Worst temp vs room temp

[RNBEERGUY]

I’m confused if the optimal yeast temperature is 68-72 then is this the temp of the room or the wort temp since fermentation Increases wort temp by 10 degrees should my room temp be somewhere around 58 - 62 during this time ? Please help

 

[bpgreen]

That's the wort temperature, but don't count on the difference being 10 degrees. Get a stick on thermometer and use that for the temperature.

 

[IslandLizard]

Put your bucket in a temp controlled fridge or freezer (ferm chamber) or put it inside a large cooler or storage tote filled with (cold) water. Add a few frozen water bottles every day to keep the water jacket at your intended ferm temp. The water jacket is a large heat sink, drawing excess heat away from your fermentor very efficiently. Drape a sleeping bag or thick blanket over the whole setup to keep the cold inside.

 

[whiskeyjack]

Ales are considered easier to make then lagers in part due to increased temperature tolerances of the yeast, among other things. However, you still need some means of controlling temps of an ale. If your room is 70, expect your ale to hit 74-80 minumum. A simple swamp cooler, cooler bath, or other non-automated method can be used to keep it below 70. I've used a cat liter pan filled with water, with an old shirt draped over the neck of the better bottle where the bottom of the shirt was soaking in the water. Add a touch of bleach if your dogs wont drink it lol. This got me 4 degrees cooler, putting a fan blowing at it got me 6 degrees down. This was getting me 66 degrees on my wort give or take. These methods will get you ballpark type numbers, but if you want to hit a number, keep it or change that number throughout the fermentation you will want some kind of automated temp control

 

[whiskeyjack]

Also to add you can add frozen water bottles to drop it even lower, but the lower you want to go the more you will be swapping em out

 

[mongoose33]

1. You need to know what your wort temp is. A stick-on thermometer is a cheap way to monitor that.

2. Yeast is exothermic; it will raise the temp of the fermenting wort 5-10 degrees. Generally, the lower the ambient temp, the slower the yeast will work, and the less exothermic activity you'll have.

Before I got my fermentation chamber, I used to do my fermentation on the basement floor; using a swamp cooler almost perfectly offset the increase in the internal heat in the fermenter, and that was about a 5-degree drop in that setup.

I think you'll find that controlling fermentation temp is one of the best leaps forward you can make as a homebrewer. You can get a small refrigerator for relatively cheap (I got mine for $60). Others will use a chest freezer, or a larger refrigerator. Depends on what you can find and what you can afford. Craigslist has a lot of options.

I have two ferm chambers, you can see them in the pics below. Add an Inkbird ITC308 as a temp control module, and you're set.