temp queation

[KalvinKlein]

Ok I've been brewing all grain with my cousin and brother in law a few times, and am close to doing it on my own. Here is my question.

The only place in my house I can ferment is in my furnace/wash room. The other night it said the temp in there was 70-75. If I leave the carboy on the concreat floor, do you think the temp would be 65-70? The only other option I think I might have is putting the carboy in the garage up off the floor with one of those carboy heaters, but my garage is unisilated so not sure how well it would work. Thanks.

 

[storunner13]

I doubt it would be that low. Using a heater in a garage might be a better bet.

Keep in mind that fermentation is exothermic and your fermenting beer in the bucket/carboy will be 5-10 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature during peak fermentation. So, your beer could be fermenting at 80˚...not a great temperature for American Ales.

You can also check out some other methods of temperature control. Like a swamp cooler, or wet t-shirt and fan.

You could also drop the temps in your entire house during the winter...if you can handle the cold you could set the temps to 48˚ and brew a lager!

 

[KalvinKlein]

How would belign cream ales and Wits handle the higher temps?

 

[Calder]

Queation, belign ......... check your spelling!

Use the wash room, and get a swamp cooler (a large bucket you can place your fermenter in and surround with water).

The fermenter and swamp cooler will take on the temperature of the floor, and not the air, so will be cooler than the furnace temperature. Probably should place it as far away from the furnace as you can.

If it gets cold in winter, you might also want to invest in a fish tank heater to heat the water in the swamp cooler.

Swamp coolers are a great way to control fermentation temps, stop major temp swings, and stop the fermenter temps from running away.

 

[bctdi]

Heating a fermentor is always easier than cooling if you don't have a fermentation chamber. I would definately put in the cooler place , then keep the fermentor in a water bath with an aquarium heater. The water will keep the temp more stable because it takes a long time to change the temp of a large volume of water. I would have the water / aquarium heater already set to the target temp about 3 days before pitching/brewday so it will be ready to go.

 

[KalvinKlein]

If I did the aquirum heater in a water bath, do you think that would work in a garage that get below 32 or would that be too cold even for that?

 

[Yooper]

If I did the aquirum heater in a water bath, do you think that would work in a garage that get below 32 or would that be too cold even for that?

If it's below about 50 degrees, it would be too cold even with an aquarium heater.

 

[KalvinKlein]

Ok thanks alot. Looks like I need to find room in my washroom somewhere.