Which choice (fermentation temp)?

[EMahn]

Your opinion is requested:

1) Ferment in my "cellar". Ambient temps are ranging from a low of 56 at night to a high of 62. With hotter weather that could happen over the 4-week ferment you could add 3-5 degrees, but it is pretty stable. (A downside here is I would have slog the fermenter out through a crawl space hole and up three short flights of stairs to get it to the kitchen. A lot of sloshing and back strain will be unavoidable.)

2) Ferment inside house ambient temps range from 67 (night) to 74 (day). Minimal to no sloshing required. If hot days come (I'm in CA), I can turn on AC. I could drop the fermenter in a swamp cooler. I could also put a t-shirt around the carboy.

Yeast us White Labs California Ale yeast WLP001 - optimum Ferment Temp 68-73°F.

Of course, fermentation process will raise temps.

I want to do #2. It's much easier. Ambient temps look pretty good compared to yeast specs, but how much do I need to worry about fermentation raising temps?

Thoughts?

 

[kbindera]

I say cellar. You can always heat up your carboy to keep the temp consistent when ambient dips too low.
Get yourself a temp controller and a fermwrap. This will allow you to keep your cellar stored beer at a consistent temp, assuming you want to target 68F or so.


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[Puddlethumper]

+1 - Keep it in the cooler area. Fermentation will add a few degrees and it is easier to add a little warmth than to cool overheated beer.

 

[BigFloyd]

The optimal temp for 001 (and US-05) during the first few days is 64-65*F. Later in the process, warmer is good.

I've tasted beers done with it at 72-74*F ambient. Yuk.

 

[EMahn]

I kinda figured this would be the response. Let me push it just a little bit though.

With the swamp cooler and the t-shirt, I'm pretty certain that I can keep the fermenter in yeast's stated spec (68-73). Why shouldn't that be cool enough? ie, Why isn't the White labs spec what I should be focused on?

 

[mamies]

I know you are worried with the extra effort and the sloshing but any sloshing isn't going to cause an issue before fermenting.

 

[BradTheGeek]

Sloshing is good pre fermentation to oxygenate the wort. After is bad.

I have to agree with OP - set up a swamp cooler first thing, and keep it in it!
Then, no strain, no sloshing after fermentation, and temps in range.

I have a wine fridge I have rewired with a thermostat now, but I used to put my carboy in a big beverage tub, add water, wrap a t-shirt around the upper exposed part, then cycle cooler ice packs from the freezer a few times a day. I would also pour water on the tshirt from the tub occasionally. The first day was often tough, it took a while to get it down to 65 where I wanted it, but then it was easy peasy. I had a stick on therm, that when wet was hard to read, but I also used a temp probe from a $20 Lowe's multimeter. I could measure the cooler temp and also place the probe against the carboy to get an approximate read on wort temp.

If you can keep up with the swamp chiller, I think that will work fine.