Temperature fluctuation - Effects on beer

[stattonb]

Hi all just a quick question its my 5 brew and i have had some great advise from members on this group so i just got myself a free fridge after using ice water for my past brews to cool it down now its a working fridge but atm i have it tuned off and im using frozen water bottles (until net week when i purchase a STC - 1000) Im getting reading between 14 - 18 degrees going on the stick on thermometers on the fermenter,im just wondering if it fluctuation between 14 - 18 would that effect the end product or does it need to be steady.
Thanks in advanced

 

[dent]

Fixed your other dodgy thread.

I wouldn't worry about the temperature fluctuations too much - just make sure that towards the end of the ferment you keep it warm to get the yeast to clean up the crappy flavours.

 

[stattonb]

thanks i reported it went to post and it froze up and clicked the post button twice lol,thanks for the advise first time brewing at these temps but read plenty of posts and 18c seems to be the sweet spot, others before where at around 20 degrees,what temp should i bring it up to at the end ??

 

[dent]

20 at the end is good. I like to keep it more like 16 when it is really cranking earlier on.

 

[stattonb]

cool thanks for the advise still new but when would i pump the temp to 20 maybe when i get a reading of 1010 as 1005 is what my FG is usually

 

[anthonyUK]

cool thanks for the advise still new but when would i pump the temp to 20 maybe when i get a reading of 1010 as 1005 is what my FG is usually

Maybe once the gravity has dropped 50-75% would be fine to save time but if how you are doing it suits then it is also OK.

 

[stattonb]

so brew still bubbling away has been sitting on 1020 fo the last 3 days

 

[nedsrest]

So maybe I'm crazy( new to brewing) I've been looking for answers on here with no luck. Living in the top end where current brew shed temps are 37 deg is a fridge my only answer to a successfully brew?

 

[BrosysBrews]

So maybe I'm crazy( new to brewing) I've been looking for answers on here with no luck. Living in the top end where current brew shed temps are 37 deg is a fridge my only answer to a successfully brew?

Short answer, yes. Long answer, I suppose you could make beer at that temp, it is just if you would want to drink the product or not at the end that is the question.

 

[nedsrest]

Oh well that's gonna put a holt to proceedings for a while then

 

[Feldon]

So maybe I'm crazy( new to brewing) I've been looking for answers on here with no luck. Living in the top end where current brew shed temps are 37 deg is a fridge my only answer to a successfully brew?

You could relocate the fermenter to inside your house where I assume it has a cooler ambient temp (air-coned?). But domestic issues can prevent such migration.

 

[nzefactor]

So maybe I'm crazy( new to brewing) I've been looking for answers on here with no luck. Living in the top end where current brew shed temps are 37 deg is a fridge my only answer to a successfully brew?

Hey mate there are ways of cooling without a fridge. I've used a system before that people on this forum have talked about/used, it's similar to what the yanks call 'swamp cooling' or something along those lines.

You sit a fermenter in cool water and drape a towel over it, making sure one end of the towel sits in the water. As the water wicks up and saturates the towel it'll start to evaporate off, hopefully cooling the fermenter. If there's a breeze or fan pointed at the towel even better. You can also chuck in frozen bottles of water into the water bath to help cool it further.

Not sure how much it'll help if the shed is 37C but it's worth a shot as long as your fermenter tap, etc is tightly sealed and you keep the water bath cool.

 

[philmud]

Brew a saison

 

[Grott]

So maybe I'm crazy( new to brewing) I've been looking for answers on here with no luck. Living in the top end where current brew shed temps are 37 deg is a fridge my only answer to a successfully brew?

No, go to post - Fermenter Temperature Control and have a read through. My foam box system works very well all year round including heat waves. Hope it helps.
Cheers

 

[Nizmoose]

No, go to post - Fermenter Temperature Control and have a read through. My foam box system works very well all year round including heat waves. Hope it helps.
Cheers

Haven't read the thread but I can also vouch for foam boxes, I sit my bottles in foam boxes (pretty dense polystyrene?) the sort of box maybe some vegetables would come in? The first time I used the boxes with a towel on top I underestimated how good a insulator it would be and it kept 40 bottles at 5 degrees for two weeks in the shed where temperatures ranged from 10 to 35ish. Really really effective at keeping things both cool and stable. I'd suggest combining a few of those boxes and maybe even instead of a water bath consider ice packs aimed at cooling the air in the box? Would act as a primitive fridge and I have a feeling it'd work very well.

 

[RobboMC]

When my shed gets above 40 deg C even the fridge has some trouble maintaining 18 deg C. There is a limit on just how much power
your electric cable can summon from the power station to run the electric motor that pumps the gas that cools the condenser, and so on.

One day last summer is was 46 deg in the shade, I reckon 66 in the shed, and about 30 inside the running fridge.

Now I run the fridge inside the house, but I also don't brew in high summer. Go to the beach instead.

 

[klangers]

Best advice is to have a go and see what happens. Fluctuations between 14-18 shouldn't do a whole lot to an ale yeast, but from 18-22 would have a noticeable impact; and 22-26 even more so.

Try it and taste it so you know how temperature affects a brew.

 

[Brews Lee]

My first post - cool!
On the subject of keeping the brew cool, I bought some polystyrene insulation boards (from a popular hardware store beginning with B) and used them to box in the frame from an old crappy bbq I had rusting away in the shed (I chucked the burners etc, just kept the frame). It won't win any design awards but I alternate frozen water bottles (used 2L fruit juice bottles) as chiller blocks and have been able to keep the temp in the comfy 18-22 deg range even during summer (granted, Northern NSW hot - not Top End hot). Total cost (the rusty bbq was free and did I mention rusty?) was about $65 with hinges for a door and some expanding foam. I couldn't find an old working fridge for less than $150 so I'm stoked with the result. Shabby? Yes. Effective? Defo!

Big thanks to all the contributors giving new brewers like me such great advice.

 

[pipsyboy]

I just did my first temp controlled brew using a dead fridge and frozen milk cartons. Kept it between 17.5 and 18.5 just changing the carton every morning. Nights were cool enough as is.

 

[pipsyboy]

I'm doing an experiment now to see if I can get the temp low enough to do a lager.