Importance Of Temperature Control

[nifty]

Hi everyone

With the recent high temperatures in Sydney, I am a bit concerned about the brew I have going at the moment. Because I don't have a fridge to brew in, I use a cupboard with insulation around the inside and use frozen 2 litre juice bottles to keep it cool. It usually stays around the 20 deg mark, even on really hot days, but I was away for three days this week and I could'nt change the water bottles. The missus will sometimes do it, but under protest, so I didn't ask this time.

The brew is in secondary and has been for 6 days, primary for 10 days.

Will the beer develope off tastes because of the high temp ?? even though fermentation has probably finished ??

Thanks for any replies

nifty

 

[jgriffin]

I destroyed three brews late last year / early this year. They all tasted great out of primary where i controlled the temperatures in a similar manner. But i racked them to cubes and just left them in the basement, not realising they would still get to 29C or so until i used the thermometer on one.

All were ruined. :-(

 

[phantom]

Get an old fridge that still runs.I put mine in run it until wort is stable @18(ale) and place ice bricks around.This works fine,and if temp does get too high i run it for a short burst to bring it back.I then bottle and condition for 2 weeks in fridge,it works well.

 

[Duff]

Nifty,

I wouldn't think one or two days would impart a real problem with the brew. You're right about the heat though, to beat this I have my brews at the moment inside the spare bedroom which is dark and cool until the weather cools a bit, and are sitting nicely at 20C. If you have any room inside your place somewhere try and move them in. Maybe an extra chore around the house to appease the other half

Duff.

 

[phantom]

Nifty,
. Maybe an extra chore around the house to appease the other half

Duff.

Marriage guidance counselling is free in this forum!

 

[Weizguy]

As far as marriage guidance counselling is concerned, I have some advice, too!

I reckon that you should always ask the missus to help out with the beer cooling. She may not remember, but if she thinks that it's important to you, she'll remember most days.
I'm sure that you would do the same for her, so why not ask?
Worst case scenario - You get the same result as if you didn't ask her. So, make the effort and ask, and say "Thanks" either way.

gentle Seth

 

[phantom]

Seth,good to see you getting in touch with your feminine side.
That post just may get u some action!

 

[sosman]

As far as marriage guidance counselling is concerned, I have some advice, too!

I reckon that you should always ask the missus to help out with the beer cooling.

My missus has only to stare at the fermenter for a few moments to keep it cool.

In fact one day she stared at it for nearly a minute and ice started forming.

 

[nifty]

Actually, the other half isn't too bad, she will change the ice over for me. Like Weizguy said, she does know it's important to me, but she has no interest at all in homebrew and beer. As soon as I start talking about brewing she gets this glazed look on her face. It works out well sometimes, I need some gear, tell her it's for brewing and she loses interest.

I do have a spare fridge in the garage, and I can put as much bottled beer in it as I want, but I have to share it with things like fruit juice and cordial :angry: so no extra fridge for the fermenter. I'll just have to wait and see how the brew goes. I am bottling tomorrow.

 

[Trev]

Some time ago I got myself a fermentation fridge (actually a small ice-cream chest sort of thing that fits two fermenters) and one of the external temperature controllers.

I wanted to check that the thing worked properly and that the wort temperature wouldn't undershoot or overshoot the desired mark because of the hysterisis of the controller. I filled a fermenter with tap water, dropped the controller probe into it and a thermometer, dialled up 10C on the controller to watch what would happen.

Now I guess I could have rigged up something like Doc's real time monitoring via the web, but I was too lazy (OK, it was too hard) so I asked SWMBO if she would take temp readings for me each hour whilst I was at work and write them down - and she agreed

I ended up with a couple of days of data, it showed that the temp variation was only about a degree and I was also able to check the calibration of the dial on the controller all because of SWMBO.

You've got to love a lady who enjoys a beer

Trev