Thirsty and eager noob

[Partagas]

Hello all from sunny Miami,
Yet another noob here. I finally took the plunge after many years of considering doing my own brewing. Yesterday i placed my order for all my equipment with Midwest and my first kit for a honey amber ale. Im pretty excited but Im going to start slow with extract and bottling and see where it goes. (Knowing my obsessive personality) I figured i needed some support from people that actually know what they are doing so i washed up here. I did have some questions regarding temps as i keep my place in the mid to low 70s, i was wondering if i should be concerned while fermenting my wort. Im looking forward to interacting with this community and learning as much as i can here. Thanks for having me!

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Welcome to the forum and the hobby. Many experienced Brewers here of varied levels. Most are willing to help out and answer questions. Fermentation temps are a concern and not being mindful of them can result in unintended flavored. The yeast package or instructions will have a temp range that is good. Temps in your fermentor will be higher than your room temps during fermentation. Maybe a cooler closet of what is referred to as a swamp cooler would help. I'm sure more Brewers will jump in. Enjoy!

 

[Sadu]

Welcome. Great place to learn the hobby and good idea starting with extract.
Fermentation temperature is one of the biggies. Your house sounds a little warm. You may decide not to worry too much the first batch, or you may decide to use a swamp cooler to drop those temps into the 60s. Both are valid, but if I had known about swamp coolers on my first batch I would definitely have used one.

 

[Partagas]

Thanks! I will look into it!

 

[Partagas]

Well after looking at a few options im rather dissapointed that there isnt a sensible solution to cooling a fermentation for someone thats got time and space constraints. Most swamp coolers i read about have issues with temp swings, ive looked at cooling jackets which requires water pumps, water storage container, temp controller and the whole thing looks like a mess. A freezer seems the way to go but space is nonexistent in my small apt. Finally i come across the immersion pro, and im thinking, perfect! Low profile, accurate temp control, space is a non-issue, fine i'll pay the pricetag considering my situation, then i find out the cooling rod is anodized and requires conditioning, meaning baking or boiling in water. Once the anodization wears off the manuf advises not to use and replace!!!. Why not make it out of stainless like everything else in this hobby??? Anyways sorry about my rant. I think theres a hell of a business opportunity for a good engineer to come up with something to meet this deficit in the hobby.

 

[FatDragon]

Well after looking at a few options im rather dissapointed that there isnt a sensible solution to cooling a fermentation for someone thats got time and space constraints. Most swamp coolers i read about have issues with temp swings, ive looked at cooling jackets which requires water pumps, water storage container, temp controller and the whole thing looks like a mess. A freezer seems the way to go but space is nonexistent in my small apt. Finally i come across the immersion pro, and im thinking, perfect! Low profile, accurate temp control, space is a non-issue, fine i'll pay the pricetag considering my situation, then i find out the cooling rod is anodized and requires conditioning, meaning baking or boiling in water. Once the anodization wears off the manuf advises not to use and replace!!!. Why not make it out of stainless like everything else in this hobby??? Anyways sorry about my rant. I think theres a hell of a business opportunity for a good engineer to come up with something to meet this deficit in the hobby.

There are cooling jackets that are basically big fabric coolers that go around the fermenter. You toss in a couple frozen water bottles and swap them as necessary. Not as accurate as a fridge with a temp controller (a mini-fridge doesn't take up much more space than a fermenter...), but it'll do the trick as long as you have room to keep a couple water bottles in your freezer at all times so you'll have ice bottles to swap in.

 

[Partagas]

So after 2 months of my original post, lots of reading and learning, and shelling out a few bucks on the initial equipment, i made my first batch today (extract of course! ) honey amber ale from MW.
I focused on providing the best conditions for the yeast and the fermentation. So i went with a mini fridge, Danby 4.4 cu. ft. with an inkbird controller and long probe version. Built my own thermowell out of an undrilled rubber stopper. I did a yeast starter with a diy stir plate. Used some fermcap s cause i wanted to do a full boil but my bk is only 6g. Great product btw! I had a nice strong boil with very little foam!
Of course no first brew goes without a screw up or two. I added my honey at 15 min instead of the 8 as per the recipe, and i had a leak in my ported big mouth bubbler, my fault for inverting the washers. Even though i had tested it, but once it had more pressure from the larger volume of liquid it started to moisten the outside washer. Lesson learned: test with as much water volume as possible!
Anyways i hit my OG, im guessing is not so hard to do with extract, i only replaced half a gallon of boil off with semi frozen boiled water and oxygenated at 2 lpm for about 45 seconds.
The yeast was pitched at 78* and i had fermentation within 4 hours!
Lets see how this one comes out.
Next is the barrel aged bourbon porter!