Too hot and too cold fermentation

[Kinderfresser]

I need some advice.

I'm brewing a Brewers Best Milk Stout, can't remember which yeast I got with it. My beer is fermenting in my basement, I don't have any space on the main level of my house.

During the first week of fermentation the beer was volatile, it blew the air lock off, so I put a blow off tube on there, temperature was about 64, no problems. Fermentation slowed down towards the end of the week.

Week two the carboy was down to 56 degrees, saw no activity. I figured it would be a good excuse to get a brew heater. First heater arrived in the mail damaged, sent it back. Placed an order for a second one, it came at the beginning of week 3.

Week 3 I put the wrap-around heater on the carboy, waited for it to heat up into the 60's, swirled the carboy around, activity picked up and it was bubbling 1-2 times per minute for a few days.

I thought my basement might be cold enough to balance the heater. It got up into the mid-70's so I unplugged it for 12 hours, plugged it back in after 12 hours, etc. So I decided to buy a regulator. The day before I got my regulator the temperature peaked at 80 degrees. It's been at 68 since then.

So my question is: is there anything that I should watch for? Is there anything I can do to mitigate damage? Given the time that the carboy was too cold, should I keep it in primary longer to make up for it?

I'm anticipating possible off flavors. I had planned on keeping this in primary the whole time, but have a secondary carboy as an option. Thanks!

 

[Moose_MI]

Well, I can't say I've ever made a beer with that schedule of lowering and raising the heat but I think the good news is that during the 1st week you were in the goldilocks zone of temp.....everything after that may not have had a huge effect.

Be sure to report back what you ended up with....

 

[ncbrewer]

I agree it should be good - I figure roughly the first five days are most important for temp control. For the future you'll need some form of cooling. A swamp cooler is a simple solution, but it takes a lot of attention.

As far as how long to leave in the fermenter, I would consider the too cold time as not part of the timeline. But opinions vary as to recommended time for a standard beer - mostly ranging from 2 - 4 weeks, and some even shorter. I normally go with 3 weeks.

I don't see any advantage to transferring to secondary - just an opportunity for contamination or oxidation.

 

[Kinderfresser]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I'll be sure to post again in a few weeks when it's done.