British Yeast w/ no Temp Control?

[Grantman1]

Anyone had good success using any british yeasts without having good temperature control?

If so, what yeast did you use?


I've been craving a good ESB or bitter lately and would like to brew one, but I don't have temp control. A few months ago I made a brown with S-04---even with the wet t-shirt and fan method, it was an ester bomb. I didn't like it much at all.

If I can't do this yet, I'll prob just resort to Notty.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

no. british yeasts kick a lot of esters and diacetyl and should be fermented cool to limit these off flavors. notty gets kinda funky w/o temp control too.

 

[Grantman1]

I was afraid of that. I've had success with Notty in the past though- been able to keep it low enough.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

why not just make a li'l swamp cooler out of a rubbermaid tote? that's what i do and i have great luck with english yeast. pitch a lot, i mean a lot of yeast and ferment around 60-62.

 

[bottlebomber]

Notty is straight up nasty much above 70... worst yeast ever to ferment warm with. I had an irish red that tastes like rotten apricots

 

[Grantman1]

How did you set up your swamp cooler?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

it's an 18 gal rubbermaid bucket filled with water. i put my carboy in there, and either chill with frozen water bottles or warm with a small aquarium heater. measure the temps with a floating mercury thermometer in the water bath. works like a charm, i can ferment from the low fifties to the high 70s based on what i'm brewing.

 

[duckmanco]

Notty is straight up nasty much above 70... worst yeast ever to ferment warm with. I had an irish red that tastes like rotten apricots

This for sure... I used Nottingham a few time with no temp control (because I'd never heard of it) on NB's old and now discontinued Shirley Furioso kit. I fermented at room temp and that yeast ramped up to 80 something on its own... Tasted so nasty - fusels, estery nastiness.

 

[daksin]

If your climate is dry, you don't even need to bucket/ice bottles method- just wrap a wet towel around it and point a fan at it. I ferment all of my ales at 62F (in the beer) this way.

 

[bierhaus15]

Just be remember that the internal temperature of the fermenting beer will often be 2-4F higher than what your probe reads on the outside. It always amazed me that I could have a beer in swamp cooler with 62F water and the internal temp would still be chugging away at 65-66F.

A good rule of thumb for British yeasts is to pitch low (62-64F) and ferment no higher than 70F.