Temp too low??

[dannymartin89]

Hi Guys,

I've come back to brewing after a couple of years off and still relatively new to it all.

I have an APA kit on the go from my local store. Liquid malt and us west coast yeast that came included. I pitched the yeast at 20deg and it has dropped now to 16 and is holding steady. I pitched Monday night and now it's wed night. I came to look at brew and fermentation had started with a bit of foam on the top.

What I want to know is will the temp be OK at 16 to brew this? Or do I need to look at getting a heat belt or some other heating apparatus?

Thanks in advance for the answers,

Dan

 

[troglodytes]

If I'm looking for a nice clean fermentation (IPAs or APAs) I generally keep ferm temp right at 66F or ~19C. If you can't control ferm temp, only ambient temp, I'd say you can expect the yeast to generate about 3-4C during active fermentation so if your room is 17C then ferm temp should be in the right right range. Before I had a fermentation chamber I would pitch and start at my basement temp (14-16C depending on time of year) then once fermentation would start to tail off, the yeast wouldn't generate as much heat and I would move upstairs to a room that would be 18-19C on day 4.

Fermenting cool will certainly be much better than warm so if you keep your room at 16-17C the entire time expect to keep the beer in the fermentor for a longer period to make sure the yeast eventually finishes up (it'll work slower), but you will have a much cleaner beer with far fewer off flavors that the alternative.

 

[dannymartin89]

Hi Trog,

Well ive managed to up the temp to 17 deg (around 63F). I've heard people say that during early fermentation that the yeast create a few degrees of heat so hopefully that should be all good. Been down just now to the fermenter and its starting to foam up quite well after 72 hours. So it will be benefit me in the long run if i keep the temp there? Would you recommend moving the fermenter after the krausen has died down?

I live in an old house where its relatively cool downstairs i.e the kitchen where my FV is but it tends to get quite warm upstairs. Only issue with moving FV is the really steep stairs and the fact im using the Coopers DIY FV so its a loose top. Couldn't i do more damage to the beer by moving it too much potentially sloshing it around in the FV?

 

[troglodytes]

I was right there with you. I had the old house and steep stairs as well. It's a pain in the ass to move 5 gallons no matter what the vessel, so if you don't want to move it around I would just pick a room close to 17C, and hope it doesn't generate too much heat. There are others who have made cheap setups out of aquarium heaters (or swamp coolers for keeping temps down) as well if you want to search the site for those threads.

I wouldn't worry as much about oxidation at this scale as I would fermentation temp. Chances are that even a little sloshing would not be an issue, as the beer will most likely be consumed too quickly for you to notice. I accidentally left a stout get up to 22C one time, though, and let me tell you esters and fusels are absolutely noticeable.