Hi guys... I'm new homebrewer... And i brew my first 3 days ago, at the moment, i don't have a fridge to control the fermentariin temp. , it's fermenting at the ambient temp. Around 26 C. What do you guys think, will the flavour be impaired/engaded? Thank you all
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blueseamonkey
Well-Known Member
I had a similar problem to you, the ambient temps are even higher here, 28-30 C most of the day, 26-28 C at night.
My first 2 batches I only put the fermenter in the coolest part of the house, but didn't do anything else to cool it down. I wanted to try it out and see what would happen. The beer actually tasted pretty good, not perfect - just a very slight sourness, but it was still better than most commercial beers I can buy.
Since then I have found an old fridge that I can turn the thermostat right down to maintain 18-20 C, with no need for a temperature controller. My latest batches no longer have the sour taste, so I think it has helped.
You could try putting a wet t-shirt over your fermenter, or putting it in a larger bucket of water that you can then cool with ice as needed. These were the options I was considering before I found the fridge. If your 1st batch has already been fermenting 3 days though it might not make a big difference at this stage, it'll help more with the next batch.
Definitely do not throw the beer out though. Let fermentation finish, give it a few weeks in your primary fermenter, then bottle or keg it, let it age a little and it'll probably still be pretty decent beer. 26 C is lower than the temperature I was fermenting at so any off-flavours are likely to be slight.
As an alternative to finding ways to reduce the temperature, you could consider using yeasts that allow fermentation at higher temperatures - the 3 yeasts suggested by homebrewers here in the Philippines are Mauribrew 514, Safale US-05 and Belgian Saison yeasts.
My first 2 batches I only put the fermenter in the coolest part of the house, but didn't do anything else to cool it down. I wanted to try it out and see what would happen. The beer actually tasted pretty good, not perfect - just a very slight sourness, but it was still better than most commercial beers I can buy.
Since then I have found an old fridge that I can turn the thermostat right down to maintain 18-20 C, with no need for a temperature controller. My latest batches no longer have the sour taste, so I think it has helped.
You could try putting a wet t-shirt over your fermenter, or putting it in a larger bucket of water that you can then cool with ice as needed. These were the options I was considering before I found the fridge. If your 1st batch has already been fermenting 3 days though it might not make a big difference at this stage, it'll help more with the next batch.
Definitely do not throw the beer out though. Let fermentation finish, give it a few weeks in your primary fermenter, then bottle or keg it, let it age a little and it'll probably still be pretty decent beer. 26 C is lower than the temperature I was fermenting at so any off-flavours are likely to be slight.
As an alternative to finding ways to reduce the temperature, you could consider using yeasts that allow fermentation at higher temperatures - the 3 yeasts suggested by homebrewers here in the Philippines are Mauribrew 514, Safale US-05 and Belgian Saison yeasts.
Some Belgian yeasts tolerate higher fermentation temperature than standard ale yeasts.
Before I built my fermentation chamber I used a cooler full of water to keep my lagers cool - I would think that in your climate it might be the ticket for ales too. The water tempers the temperature spike from heavy fermentation and you can always throw a frozen water bottle or 2 in there to keep it even cooler.
Have fun!
Before I built my fermentation chamber I used a cooler full of water to keep my lagers cool - I would think that in your climate it might be the ticket for ales too. The water tempers the temperature spike from heavy fermentation and you can always throw a frozen water bottle or 2 in there to keep it even cooler.
Have fun!
Rafael_Amarins
Active Member
I hope you get an upgrade asap. You could buy a used fridge and use a TIC-17 controller. The total cost of this new upgrade would be ~400 reais.
Cheers!
Cheers!
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