Temperature variation questions

[zsprowls]

Hi everyone. Im brewing my first beer and I'm super excited! I do have a question.

I am brewing in my college apartment. I have a closet that has no lights and stays around 70-72 degrees (no a/c but im pretty far north, the window is open all the time in the room, and the fan is on. The room is about 65-68 but since the closet is closed off its been 70-72.)

The pale ale I am brewing came with Safeale american ale yeast (us-05). I'm rolling with a bought recipe for this first brew haha. The recipe says ferment between 68 and 72. The yeast itself says optimal fermation temperature is 59-75.

When I put the fermentation bucket in the closet it was reading 70 degrees (stick on thermometer had blue reading in the 70 mark). The first time I noticed it fermenting was 16 hours after I put it in. It stayed at 70 degrees through that entire day and was at 70 when I checked the temp before I went to bed the following night.

The following morning I checked and the thermometer read with a blue bar at 73 and a greenish brown bar at 75 which is the next mark on the thermometer. Because of the temp recommendations I wanted to cool it down some. I put a small cold bean bag on it and moved it to the front if the closet and put a fan on in and within 20 min it was reading blue at the 72 mark, green at the 73 mark, and brown at the 75. I probably coul have stopped there but I decided I wanted to get it closer to the lower end of the spectrum. I put a cool towel on the front of it, and put 8 ice cubes in a plastic bag that I rested on the lid. I left the fan on. 3 hours later I checked it and it was reading blue bar at 68 and green at 70. I took the ice on and left the fan on. Then I came on here to ask questions.

Did I mess up by letting it get that warm and stay that warm for most of a day? Did I mess up by cooling it so quickly? I am hoping the fan will keep it pretty consistent now that I have the temp down but we shall see. Would it be bad to keep cooling it to 68 and letting the fermentation increase the temp a little and then cooling it again?

Sorry for this super long post and questions. I just don't want to kill this beer! I love pale ales and want it to taste good.

Thanks!

 

[Pratzie]

What floor are u on in the apartment? i only ask cuz if ur first floor, u could always try to put it on a concrete floor. I was surprised when i found that putting it on the cold concrete in my basement made a difference of a few degrees which was nice cuz i was only 2 degrees off of the prime temp. That might help if its a possibility.

 

[zsprowls]

Sadly I'm on the second floor. So that won't be possible. I wish I could temperature control it because I get very specific with things like this and want them to all be perfect when at all possible. I'm looking for a fridge that I can pick up for cheap and hook up a thermostat to. This is probably out of the question though on a college budget.

 

[Unibrow]

You should be okay, even though it got warmer than expected. SF 05 is a resilient yeast strain in my experience, so it may be fine. However, you should be aiming for below 70 degrees, especially for the first few days of fermentation - this goes for most ale yeasts with some exceptions. I try to keep my ales close to 65 in the first 4-5 days, then I dont mind if the temp creeps up a little past 70 for a bit.

research these threads for a swamp cooler - its a cheap and effective way to keep beer under 70 even in hot ambient temps. Good luck!

 

[zsprowls]

Ugh. So 40 min after I pulled the ice and left the fan on I checked and found my beer had dropped to 64-66. I put it back in the corner but left the fan in the closet. The airlock slowed down a lot so my fermentation decreased a good bit. I'm assuming the 11 degree drop in a 4 hour 45 min period could have been bad.... What are your thoughts everyone? I figured moving it back into the corner and leaving the fan toward the front would put me in a spot that would allow the temp to stay a little more consistent. I'm certainly going to have to try out a swamp cooler or something of that nature in the future because this temperature control stuff is making me anxious. I certainly dont want to trash this batch of beer!

 

[KBentley57]

an 11 degree drop over that period is fine. It's probably longer than it takes for a vial of yeast to reach room temp. Most yeast packs say not to hit the yeast with a 10 C shock, which is again more than 11 F.