Swamp cooler temperature not ideal?

[luizffgarcia]

Hi guys,

So i have been experimenting with different fermentation temperatures and i have a question

I use a swamp cooler and i ferment my ales around 15c, but that is the temperature i measure in the cooler's water, not the actual beer. I brew 2 gallon batches so my fermenter is 100% submerse in water.

Is there a big difference in temperature between the water in the cooler and the actual beer? I don;t want to open the fermenter to check temperatures to avoid all sorts of problems that procedure can cause.

The reason i ask is i am still struggling with alcohol off flavors in my beer, maybe 15c water temp is not enough to bring the beer to the ideal fermentation temperature for yeasts such as Safale 04 and 05?

Thanks for the help

 

[xpops]

15 degree's should be fine for those yeasts, and if not, actually on the low end. for the thermal transfer to take place between your swamp bath water temp and your actual beer temp i wouldnt imagine it would take very long to level out with only 2 gal batch. i think you may need to look elsewhere for your off flavour source you would probably have to hit mid/high 20s to get that alcohol bite from those yeasts.

speaking of yeasties...how much are you pitching? what type of OG's are we talking about? excessive yeast pitch rate could also cause problem. If you were pitching a full packet into 2gal, or a low OG wort, that could be causing issues as well.

 

[luizffgarcia]

15 degree's should be fine for those yeasts, and if not, actually on the low end. for the thermal transfer to take place between your swamp bath water temp and your actual beer temp i wouldnt imagine it would take very long to level out with only 2 gal batch. i think you may need to look elsewhere for your off flavour source you would probably have to hit mid/high 20s to get that alcohol bite from those yeasts.

speaking of yeasties...how much are you pitching? what type of OG's are we talking about? excessive yeast pitch rate could also cause problem. If you were pitching a full packet into 2gal, or a low OG wort, that could be causing issues as well.

Thanks for the reply.

Well sometimes i pitch an entire non hydrated pack of 05 into 2 gallons when i am lazy, sometimes i have a 1 liter started which i divide in 1 vials, and i pitch that 1 vial.

I heard it is pretty hard to overptitch so i tend to use more yeast than i would need in theory. But the weird thing is the alcohol off flavour should not be related to either underpitching or overpitching, right?

BTW my beers are usually around 1060 OG, IPAs