Too Warm?

[CliffMongoloid]

Is ambient temp of 68 too warm?

Usually use Us-05 yeast

 

[Varmintman]

I just checked the batch I brewed yesterday and the ambient temp in the room is 63 degrees but the beer is 70 degrees. I would guess it is to warm in your room and to cool if it you can simply because as the little yeasties are eating and partying in your beer they are going to heat up some

 

[Kaz]

Since the internal temp can be much warmer, I would try to keep ambient down to more like 62F. What kind of beer is it.

 

[CliffMongoloid]

Blonde Ale... summer brew

 

[bob1006]

since the internal temp can be much warmer, i would try to keep ambient down to more like 62f.

+1

 

[HibsMax]

I guess this is one of these things that you just have to find out what happens yourself. I've heard a lot of different information about ambient temp versus actual beer temp. I think the only way you can be sure is by measuring the temperature of the beer, then you'll know for sure. I don't doubt that the beer temperature is higher than the ambient temperature but I am not sure by how much, and I think it varies.

I've read that the difference between ambient temp and beer temp can be as much as 5-10 F. When I spoke to my LHBS he said it's more likely to be a couple of degrees rather than 10 degrees. He also said that the difference between ambient and beer temp will increase with ambient temp as the yeasties will be more active. For example:
ambient = 62, beer = 62 (delta = 0)
ambient = 64, beer = 65 (delta = 1)
ambient = 66, beer = 68 (delta = 2
ambient = 68, beer = 71 (delta = 3)
ambient = 70, beer = 74 (delta = 4)
ambient = 72, beer = 77 (delta = 5)

and so on. These numbers are just made up to illustrate the point I am trying to make.

My ambient temperature has been OK for the past few weeks but now the warmer weather is coming and my dining room is about 74, so I need to find a new place for my fermenters. My basement is about 60-62, and pretty constant, so that might be the best place for them. I can leave them as-is and suffer slower fermentation times or I can try and build some sort of enclosure (of which there are many designs / projects described here).

A quick note about 62 F. When I said to my LHBS that my basement was 62 he said that the beer temp is probably around 62 as well, NOT about 67 as I was thinking (going by the ferment temp is 5-10 F higher than ambient guideline).

 

[BigRob]

That doesn't sound right...

If you're fermenting in open air (not immersing the fermenter) you get a much bigger insulating effect from the glass carboy or plastic bucket. Regardless of the ambient temperature, fermentation is producing heat and the fermenter is trapping some of it, raising the temp of your beer. I know for a fact that even maintaining an ambient 62F my hefeweizen will hit 70F inside the fermenter when it's going full speed. This is why I switched to water baths for more accurate temperature control, and much slower temperature swings. Immersed you can be fairly confident you're within 1-2 degrees of the water bath temp.

 

[Varmintman]

I ferment in a basement where during the winter I have to heat it or it gets much to cold. This winter I had a batch of Moose Drool going and some how bumped the temp control up to 68. When I checked the beer in the morning it had blown the air lock off spewed beer everywhere and the internal temp was 75 degrees.

Moral of this story is ALWAYS use a blow off tube and NEVER let your beer get to warm. On the bright side that batch had Coopers yeast in it and ended up tasting kind of good....After a good long wait in the bottles conditioning

 

[HibsMax]

That doesn't sound right...

If you're fermenting in open air (not immersing the fermenter) you get a much bigger insulating effect from the glass carboy or plastic bucket. Regardless of the ambient temperature, fermentation is producing heat and the fermenter is trapping some of it, raising the temp of your beer. I know for a fact that even maintaining an ambient 62F my hefeweizen will hit 70F inside the fermenter when it's going full speed. This is why I switched to water baths for more accurate temperature control, and much slower temperature swings. Immersed you can be fairly confident you're within 1-2 degrees of the water bath temp.

Good to know. Perhaps my basement isn't too cool after all. I've been going back and forth on proper placement and I think my basement is the best option because the temperature is very stable compared to the main house. We don't run the heat / AC when we're not home so the beer could suffer.

I think what I need to do is rig a thermoprobe onto one of my fermenters so that I can tell for sure what is going on inside that bucket.

 

[Jayhem]

I love my new Johnson Temp Controller! My Brown Ale is going in the fermentation chamber at a nice even 65F and the air temp in there is 61F.

 

[CliffMongoloid]

I'm going to have to look into swamp Cooper's I do believe.... the temp jumped to 75 today in my spare bedroom