Fermenting temps

I was wondering about how long you should try to hold fermenting temps down for. I have an old wine cooler that I was planning to use but it probably will only fit one 6 gallon bucket and I was expecting to have 2 fermenters on the go. Is it fine to hold the temp for one week and then move the fermenter out to another room which would be around 70-72f for the next week or 2? This would make room for the next batch to go in.

 

When the krausen has fallen on my beers, most of fermentation is complete. That's when I will typically raise the temp from 64 (or maybe 67) to 71, so the yeast can clean up after itself.

If your krausen has fallen, you should be fine letting the temp rise to the level you indicated.

 

You could probably move the beer even sooner than a week but I usually wait the full week. The yeast give off flavors when it is actively fermenting and that is usually done by day 3 or 4.

 

The one single thing i did that made the biggest effect on the quality of my final product was temperature control. If you want to control your ferment temps do it until primary fermentation has slowed or it's pointless. You really want to keep fermentation from getting too hot during the most active period of those first few days.

that being said im not sure if you mean to use a wine chiller? or if its some sort of other appliance cooler. A chiller is only built to keep wine around 50f and it can take hours to get it there. Thats not cold enough to keep a 70+ degree fermenting bucket of wort at temps that will make any difference.

 

Yes I have an old wine chiller that would keep the ambient at around 14-15C, rather than my room which is 20C. What I'm hearing is this won't be cool enough, it at least has to be an improvement on where I am today?

 

I would think that 14 - 15 c should work fine. You want to keep ales in the mid to upper 60s. So it can take the temperature down to 59F that should be sufficient. It might struggle a bit at the height of fermentation but is certainly better than nothing. Probably even a swamp cooler.