Bloody Melbourne Weather

[hazard]

I brewed a Belgian Strong Ale last week, I like to keep fermentation relatively cool (say 17 deg) for the first few days than ramp up to say 20 deg to finish it off. It was 38 deg in melb last week, so I put the fermenter in the fermentation fridge (first time I've used the fridge in the last 6 months) and it worked perfectly - 38 deg in the shade, and my temp controller is showing me its 17 deg in the fridge. A few days later I increase the temp controller to 20 deg, and of course the weather has been (relatively) cold in Melbourne since - the temp controller has been showing that the fridge temp at 14 deg for the last 4 days!! I'm aiming for a nice clean finish, and now the yeast has probably fallen asleep. And of course the forecast is for 37 deg again tomorrow, so I need to leave it in the fridge. I'll probably just rack it to a secondary on the weekend to rouse the yeast a bit, and give it another week to finish off. Ahhh, first world problems.

 

[fcmcg]

Now I did my belgian golden strong ( og of 1.072) at 18 and ramped it to 27 over a week, in my fridge...
This is what Jamil says to do...
Flavours developed in first 72 hours mainly...
Bulk primed last night when my fg was 1.007...
Happy days !!!
Ferg

 

[Midnight Brew]

I've had a similar problem. Put a fermenter in the fridge to CC for a few days and had a yeast starter in a flask and put them both int he saem fridge. Anyway they froze so starter is ruined and I was going to harvest from the CC beer but thats out the window too. So I made a new starter only that I dont have temp control and its going to be 27C today and 38C tomorrow. Im hoping for 5 steady cool days in the next two weeks or Im going to be short for beer for Xmas!!

 

[stux]

Why I use a heat belt in the fridge.

The trick is to use a fermowell to stop the heat belt and fridge fighting each other.

I can maintain any temperature from -1C to 28C

 

[bignath]

I've had a similar problem. Put a fermenter in the fridge to CC for a few days and had a yeast starter in a flask and put them both int he saem fridge. Anyway they froze so starter is ruined and I was going to harvest from the CC beer but thats out the window too. So I made a new starter only that I dont have temp control and its going to be 27C today and 38C tomorrow. Im hoping for 5 steady cool days in the next two weeks or Im going to be short for beer for Xmas!!

Disastrous stuff indeed being short for the festive season.

Any reason why you couldn't do a starter and put your flask/bottle/jar whatever, in a bowl or tub of water? Like a mini "bath"?
Keep the bowl or whatever inside 'cause i'm sure you'll be keeping your house cooler than 27-38.
Just pick it up and shake it every time you walk past it and should be golden i reckon.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Disastrous stuff indeed being short for the festive season.

Any reason why you couldn't do a starter and put your flask/bottle/jar whatever, in a bowl or tub of water? Like a mini "bath"?
Keep the bowl or whatever inside 'cause i'm sure you'll be keeping your house cooler than 27-38.
Just pick it up and shake it every time you walk past it and should be golden i reckon.

The new starter is in the fridge and ready to go but its too hot over the next week to maintain a steady 18-22ish batch. If theres reasonable mild temperatures late next week I may just scrape in and be covered for xmas day. Fingers crossed.

 

[Yob]

The new starter is in the fridge and ready to go but its too hot over the next week to maintain a steady 18-22ish batch. If theres reasonable mild temperatures late next week I may just scrape in and be covered for xmas day. Fingers crossed.

I have a spare STC (cough) wired up, (maybe a spare heat pad too) if you need to borrow it let me know, will be home so you can swing by if'n you like.

Yob

 

[hazard]

Why I use a heat belt in the fridge.

The trick is to use a fermowell to stop the heat belt and fridge fighting each other.

I can maintain any temperature from -1C to 28C

My temp controller does heating or cooling, but not both at once. I don't have a thermowell (damn, was at G&G yesterday, they've got 20% off everything and it would have been a good time to get one) but how have you got this set up working?

 

[malt_shovel]

I brewed a Belgian Strong Ale last week, I like to keep fermentation relatively cool (say 17 deg) for the first few days than ramp up to say 20 deg to finish it off. It was 38 deg in melb last week, so I put the fermenter in the fermentation fridge (first time I've used the fridge in the last 6 months) and it worked perfectly - 38 deg in the shade, and my temp controller is showing me its 17 deg in the fridge. A few days later I increase the temp controller to 20 deg, and of course the weather has been (relatively) cold in Melbourne since - the temp controller has been showing that the fridge temp at 14 deg for the last 4 days!! I'm aiming for a nice clean finish, and now the yeast has probably fallen asleep. And of course the forecast is for 37 deg again tomorrow, so I need to leave it in the fridge. I'll probably just rack it to a secondary on the weekend to rouse the yeast a bit, and give it another week to finish off. Ahhh, first world problems.

When you are quoting your fridge temperatures, it reads that you are measuring the ambient in the fridge, rather than the beer temp? If that's the case, you can add around 4 - 5 degrees, depending on how vigorous your ferment is and volume, and you might find your current temp of 14degc is more like 17 - 19 deg and the yeast got a bit warm earlier on (no biggy if it is a phenolic belgium yeast).

This is what i measure with my system, so your system will no doubt be different. The important message here is that the beers actual temp will be significantly above ambient in the most vigorous stages of fermentation (I have recorded +10degC for a barley wine that went ape-**** on me). Once things slow down / stops, the ambient and beer temps start approaching an equilibrium.

Cheers

 

[hazard]

When you are quoting your fridge temperatures, it reads that you are measuring the ambient in the fridge, rather than the beer temp? If that's the case, you can add around 4 - 5 degrees, depending on how vigorous your ferment is and volume, and you might find your current temp of 14degc is more like 17 - 19 deg and the yeast got a bit warm earlier on (no biggy if it is a phenolic belgium yeast).

This is what i measure with my system, so your system will no doubt be different. The important message here is that the beers actual temp will be significantly above ambient in the most vigorous stages of fermentation (I have recorded +10degC for a barley wine that went ape-**** on me). Once things slow down / stops, the ambient and beer temps start approaching an equilibrium.

Cheers

Yes, the probe is in the fridge, not immersed in the wort - gee 10 deg is a pretty big difference, so maybe I better get a thermo well - fermentation temp may be a lot more than i thought. I used WY1388, it didn't produce a huge krausen, so maybe (hoping) it didn't get too warm. I guess I'll find out in a few months how it tastes. Thanks for the info.

 

[jlm]

Bloody Melbourne weather indeed. Over for the weekend, a Tasmanian resident like myself will surely melt.....wait that's right, 33 years in qld. Bring on the non humid hot weather session at the tap house.

 

[manticle]

Just found out today that Melbourne frequently has hotter days over summer than either Brisbane or Darwin (as in highest temp reached).

 

[carniebrew]

I brewed a Belgian Strong Ale last week, I like to keep fermentation relatively cool (say 17 deg) for the first few days than ramp up to say 20 deg to finish it off. It was 38 deg in melb last week, so I put the fermenter in the fermentation fridge (first time I've used the fridge in the last 6 months) and it worked perfectly - 38 deg in the shade, and my temp controller is showing me its 17 deg in the fridge. A few days later I increase the temp controller to 20 deg, and of course the weather has been (relatively) cold in Melbourne since - the temp controller has been showing that the fridge temp at 14 deg for the last 4 days!! I'm aiming for a nice clean finish, and now the yeast has probably fallen asleep. And of course the forecast is for 37 deg again tomorrow, so I need to leave it in the fridge. I'll probably just rack it to a secondary on the weekend to rouse the yeast a bit, and give it another week to finish off. Ahhh, first world problems.

I'm in Melbourne too, and have one of these hooked up to the heating outlet of my STC-1000: http://lighting-store.com.au/lightshop/pro...products_id=537

It has a red globe in it, bought it for the missus' 40th a few years back (don't ask her how few). Sitting well enough away from the FV so that it heats up the brewfridge, not the wort directly.

 

[hsb]

I put the stainless probe tip in the wort. Or you can put a pint of water in the fridge and put the probe in that, should get you close enough. Thermowell seems overkill with a presumably plastic fermenter IMHO, tape the probe on the side at worst with something insulative on the outside. Spend the Thermowell cash on a kitten for Xmas.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Spend the Thermowell cash on a kitten for Xmas.

Yep everyone loves a bit of pussy

 

[NDH]

I've just got an old 60W globe in a batten holder that I screwed to the side of the fridge, the amount of heat an incandescent globe produces in such a small space is impressive. I've also seen hair dryers hooked up to the heat output of an STC for larger volumes of air. Or as has been mentioed a heat pad if you already have one. The probe in a 600ml bottle of water helps the 'hunting' you'd get if the probe was in air.