Nizmoose
Well-Known Member
Okay so it's the summer time in Australia again and this is my first summer as a homebrewer. I started in March and the only problem I've had is keeping the beer warm enough. Now that we start to move into the warmer months in South Australia where I live I'm already struggling to keep my current fermentation at a desireable temperature. I'm going to start my first all grain batch hopefully in a weeks time and I'd really like to get everything on the fermentation side as right as possible. So I have a few questions that I thought I'd put up and hopefully other new brewers come across this before having to ask it themselves as I'm sure many new brewers such as myself dont neccesarily have the luxury of a fermentation fridge. So my questions:
1: How much of a difference is US-05 going to make at 22degreesC versus say 18? Whats the highest a yeast like US-05 will ferment at before it starts producing noticable esters and more imortantly, fusel alcohols?
2: My currrent method of cooling which is yet to provide consistent results is to put my 10L fermenter inside my 30L fermenter which has water in it and a wet towel around it. Besides the use of a fridge is there much to do to improve this system and how much success have people had?
3: I do have a spare fridge availble in the shed however it does have drinks and some food stuff in it and thus a temp controller is out of the question, I've never brewed a lager before but is this a good chance to have a crack? Will a fridge on a warmer setting (it does have a temperature controller - you know the ****** warmer colder ones) be capable of the right temps for brewing a lager? Does stuff like the CO2 and sulfur need to vent at all?
Now I promise I have searched this topic a fair bit, read articles from byo and the like but I'd really like to hear what you guys do and think. It's all well and good to hear an american talk about summer but personally I think Australia can be somewhat a different beast so I'd like to hear what the ahb guys do.
Cheers,
1: How much of a difference is US-05 going to make at 22degreesC versus say 18? Whats the highest a yeast like US-05 will ferment at before it starts producing noticable esters and more imortantly, fusel alcohols?
2: My currrent method of cooling which is yet to provide consistent results is to put my 10L fermenter inside my 30L fermenter which has water in it and a wet towel around it. Besides the use of a fridge is there much to do to improve this system and how much success have people had?
3: I do have a spare fridge availble in the shed however it does have drinks and some food stuff in it and thus a temp controller is out of the question, I've never brewed a lager before but is this a good chance to have a crack? Will a fridge on a warmer setting (it does have a temperature controller - you know the ****** warmer colder ones) be capable of the right temps for brewing a lager? Does stuff like the CO2 and sulfur need to vent at all?
Now I promise I have searched this topic a fair bit, read articles from byo and the like but I'd really like to hear what you guys do and think. It's all well and good to hear an american talk about summer but personally I think Australia can be somewhat a different beast so I'd like to hear what the ahb guys do.
Cheers,