Fermentation Temp

[eighteez]

I have my first batch, an irish red ale, in the fermenter. Its been in there for 7 days.

I checked it the day after boiling and the airlock was bubbling along nicely. Since then I have looked in the closet at the bucket (havent opened it, no reason to) about every 2 days. Just to see that it hasnt blown thru the airlock and to check the temp.

Its been at 65 - 70 degrees Farenheit for a week now.

Here is my question:

Is 30 days at 65 - 70 gonna be ok? Or is that on the cool side? (it's not a lager)

 

[tvtoms]

Sounds good to me. Heck I'm keeping mine in the low 60's and they're coming out nice, so I sure wouldn't worry about it being too cool if it were me.

 

[Hang Glider]

that will be just fine. You can warm it up a bit (closer to 70) if you want, but I seldom do. I just leave it in my cooling system at 65F for a month, (or more, depending on the style).

Lagering is typically much cooler - ferment in 50s, lager in low 40s to 30s..

 

[Yooper]

In general, the cooler the temperature the "cleaner" the flavor of the yeast. I ferment most of my ales at 60-64 degrees, depending on the strain. I've gone into the high 50s with nottingham yeast, and that made a very clean beer- almost lagerlike in character. I love pacman ale yeast fermented at 60-62 degrees, for the same reasons.

Some English strains are fruity, and the higher the temperature the fruitier they are.

In most cases, ales with a fermentation temperature of 62-70 are about perfect!

 

[eighteez]

\m/ whooo hoo!!!!!!!

 

[smizak]

Do you have to leave it for 30 days? Personally, I'd like to package much sooner than that.

 

[3PegBrew]

Sounds good to me. Heck I'm keeping mine in the low 60's and they're coming out nice, so I sure wouldn't worry about it being too cool if it were me.

+5

Theres something people keep forgetting, and there are some threads on here about it. The temp outside is different from what is inside by a degree or two.

Fermentation creates a bit of heat. It's movement. It's love. It's birth. It's hot!

My basement stays at 67F in the summer. I figure the inside is around 69ish. Every batch has been fine thus far.

As far as 30 days....I'd rack @ 21 if you can't bottle right away. Yeast cakes don't help much after 3 weeks.

 

[eighteez]

I was going to let it go 2 weeks in primary, then 2 weeks in secondary. (28 days)

I had a discussion with Revvy and he suggested (and I went with it) to skip secondary and just do all primary.

So I figured 4 weeks in primary then bottle.

Can it go TOO long in primary?

 

[tvtoms]

Just from my own reading about stuff, I don't think you get into "too long" until it's double digit weeks long, lol.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think 3 weeks is said to be enough in most cases if you don't use a secondary, but 4 definitely wouldn't be too much.

 

[JLem]

Can it go TOO long in primary?

yes, but 4 weeks is not too long