Nother new guy here...questions about IPA's

[SiegIPA]

Good day all. After being a small batch beer aficionado for some time now....my kids bought me a brew kit for Christmas and the ingredients for an IPA.

The weird weather has me in a bit of a quandary as to when to start brewing. I live in Maryland and will be brewing in my garage which is not temperature controlled. Today the temp in there is 53 degrees. It has varied to as high as 70-ish in the last week or so and likely to reach that zone and stay there for a bit relatively soon.

Is that gonna be too chilly to start that IPA or does anyone recommend waiting till warmer weather prevails. I see ideas for keeping the stuff cool when it gets too warm but I haven't much in the way to keep it from getting too cold.


I am open to suggestions....on temperature and anything else!

Thanks!

 

[unionrdr]

If you have a spot in the house or basement that stays in the mid 60's it'd be better. Or search for swamp cooler on here.

 

[drainbamage]

53 is a little cool for an ale yeast, but low-mid 60s is ideal. If it will be cool for a while, you could use a California Common yeast strain (they're suited to lower temps) or use a regular ale yeast once the temps get into the 60s.

 

[SiegIPA]

Yes, I am on board with the swamp cooler idea...even if its a makeshift/homemade one. But my worry at this point is being too cool....is that a problem or maybe not so much early on?

 

[unionrdr]

If you put it in a warmer spot in the house,a swamp cooler would keep the temps in the mid-60's better.

 

[SiegIPA]

OK. Makes sense. I will probably wait a week or so. Hopefully this cold spell will move off and get more seasonable weather. I am really looking forward to this ...I think the kids are looking forward to it as much or more! Wanna have a batch ready by end of June for a family reunion.

 

[Goolsbymd]

I'm relatively close to you weather wise and made a Hefewiezen (wlp380) yesterday. It's sitting in my unheated garage but in a chest freezer keeping it warm at 60* with outside/garage temps in the 50s. I'm leaving it there because it is in its early stages and it is producing its own heat. Some say up to +8* higher than ambient.
However i just moved my IPA inside as it's been a week since I had active fermentation, I keep thermostat at 70. So you can roll the dice with leaving it outside with a jacket around it to keep it a bit warmer until the lag is over and it's very active or you can move it inside and swamp cooler it, or wait till mid next week when its a bit warmer. If you wrap with a jacket put something underneath as the cold flooring will draw off a ton of heat.

What yeast are you using? Are you making a starter(would cut lag time down and the yeast beast will start generating heat quicker)

 

[SiegIPA]

Ah Ha....hadn't thought of that part. Will put down a piece of plywood and maybe some insulating Styrofoam or old rags or something to disallow heat transfer to the concrete floor.

 

[SiegIPA]

I am wondering how labor intensive this thing is gonna be. I work 3-4 long days each week where I am NOT gonna want to tinker much. Any recommended brews suited to the lazy brewer?

 

[SiegIPA]

I don't know what yeast came in the kit. My first go round will be with the ingredients the kids got when they bought the brew kit. They knew I like IPA's and it might even be a mimic of one I am familiar with so...I will look closer when I dig it all out again.

 

[b-boy]

I am wondering how labor intensive this thing is gonna be. I work 3-4 long days each week where I am NOT gonna want to tinker much. Any recommended brews suited to the lazy brewer?

That's one of the beauties of home brewing. There's a lot of waiting between brief flurries of activity.

I've let brews sit for well over a month in a carboy without any problems.

 

[rlmiller10]

If cold and temp swings is the worry do you have a tub you can fill with water and set the bucket or carboy in that? That will moderate temperature swings. Then if it is too cold you can put a fish tank heater in the water filled tub. The only problem I found was the temp setting on those only goes to 67 or 68 on the low side which is a couple degrees warmer than I wanted but it worked OK.

Fish tank heaters don't put out a lot of heat so you might want to insulate with a blanket or something if the room is in the lower 50s.

 

[Veronis]

Larger swamps do better at maintaining temp due to taking longer for the temp to change to match ambient temps.

I use an 18-gallon rope-handle tub that I got from Home Depot and have very good luck with it. In an 18-gallon tub, filled to the same level as beer:

1 ice cube tray drops the temp about 2 degrees F
1 frozen-solid 12oz water bottle drops the temp about 1.5 degrees F, but maintains longer than an ice tray
2 frozen-solid water bottles does indeed drop the temp ~3 degrees F

If on the basement floor, put it on something that raises it off the floor, such as a bunch of old books. It only needs to be up off the floor an inch or two. I use a detatched cooler lid.

After 4-6 hours of being in the swamp, the temp inside the fermenter will always be the same temp as the swamp, plus or minus 1 degree, even during active fermentation with krausen flying through the blowoff tube.

Source: I've done extensive testing over the course of five beers. The results were always the same.

Good luck