

What do you guys think of racking my beer from the primary to the secondary after 2 weeks and storing in a secondary for an additional 2 weeks at 75-80*?
I bottle condition at 75-80*, and it doesn't seem to have any adverse affects. I'm thinking I won't get any off flavors since the primary fermentation is complete by the time the yeast see the higher temps.

Thoughts?

I take my carboys out of the fermentation fridge after fermentation is complete. Often on the 'man room' temps are in the mid 70s. Never had a problem. Like you said......primary fermentation is done so your golden.

Cool, I was hoping to hear some positive experience from those that do the same. Question 2:

I prefer a long Primary rather than a primary/secondary. Any negatives from leaving the beer on the yeast cake for those additional 2 weeks at warmer temps, or should I rack off the cake before hand?

Same exact question. Thanks for asking for me!

In regards to question no. 2. Here is my schedule, keep in mind I brew lagers, but with temp adjustments this technique of closed system brewing is possible and will produce a very clean beer:

Primary fermentation until 10 to 15% of fermentable sugars remain at 7 to 9C. (i.e. 1.050 OG, FF FG 1.010, pull at 1.015)

Move to ambient temp room and place under pressure w/pressure release set at 25psi. Maybe up to 2 weeks at this stage.

Move to lagering at @ zero celcius for about 4 to 8 weeks.

The unlagered beer tastes young, but clean and is fully carbed at this point.

You can find more about this under this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/whats-verdict-fermenting-under-pressure-197342/

scottland said:

I prefer a long Primary rather than a primary/secondary. Any negatives from leaving the beer on the yeast cake for those additional 2 weeks at warmer temps, or should I rack off the cake before hand?

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I would think you'd be fine. The higher temps might help the yeasties clean up after themselves even faster. But what do I know?

I don't see any problems. I'd hesitate going longer than a month at higher than 70F in the primary though. If you are fermenting in a temperature controlled environment, warming it up after fermentation is done actually gives it sort of a D-rest. Even if you are brewing ales, they can benefit from warming up a bit so the yeast can get rid of diacetyl and acetaldehyde.

Ok, so I think it's going to look like this for me from now on:

Primary@ 62-68(depending on the beer) :10-14 days
Primary(possible 2ndary) @ 75: 2 weeks
Cold crash and gelatin: 4 days
Bottle

If you're concerned about the temps at all, do you have a bathtub or a space you can set up a large trash can and make a swamp bath?

Before I got all married an civilized many years ago, I bought a new 30+ gallon trash can to use for this purpose (summer in Oklahoma, while not as tough as Arizona, can get pretty toasty in July/Aug). I'd put the carboy in the can and fill the can with water (about half as high as the level of beer in the carboy).

Then I'd wrap a wet towel around the carboy and leave the bottom few inches of the towel in the water. I pointed a fan at the who setup to keep evaporating water from the towel.

That set up alone was good for about a 5-7 degree temp drop. I've used a spare bathtub instead of a trash can with similar results.

Funny thing is when we got married, my wife didn't see the engineering genius of having this in the kitchen where I had a tile floor and a ready source of water. She didn't seem to mind when we were dating and it was just my house.

That was what I did with my primaries before I got a mini-fridge to use as a fermentation chiller. Honestly though, it's kind of a pain in the behind, and it reeks of mold after about a week or two. If I can just keep the beer at my room temp after primary fermentation, i'll be a happy camper.

I'll give it a try with a couple batches I have coming up. I'm going to be making two batches of a Spotted Cow clone in about a month or two, so I'll do a 3 week primary on one, and a 10-14 day primary, 2 week@ room temp with the other, and see how they turn out.

You can prevent or retard mold growth by adding bleach to your swamp chiller solution.

Of course, this just replaces the mold smell with a bleach smell

If you use buckets I use thin dish towels as a layer between my bucket and a 1-gallon plastic juice jug frozen, laid on top. They soak up the condensation and transfer cold (or absorb the heat) from my buckets much more effectively. Takes a while longer to cool than, say, dunking the fermentation bucket in some cold water solution, but it's kept my buckets at 64 degrees in a 75 degree closet.

Changing the dish towel every couple days and wiping the condensation keeps mildew or mold from forming, and keeping the towel/jug draped around the top prevents condensation from causing mold on the floor.

throwbookatface said:

If you use buckets I use thin dish towels as a layer between my bucket and a 1-gallon plastic juice jug frozen, laid on top. They soak up the condensation and transfer cold (or absorb the heat) from my buckets much more effectively. Takes a while longer to cool than, say, dunking the fermentation bucket in some cold water solution, but it's kept my buckets at 64 degrees in a 75 degree closet.

Changing the dish towel every couple days and wiping the condensation keeps mildew or mold from forming, and keeping the towel/jug draped around the top prevents condensation from causing mold on the floor.

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That's a great idea. I'll probably do that. I'll be pulling this brew out of the fermentation chiller on saturday.