A Matter of Temperature

[jlc767]

Hello everyone!

I will be attempting my first home brew this weekend and I have a concern about temperature. I live on the third floor of a three-floor apartment and we have window AC units that cool the apartment. The problem is that we can't have more than one AC on at a time or the breakers in the basement (no access) will blow and it's game over for an hour or so. We keep the main AC on all day long, and at night we switch to the AC in the bedroom.

With regard to fermentation what should my strategy be? I will be fermenting in a glass carboy. Should I move the carboy from room-to-room, following the AC to maintain a somewhat cool temperature? Can I even move the carboy when it's fermenting?

The temperatures fluctuate so bad in my apartment and I don't want to ruin the beer.

Any ideas?

P.S. In case anyone asks, if the AC in any room is off, it gets pretty hot. And the weather here on the east coast has been intense this summer. We're talking at least upwards of 80. But we keep the AC on 60-70 in each room, depending. Thx

 

[shecky]

Move it from main area to bedroom. Not optimal to move it but after it ferments out in 4-5 days you can leave it wherever you want. Just make sure fermentation is done before you leave it in a warmer area.

 

[TipsyDragon]

temps won't ruin your beer especially if you wait the recommended 3 weeks before bottling. high temps will just make it taste less than stellar but still good. since you are brewing in glass you want to keep it away from UV light (like the light coming in your windows) the box the carboy came in will work just fine for this. its up to you if you want to move the carboy around during fermentation, keep in mind how heavy the full carboy is. moving it wont hurt a thing especially once active fermentation gets underway. you really only need to worry about temp during the initial rush of vigorous fermentation. once it dies down and the kurasen (the whiteish foam on the top of the beer) begins to fall you can sweat less about the temp.

 

[prosper]

run an extension cord for one of the AC units to a plug that's on a different circuit so that they're not both drawing power through the same breaker. I'd almost guarantee that your kitchen plugs aren't on the same breaker as your bedroom/livingroom ones seems to be. Then you ought to be able to run both at the same time

 

[ajf]

Get yourself a small chest freezer and temperature controller. It'll be so much cheaper than running the AC, it'll pay for itself in no time.

-a.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

You can do a swamp cooler. A bucket with water that you add frozen water bottles to to keep the temp down. Wrap the carboy with a towel or t-shirt and have the lowest part in the water.

Do a search for swamp cooler here and you'll be able to find pictures to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Much easier than moving a full carboy around multiple times a day.

 

[sprocketmaker]

You'll be ok, I live in CT and we've been taxed with record heat for weeks. And no AC. I did the swamp cooler thing with 2 beers and a cider, me and the SWMBO change ice bottles 3-4 times a day, and have had real good luck with keeping temps below a critical level. Move it around or swamp cool it - gets my vote! Cheers!

 

[Jewrican]

Get yourself a small chest freezer and temperature controller. It'll be so much cheaper than running the AC, it'll pay for itself in no time.

-a.

This may trip the breaker too.

I agree with the swamp cooler idea completely and disagree with the earlier post about temps not mattering much. My last 5 of 8 beers have been disappointing due to esters from high fermentation temperatures and i wish i understood how much this really does matter sooner. It makes a big difference. Get those temps down especially during the fermentation process. after that it doesnt matter much.