Temp control - critical period?

[cnotts]

I have a small fridge & a temp controller which I am using to manipulate & control the temperature of my fermentations - however it can only fit one of my fermenters at a time.

I want to brew almost every week at the moment to create a pipeline, so my question is, over what period is temperature control of the fermentation most vital. Obviously from pitch + 'x' amount of time, but not sure how long that 'x' period is. Does it depend on the beer style?

If that period is a week or less then I guess I can finish weeks 2/3/4 of the primaries outside the fridge, somewhere were I have a little less control over temperature. If it's more I'll have to be more patient building my pipeline!

c

 

[Pkrd]

Most ales are pretty much finished fermenting in 7 days or less, assuming you've got healthy well fed yeast at the right temperature. If you're in a hurry and your climate isn't crazy you can take them out of the fridge then, no worries.

 

[RM-MN]

Here's what Chris White has to say about how long you need to keep the temp controlled.

http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html


If you have a good pitch of yeast you probably could get by with controlling the temp for 3 days on a low gravity beer or 5 to 6 oh high gravity. Nearly all ales will be ready to take out of the fermentation chamber in less than a week. One week is the amount of time I give mine but I probably could let them warm earlier.

 

[mongoose33]

It's going to depend a bit on the yeast and on the recipe, but for a basic ale recipe I control temperature for the first 5-7 days.

My "standard" fermentation temp is 64 degrees. Typically once high krausen drops, I bump the temp up to 70 or 71 to help the yeast finish up. That usually is about 3-5 days after pitching. I let it sit at that higher temp for 48 hours, then back down to 64 degrees.

Then it stays there for as long as I wish to condition the beer prior to cold crashing and kegging. Sometimes I'll remove the beer from the fermentation chamber and put it in my basement where ambient is around 64-65. If I have a beer in the ferm chamber but nothing else that needs it, I just leave it in there at 64 degrees. The nice thing about that is when it's time to cold crash, it's right there in the ferm chamber.

 

[Morrey]

Truly know what you mean about moving beers thru a pipeline to get to the next batch. In answer to your question of how long to leave in primary here comes the dreaded...."it all depends" answer, concurring with Mongoose33 above.

I brew on Saturdays as often as possible to keep my 14 day cycle somewhat standardized. And I say my 14 day cycle since I consider 14 days in primary to allow (typically) ample time for a yeast to finish and clean itself up some.

I use Tilt Floating Hydrometers (I love them) so I get real time SG readings and can monitor the fermentation progress.

Two examples, both with ATC set at 67F: I did a NE IPA using WY 1318 which is very aggressive. I pitched a liquid starter of this yeast on Saturday two weeks ago and it was completely attenuated out on day 4. I went ahead and racked to secondary (keg) on day 7 for a dry hop addition. This dry hop was done at ambient so my ATC was available for the next beer.

Next beer up is a 1.050 Cream Ale using a dry (rehydrated) US-05 yeast. I looked at the Tilt this morning and I am reading 1.019 which is quite a bit to go from where this beer will finish. So starting at 1.050, temp maintained at 67F, I still have maybe 1.5-2 days to go to hit terminal gravity. So this beer will be best if left in primary for my traditional 2 week cycle before racking into keg for carbing and conditioning.

Probably not what you want to hear, but we all face this same issue. In my experiences, a liquid yeast with a starter gives you a fair head start and reduces lag time. Whether pushing the brew dates to one week apart will work, I'd believe your beer may suffer from pushing too hard. While some will disagree, patience is going to be your reward in the end.

 

[cnotts]

Thanks all - thats what I had guessed but nice to have confirmation!

My problem is probably the opposite to most of you - my basement ambient is usually < 15C (under 60F?) so usually removing it from the fermentation chamber causes a temperature drop rather than a rise. I've had problems with fermentations taking forever at ambient basement temp from before I had my fridge so I'm loathe to move it too early... Also I don't trust putting it in other areas of my house because the temperature is too variable, I'd rather keep it somewhere where i know what temperature it's always at

 

[Morrey]

Thanks all - thats what I had guessed but nice to have confirmation!

My problem is probably the opposite to most of you - my basement ambient is usually < 15C (under 60F?) so usually removing it from the fermentation chamber causes a temperature drop rather than a rise. I've had problems with fermentations taking forever at ambient basement temp from before I had my fridge so I'm loathe to move it too early... Also I don't trust putting it in other areas of my house because the temperature is too variable, I'd rather keep it somewhere where i know what temperature it's always at

Do you keg or bottle? Considering your cellar temp may be ideal, you could always rack to secondary and transfer your unfinished beer to the cellar. However, things will be slower there with lower temps, so you may not see in real gains after all for a single or particular beer. The only thought may be that you end up with multiple secondary's in the cellar at once (in various stages of completion), and you keep your primary bubbling along for the pipelines benefit.

BTW....sounds like you could potentially ferment a lager in the cellar using ambient temps, but as you mentions, temp swings are not good.

 

[Weezy]

3 days is plenty imho (unless it's some really slow starting yeast like a fresh pack of mangrove jack) to get the Lion's share of fermentation done. After that esther production will be muted and temperature control is not as critical.

 

[Muchacho]

My problem is probably the opposite to most of you - my basement ambient is usually < 15C (under 60F?) so usually removing it from the fermentation chamber causes a temperature drop rather than a rise.

You might want to consider buying or building an inexpensive temp controller and using it to control reptile heating pads (like FermWrap). I have a room that is typically ~60 and this approach works great. You will still want to use your ferm chamber to keep aggressive yeast strains from getting too hot during the initial fermentation.

 

[mongoose33]

You might want to consider buying or building an inexpensive temp controller and using it to control reptile heating pads (like FermWrap). I have a room that is typically ~60 and this approach works great. You will still want to use your ferm chamber to keep aggressive yeast strains from getting too hot during the initial fermentation.

You beat me to it! I'd love to have ambient where the temp was 60 or even a bit less--easy to control fermentation temp, since the beer sits in a "refrigerator" all the time, but not so much that it's hard to affect the temp of the beer.

Heck, with 60 degree ambient you probably would have to do little to maintain 65 degrees or less. Maybe put the fermenter in a pan of water, and you'd have an elegant system.