How crucial is room temperature while fermenting

[HillbillyNinja]

I am new to mead making and live in a solar house. My only form of heat is a wood stove so when I am home to tend to the fire the temperature ranges from 65•F to 75•F. If I am gone for the day it can drop to 55•F and rarely a little lower. Will the fluctuating temp affect my yeast? Are there tougher strains of yeast I can use? Any other tips and info are welcomed!

 

[fatbloke]

I am new to mead making and live in a solar house. My only form of heat is a wood stove so when I am home to tend to the fire the temperature ranges from 65•F to 75•F. If I am gone for the day it can drop to 55•F and rarely a little lower. Will the fluctuating temp affect my yeast? Are there tougher strains of yeast I can use? Any other tips and info are welcomed!

Yes and yes, possibly.

If you look at the Lallemand yeast chart, You'll see that all of their types have fermentation temp guidance. If you just checked out the "usual suspects" (EC-1118, K1-V1116, D47, 71B-1122, RC-212) you'll notice quite a wide range. The one that comes to mind as having a specific temperature caveat, is D47, which is known to produce fusels if fermented over 70F/21C, so that's often the one that either needs proper temp control or people use in spring/autumn because they can manage it at ambient temps at that time and don't have to worry about it getting too warm.

Of those, the most flexible, which conveniently also has a good reputation for meads (at least it's known as good with traditionals, but others say it's generally good) is K1-V1116. It's got about the widest temp range, will ferment to 18% ABV if needed, low sulphur producing, low nutrient requirement, etc etc.

As with anything that doesn't really have any standards like mead making, there will be many ways of making a batch, but a bit of reading will help you along the way, and here and over at Gotmead are good places to find out.....

 

[HillbillyNinja]

Awesome info! Thank you so much, I'll do a little more research before getting a batch going. That helps immensely though.

 

[Tmadia]

I put my primary in a large plastic bucket that is filled with water. It's one of the 'party' buckets that you fill with ice and sodas that you can get at Walmart for like $10. This gives your fermenter a large thermal mass that won't fluctuate with room temperature nearly as much. Even with the temp swings you have it will only move a large bucket of water 2 or 3 degrees per day.

 

[HillbillyNinja]

That's a very clever idea. Thank you! Definitely going to give that a shot.

 

[fatbloke]

If you keep a batch in the lower half of the temp range suggested, it might be a bit slow but its infinitely safer than having one get too hot.

Remember, using western Europe s temp range as a guide, you can work out when they actually ferment their wines and the average ambient temps for a given region and yeast.

The cooler temps are usually white wines with a bit less sugar/alcohol and slightly higher acids. We are now making some award wining white sparkling stuff hereabouts (that has beaten champagnes in blind tests) but we're also on similar latitudes as Nova Scotia plus a lot of wine making occurs Autumn/Winter........

Thinking along those lines should give you a reasonable guide.....