You hear it over and over again - controlling the fermentation temperature is the key to great tasting beer.
And it's true.
A glorious brew day can be ruined by forgetting about your beer once it enters the fermenter. Don't neglect the cold side!
On this topic I get business school flashbacks of management guru Peter Drucker's famous quote being drilled into my head - "What gets measured gets managed."
So let's talk about measuring your fermentation temps.
Like many things in life, doing a little something is far better than doing nothing. Even just being aware that your fermentation temperatures are important is a step in the right direction. Trust me - not everyone takes this step.
Now you're aware and you start to pay attention. You look at the house thermostat. This is where many brewers (like myself in the early days) go astray because the fermentation temperature can easily reach 10+ degrees F above room temperature.
It's nice and comfy in the 70 degrees F room, but your beer is sweating it out at 80 degrees F.
Thankfully, most homebrewing kits come with these now:
The "fermometer" has saved a lot of beer.
You could brew for years with the fermometer but many homebrewers upgrade to something more accurate and easier to read.
My favorite solution is to use a digital probe thermometer. There are hundreds of these on the market and you can cruise Amazon or HomebrewTalk for reviews.
Personally I use the Therma K from Thermoworks. Pricey but it is a total badass. I review in detail here, but in short, I use it with interchangeable thermocouple probes. The key one for fermentation is a 6.5 ft. heavy-duty wire probe.
The extra long probe is key. I'm sure a lot of you are fermenting in DIY fermentation chambers, freezers/fridges, or the Cool Brewing bag. You want something you can read without opening up your chamber.
My method involves folding up a piece of bubble wrap, taping it down, and then taping the end of the probe to the middle of it. See below:
Then I attach it to the side of the carboy in my chest freezer. First I tried taping the bubble wrap - that sucked. Tape doesn't stick very well to a carboy and if you do get it taped on, there are usually remnants when you remove it.
After getting fed up I noticed some bungee cords nearby, and my problems were solved:
A bungee cord is fantastic for attaching your probe to fermenters. They stretch for larger fermenters and can be knotted for smaller ones. Use them.
With the probe securely in place I can now easily check my temps without opening the freezer:
(If you're using a temperature controller you can use this same technique with its probe. Personally I put mine near the bottom of the freezer because I found it overshoots the target temperature when attached to the fermenter.)
This method is very accurate. It reads within 1-2 degrees F of the actual beer temp.
A thermowell is another way to measure the temperature. The probe goes into a long tube that is submerged in the fermenting beer. It works but I find it unnecessary and not any more accurate than the probe taped to the side.
Don't think you need to go for the fanciest and most expensive solution right off the bat. As I said above, just start to measure your temps and you're on the way to better beer.
***
Billy Broas heads up The Homebrew Academy, where you can find tips, videos, and online courses for brewing world-class beer at home. He's co-author of the book Craft Beer for the Homebrewer, a certified BJCP beer judge, and his beer philosophy is that "we should all be beer geeks, not beer snobs."
And it's true.
A glorious brew day can be ruined by forgetting about your beer once it enters the fermenter. Don't neglect the cold side!
On this topic I get business school flashbacks of management guru Peter Drucker's famous quote being drilled into my head - "What gets measured gets managed."
So let's talk about measuring your fermentation temps.
Like many things in life, doing a little something is far better than doing nothing. Even just being aware that your fermentation temperatures are important is a step in the right direction. Trust me - not everyone takes this step.
Now you're aware and you start to pay attention. You look at the house thermostat. This is where many brewers (like myself in the early days) go astray because the fermentation temperature can easily reach 10+ degrees F above room temperature.
It's nice and comfy in the 70 degrees F room, but your beer is sweating it out at 80 degrees F.
Thankfully, most homebrewing kits come with these now:
The "fermometer" has saved a lot of beer.
You could brew for years with the fermometer but many homebrewers upgrade to something more accurate and easier to read.
My favorite solution is to use a digital probe thermometer. There are hundreds of these on the market and you can cruise Amazon or HomebrewTalk for reviews.
Personally I use the Therma K from Thermoworks. Pricey but it is a total badass. I review in detail here, but in short, I use it with interchangeable thermocouple probes. The key one for fermentation is a 6.5 ft. heavy-duty wire probe.
The extra long probe is key. I'm sure a lot of you are fermenting in DIY fermentation chambers, freezers/fridges, or the Cool Brewing bag. You want something you can read without opening up your chamber.
My method involves folding up a piece of bubble wrap, taping it down, and then taping the end of the probe to the middle of it. See below:
Then I attach it to the side of the carboy in my chest freezer. First I tried taping the bubble wrap - that sucked. Tape doesn't stick very well to a carboy and if you do get it taped on, there are usually remnants when you remove it.
After getting fed up I noticed some bungee cords nearby, and my problems were solved:
A bungee cord is fantastic for attaching your probe to fermenters. They stretch for larger fermenters and can be knotted for smaller ones. Use them.
With the probe securely in place I can now easily check my temps without opening the freezer:
(If you're using a temperature controller you can use this same technique with its probe. Personally I put mine near the bottom of the freezer because I found it overshoots the target temperature when attached to the fermenter.)
This method is very accurate. It reads within 1-2 degrees F of the actual beer temp.
A thermowell is another way to measure the temperature. The probe goes into a long tube that is submerged in the fermenting beer. It works but I find it unnecessary and not any more accurate than the probe taped to the side.
Don't think you need to go for the fanciest and most expensive solution right off the bat. As I said above, just start to measure your temps and you're on the way to better beer.
***
Billy Broas heads up The Homebrew Academy, where you can find tips, videos, and online courses for brewing world-class beer at home. He's co-author of the book Craft Beer for the Homebrewer, a certified BJCP beer judge, and his beer philosophy is that "we should all be beer geeks, not beer snobs."
