Best way to control fermentation temperature?

[Tegelaar]

Hi All,

Brewing an extract bourbon barrel porter with scottish ale yeast. Brew day was sunday afternoon and after finishing I left the primary down in my basement. After 36 hours there were no bubbles and I realized the basement is probably colder than I though it was. Turns out it is about 52 degrees. I assumed my yeast are sleeping so last night I moved the brew up to the apartment and into the spare bedroom in the mid 60s. By the morning I had active fermentation. The problem is, at night the heat will come on and the apartment will go up to 70 degrees. At 10pm the heat goes off and during the day it eventually goes back into the mid 60s.

What is the best way to keep the beer cool?
1) Leave it in the apartment during the day and then at night (5-10pm) move it to the basement
2) Now that its fermenting, move it back to the cold basement with some blankets and leave it there
3) Leave it in the apartment the whole way - knowing the temp will fluctuate between 62-70 degrees - I assume the beer will get even warmer than 70 since it is fermenting and that might produce off flavors.

I am leaning towards #3 since I dont really want to move the beer much.
Thanks for any help
-Jim

 

[BradleyBrew]

I would wrap it in a blanket and take it downstairs. Do you have a small space heater and can set at 60? Scottish Ale yeast is very good at cool fermentations.

 

[comer88888]

Do a quick search on the forum and look up swamp cooler. There is a bunch of threads on it. All it is is a big bin or keg tub filled with water and you put your fermenter in. Then you can freeze water bottles and rotate them in to cool down your fermenter.

 

[HopSong]

I put my FV in a bucket like this, filled with water to the wort line. It tempers temperature changes quite well. You 'could' use an aquarium heater to warm it if you want to keep it in a colder place.. but I find, keeping it inside, that I have to add a bottle or two of frozen water to keep it where I like it.. 18*C

 

[TTB-J]

I use an Igloo 60 qt. Ice Cube cooler to keep my fermenter cool. My 6.5 gallon carboy fits in it, but I have to take the lid off. I fill the empty space in the cooler with water and tie an underwater thermometer to hang from the neck of the carboy - that gives me the new ambient temperature of the beer. If you want to raise the temperature, heat some water up on the stove and pour it in and mix or attach an aquariam heater. If you want to lower the temperature, put some water bottles in the freezer and, once frozen, put them upside down into the cooler. Mine will keep temperature within about 2 degrees for 8-12 hours, meaning I just need to check it twice a day (as we know, it takes a while to change the temperature of a large volume of water).

Because the cooler is insulated, it holds temperatures reasonably well, even with the lid off. I have used this method to control fermentation temps within a few degrees of target in all seasons. Plus, it's cheap - you can usually find the cooler itself for less than $30.

Good luck!

 

[TopherM]

If you want a quick fix - keep it upstairs where the night temps are in the 60s. Interior closets usually are about 5-6 degrees cooler than the rest of the house, so you could probably maintain about 60-65 all day and night in an interior closet upstairs for the time being.

 

[Tegelaar]

Thanks everyone - ended up moving it downstairs with blankets at 6pm - it was warm out yesterday so the basement temp rose into the high 50s. Fermentation as of a few hours ago is still going strong ith constant bubbling even after 15 hours in the basement. Id rather keep it cold and avoid off flavors.