Brewers Best Kits

[PIGMAN]

Could use some advice on Brewers Best kits. I am about to brew my sixth BB kit, I've only broken open the first one so far, an IPA and it was great. The instructions say to ferment and condition the beer in a warm, dark area, with a stable temperature in the 64F - 72F range. My basement maintains a temperature of 70F, and has a concrete floor. I've read a whole bunch of posts that say that an ambient temperature in the upper range of what BB recommends could lead to off flavors. If that is the case, does anyone know why they would recommend these temps? I'm hoping my beers don't have off flavors, they didn't when I took gravity readings. Thanks.

 

[Dome555]

I did a few BB kits before picking up a swamp cooler. A IIPA, a stout, and a pale ale. The temp stayed around 70F during those fermentations and, while I wasn't overly impressed with the stout, the IIPA was pretty good and the pale ale was definitely still a pale ale. They may give a large temp range due to the "condition" part of that statement but from my experience a high of 70F won't give too much off flavors in most beers. It'll obviously also depend on the type of yeast and beer though.

If you're looking for a simple solution, bringing the temp down a few degrees from 70F ambient is as simple as exchanging frozen water bottles in a swamp cooler as necessary.

 

[MasterOfTheWellHung]

They may be recommending the higher temp because it gets you beer faster. The higher temps will give you more phenols and esters which can be good in something like a wheat beer. I usually try to ferment close to the bottom of the temperature range and give it extra time. One of my best beers was my first one, a Brewers Best brown ale that fermented at 57-60 for 6 weeks. I liked their IPA too

 

[unionrdr]

Could use some advice on Brewers Best kits. I am about to brew my sixth BB kit, I've only broken open the first one so far, an IPA and it was great. The instructions say to ferment and condition the beer in a warm, dark area, with a stable temperature in the 64F - 72F range. My basement maintains a temperature of 70F, and has a concrete floor. I've read a whole bunch of posts that say that an ambient temperature in the upper range of what BB recommends could lead to off flavors. If that is the case, does anyone know why they would recommend these temps? I'm hoping my beers don't have off flavors, they didn't when I took gravity readings. Thanks.

My wife just did her 1st brew on NHB day,last Saturday. It was a BB summer ale kit,using US-05 yeast at 70F. We don't have anything to put them in to brew lower.
I've been doing cooper's cans with DME & hop additions,even doing different methods with them. But used their ale yeast,which has a "best range" of 68-72F. Darn thing just went one degree above that today. But not to worry. After FG is reached,just leave it for maybe another week,then taste it again. The yeast will clean up after themselves. Dang weather,NOW it decides to warm up. Just couldn't wait another week. But letting it have more time on the yeast,as I said,is good insurance. Not to mention,the brew will be clearer. RDWHAHB...
*PS-I forgot to mention that I had my old,fleece lined CPO wrapped around it. I think it held in too much heat when it started warming up drastically yesterday. I took it off a little while ago,replacing it with a dark colored tee shirt,so in theory less heat will be held in. I always cover both FV's,but my cooper's micro brew fermenter particularly,since it's a bit more translucent.

 

[PIGMAN]

I did a few BB kits before picking up a swamp cooler. A IIPA, a stout, and a pale ale. The temp stayed around 70F during those fermentations and, while I wasn't overly impressed with the stout, the IIPA was pretty good and the pale ale was definitely still a pale ale. They may give a large temp range due to the "condition" part of that statement but from my experience a high of 70F won't give too much off flavors in most beers. It'll obviously also depend on the type of yeast and beer though.

If you're looking for a simple solution, bringing the temp down a few degrees from 70F ambient is as simple as exchanging frozen water bottles in a swamp cooler as necessary.

What didn't you like about the stout? I just brewed their RIS on Sunday. It fermented like crazy to the point where I had to remove the airlock and insert a blow-off hose into a bucket of Starsan.

 

[PIGMAN]

My wife just did her 1st brew on NHB day,last Saturday. It was a BB summer ale kit,using US-05 yeast at 70F. We don't have anything to put them in to brew lower.
I've been doing cooper's cans with DME & hop additions,even doing different methods with them. But used their ale yeast,which has a "best range" of 68-72F. Darn thing just went one degree above that today. But not to worry. After FG is reached,just leave it for maybe another week,then taste it again. The yeast will clean up after themselves. Dang weather,NOW it decides to warm up. Just couldn't wait another week. But letting it have more time on the yeast,as I said,is good insurance. Not to mention,the brew will be clearer. RDWHAHB...
*PS-I forgot to mention that I had my old,fleece lined CPO wrapped around it. I think it held in too much heat when it started warming up drastically yesterday. I took it off a little while ago,replacing it with a dark colored tee shirt,so in theory less heat will be held in. I always cover both FV's,but my cooper's micro brew fermenter particularly,since it's a bit more translucent.

After reading countless posts on this forum, I came to the early conclusion that it's best to leave the beer in the primary for 4 weeks, so that's what I've been doing since day 1.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,lately,I've been goig 3-4 weeks. Mo time,mo betta.