No heat or a/c. How can I ferment an ale?

[Bogforce]

I just recently moved in to an old family house out of my apartment. I can now start brewing but the only fall back is that the house doesn't have a furnace for heat or any air conditiong.

What are some decently cheap ways I can keep my beer at proper temperature for ale yeast?

 

[Rhumbline]

Keeping it in a large tub of water is a way of limiting temp swing, but that won't do much to get you at the right temp.

You can add frozen water bottles to the tub to lower the temp. Best bet would be to convert a fridge to a fermentation chamber, lots of good info on here about that.

 

[highgravitybacon]

I just recently moved in to an old family house out of my apartment. I can now start brewing but the only fall back is that the house doesn't have a furnace for heat or any air conditiong.

What are some decently cheap ways I can keep my beer at proper temperature for ale yeast?

A chest freezer and temperature controller.

That's not intended to be a sassy response. If you want to make good beer, it will take some control over temps.

 

[sfgoat]

I just put a portable ac unit in our back room and use the whole room as a ferm room. I can't lager that way sure but I only do ales anyway so it works out. In the winter I use a space heater that has its own thermostat.

 

[reed1911]

Do you like saisons? If so, you are in the perfect enviroment to make them. In fact you may need to move them to a hotter part of the house, just trial and error. They like it hot and they work out well.

 

[JonM]

^ this. Instead of making the environment suit the yeast, use yeasts that like the environment the way it is. Hot temps? Saison yeasts or other heat-loving yeasts. Cool temps? Use stuff like Scottish ale yeasts tha like cool temps. And wait until fall when temps are in the 60s to use things like 1056.

 

[Alabamy]

If you need heat, an aquarium heater in a bucket of water will help.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C5TPF6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Bogforce]

The temperature in Ohio has been going between 85 with lows in the 50s so I need some way to keep it warm at times and cool at times.

 

[Glynn]

In the summer time i use a swamp cooler with ice and in the winter I wrap my fermenter in a heavy blanket or sleeping bag

 

[austinb]

Unless you want to also control the temperature of the room you ferment in for personal comfort I would find another option besides the air conditioning unit because there are much more energy efficient ways to control ferm temps than cooling a whole room.

For the poor mans method get one of those plastic 55 gallon drums cut in half works well. You can usually get them pretty cheap on craigslist, non food grade ones will work for this application and are often even cheaper than the food grade ones. Put the carboy in it and fill it with water. Get an aquarium heater to heat it or swap out ice packs to cool it.

If you have the room and your budget allows an old chest freezer can easily be converted into a temperature controlled fermentation chamber. A fridge will work too but a chest freezer is about 75-90% more energy efficient. Most people use the ranco or Johnson controllers and basically the temp probe goes in the freezer and the unit plugs into your wall outlet. The freezer then plugs into the controller and when it gets to your desired temperature the controller cuts the power to the freezer until it warms up enough that it needs to switch it back on. You could also get another controller and put a small space heater inside the freezer to warm it up during cold weather. If you like DIY projects and know a little about electrical wiring you could buy one of the cheap gray and orange aquarium thermostats off eBay from Hong Kong and wire it up to control both heating and cooling for a lot less than those ranco or Johnson controllers.

 

[IslandLizard]

+1 to the Saison. Very forgiving temperature wise, as long as it doesn't get too cold.

Use your high ambient temps during the day and insulate your fermentor well during nights and colder spells. You could use a heating pad to make things warmer. Bubble wrap, blankets, hay chests are ways to keep it warm. Keep your beer in the dark or you'll be drinking skunk juice later.

Brew with the seasons. In 1 month ale season starts, followed by a long lager season...

Now you got good suggestions for getting a pipeline of beer started, I'd consider working toward a heating system for your home. Before you know it, the OH winter arrives. I've lived in North-East PA for 25 years, I know how it turns unbearably cold, suddenly.

 

[austinb]

Don't get me wrong I enjoy saisons but I would probably get bored of saisons quickly if I brewed with the seasons and could only brew saisons for the 4-5 months of the year here in western Oregon that the temperatures are in the mid 70's or above.

Unless you really love saisons and lagers more than regular ales I would suggest getting some sort of temperature control setup because I find the window for brewing ales between hot and cold seasons far to short.

Fortunately I have a basement that stays between 53-66 all year long so I can often brew with little to no temperature adjustments. I have a temperature controlled DIY fermwrap for making ales in the winter (or I can brew lagers unassisted) and in the summer I can either brew at basement temperature or if it gets on the warm side of the spectrum and I'm worried about active fermentation pushing the temp too high I will put the carboys in tubs full of water and with a wet t-shirt draped over them evaporative cooling is usually enough.