fermentation room temps

i ferment my beer in a cold room in my house, and now that its strating to get pretty cold here, the temps are starting to drop in the cold room. Right now my cold room seems to be holding steady at 61, and the sticky thermometer on my carboy is saying 57, is this too cold to be fermenting ales? i know during the perak of fermentation the temperature of the wort can rise a few degress. should i try to keep my cold room a bit warmer?

You could use yeasts that like being at lower temps - Kolsch yeast comes to mind as you're in a similar situation to me and that's what I'm looking to use. I imagine you're just setting your fermenters on the floor - maybe get them off of the floor to help get the temp a little higher. Couple of thoughts...

OldStyler said:

You could use yeasts that like being at lower temps - Kolsch yeast comes to mind as you're in a similar situation to me and that's what I'm looking to use. I imagine you're just setting your fermenters on the floor - maybe get them off of the floor to help get the temp a little higher. Couple of thoughts...

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yah im putting them on the cement floor, i was thinking maybe i could put them on a piece of styrofoam insulation... maybe that would help....

Yes the concrete will sink away a lot of heat. Styrofoam would work. So would a table, chair, or some towels.

Most ale strains will ferment down to 58-60^. I ferment many of my ales at 60^. I'd get the fermenter off the basement floor and maybe wrap it with a blanket to avoid heat loss, but if ambient temp is 57^, I think it's a safe bet active fermentation will raise the fermenter temp into the low 60s.

if the heat from the active fermentation causes the temp to rise 65-66 area, isnt it good for the beer to be stored at a lower temp after the active fermentation? for example if the room is at 61, and the temp of the wort is at 57, and the fermentation causes it to rise to 65, and then settles back at 57-59.

also i made a batch of biermunchers bass clone, using irish ale yeat and the fermentation took off in about 5 hours and 5 days later its pretty much all cleared up, everything seems to have went pretty well.

Ok so along these lines.

I have a room I keep my conical in upstairs. Outside temp has ranged from 40-60 for the last month but my upstairs is staying constant at 70 degrees even with my thermostat set to 60F. I am assuming my conical has inside temp of ~75F. This temp is outside of my yeast range. I really don't want to battle this all winter so is there some sort of temp controlled fridge that people use for fermenting?

Most ale are good at 60. I would get it off the floor and see what happens. If that does not work get the room a bit hotter or move to another room.

+1 to getting it off the floor, but it seems you're in just about the perfect range. Most ale yeasts will work very cleanly at those temps. I think a lot of west coast brewers (myself included) are very jealous of you right now.

sorefingers23 said:

if the heat from the active fermentation causes the temp to rise 65-66 area, isnt it good for the beer to be stored at a lower temp after the active fermentation? for example if the room is at 61, and the temp of the wort is at 57, and the fermentation causes it to rise to 65, and then settles back at 57-59.

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No, it's not better to cool the beer after high krauesen. You will get a more complete, cleaner, and quicker fermentation by maintaining your target temp throughout, although some say it's best to raise the temp a few degrees at the end. Not to say things won't go fine letting temps take their natural course. It's just not ideal.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Most ale strains will ferment down to 58-60^. I ferment many of my ales at 60^.

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Maybe half the available ale strains are good down to 60. Below 60 and many of them will stall. Need to check the strain, some prefer it above 65 F.

sorefingers23 said:

if the heat from the active fermentation causes the temp to rise 65-66 area, isnt it good for the beer to be stored at a lower temp after the active fermentation? for example if the room is at 61, and the temp of the wort is at 57, and the fermentation causes it to rise to 65, and then settles back at 57-59.

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Once peak fermentation is over, the wort starts cooling, and if the temperature is not maintained, the yeast may drop before fermentation is complete.

I use my basement, ambient temp is 62, and the floor is below 60. I have some insulation board under the fermenter, and also use a swamp cooler (cheap Walmart plastic tub) with a fish tank heater in it, and can call up any temperature above the room temperature I like. The water also acts as a heat sink and the fermentation temp doesn't run-away; it is always within a couple of degrees of the water bath temperature.

The heater is also useful to push the temperature a few degrees at the end to fully attenuate the yeast.

The room I ferment in stays at about 68 to 72 degrees which is at the high end for the yeasts I use. Is it better to ferment at a lower temp, say 65 degees which would be mid range for the yeasts I use? The temp of the wort during active fermation gets up as high as 74+ at times.

The ambient temp has little to do with the temps inside the fermentor. Get your wort a tad below the temp you want and pitch. Ambient air temps will take too long to cool or heat the thermal mass of a 5 gallon carboy. Most yeasts will generate heat during fermentation so you can stop this by placing the carboy in a large water bath at the same temp as it increases the thermal mass by a lot and therefore keeps temps more stable and controllable.

Are the temps during active fermentation the most important compared to secondary fermentation?

beerguy2009 said:

Are the temps during active fermentation the most important compared to secondary fermentation?

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For an ale, I'd say the first 72 hours after you pitch are the most important.

I agree with weirdboy, it will take much longer than 3 days for 58 degree air to cool a 65 degree carboy with active yeast down to the same temp. Those initial few days are the most important ergo pitching at the right temp is more important than ambient temps by far.