Winter Brewing

[Elbow]

I've got an all-grain pilsner in the beer fridge at the moment sitting at 10c. It's down to 1020, so I was about to rack to secondary and dry hop some Saaz. Now, I also have another batch of pilsner in a no chill cube which I want to pour straight onto the yeast cake from the primary fermenter. My fridge is on the small side and there is really only enough room for one fermenter or chill cube at any one time. Now, with Melbourne currently enjoying less than tropical temperatures, I was wondering if the second pilsner could be left out in the open with maybe a blanket on at night for a bit of warmth. Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[white.grant]

Can't speak for Melbourne but its bloody cold in Wollongong. I have an oktoberfest happily sitting at about 9 degrees in my garage at the moment - outside its 3 degrees.

Leaving a fermenter out in the open could risk freezing though and you will see much bigger temperature variations through the day/night. Somewhere undercover with relatively stable temps would be better.


cheers

grant

 

[jimi]

If you can't wait for the currently fermenting beer to finish, I say go for it. It shouldn't be too hard to find a felatively stable temp place for lager temps atm. The brew God 'Barry' is famous for brewing his lagers at ambient temp in his garage during winter. Mind you he seems to use the rather forgiving CalCommon yeast.

 

[fraser_john]

Sitting it on the floor in your garage will keep it nice and cool, certainly no issue for a good lager yeast. I plan on brewing a couple of lagers soon and just fermenting in them in the shed, there might be a slight swing from 9c overnight to 13c during the day, but that should not affect a yeast such as S-23 which has a range of 9-15c for fermentation.

 

[chadjaja]

Plan on doing both my lagers on the garage floor the next few weeks here in the northern subs of Melbourne. Cold garage floor has kept some of brews out there at a pretty constant 10 degrees. Perfect!

 

[Elbow]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, i'll probably leave it in the garage, although it is exposed to the elements. Either that or bring it into the kitchen at night. It's a Wyeast Czech yeast, so hopefully it can operate it that lower end.

 

[Bribie G]

Seeing as there's a bit of winter to go yet, for future brews you could probably do some very nice lagers using S-189 at your ambient temperatures. I just cranked out an Aussie Lager at 16 degrees on the garage floor, aided by a 5L frozen container swapped once a day and the thing swaddled in a beach towel and a silver 'waffle' car windscreen protector wrapped around. However ambient in the garage is currently 19 here in SEQ so where you are you could probably just do 'as is' it at your temps and just tuck it up in a quilt at night time.

 

[The Mad Hopper]

Why not leave the first out at ambient temperature instead. It's pretty cold out now and that's just going to help the beer, and most of the primary ferment is done. In a garage or something I'd think the beer would be sitting somewhere between 4-10deg most of the time.

By the way, how much Saaz are you adding. I just made one of these that I dry hopped with Saaz and I don't seem to get much aroma from it.

 

[Elbow]

The problem is my garage is exposed on one side, so ambient temp is a bit much to hope for. I think I'm gonna french press and add the saaz anyway now (thanks dr s!), around 15g. So I think i'll rack the first to a secondary fermenter and use the yeast cake for brew # 2 and put that in the fridge at around 10c. The first one can stay in the garage or inside if it gets really cold out there.

 

[keifer33]

I am currently using a large $10 tub from bunnings in the garage full of water with an aquarium heater and air bubbles set to ensure it doesn't drop too low ,Works a treat and would cost max $40 if u don't have it.

 

[Swinging Beef]

buga
I just remembered I left three fermenters outside last night in Wollongong!
Hmm..
maybe I wont have to crash chill them after all

 

[Elbow]

I am currently using a large $10 tub from bunnings in the garage full of water with an aquarium heater and air bubbles set to ensure it doesn't drop too low ,Works a treat and would cost max $40 if u don't have it.

I was actually thinking of getting an aquarium heater for doing brews inside (ales, etc). It never occurred to me to use it to keep a lager at around 10c. Good tip.

 

[thylacine]

I was actually thinking of getting an aquarium heater for doing brews inside (ales, etc). It never occurred to me to use it to keep a lager at around 10c. Good tip.

My 55watt aquarium heater has 20c as the lowest setting. Hence I use it for ales (fermenters in a water bath). Previous threads on this topic included 18c (by only one user) as the lowest setting found on aquarium heaters.

 

[cdbrown]

I put my fermenter in an esky, along with an aquarium heater submersed in a 2.4L berri juice bottle. Does a good job of warming the esky. I don't like the idea of submersing the fermenter tap and no longer put the heater in the beer after it dropping in and infecting the brew. Thankfully the ale brew has finished so I've turned off the heater and opened the esky to help chill the brew.

 

[MarkBastard]

I didn't read the whole thread so sorry if it's been mentioned.

I heard temperature control is most important in the first few days and then gets less important there after, particularly temp fluctuations.

With that in mind, you may be better off pulling out some of the current batches from your beer and letting them sit at ambient, then using the fridge for fermenting the new batch.

 

[keifer33]

I too don't like the idea of the tap being under water but when it's been in for a while I drop it in the laundry sink submerged in sanitiser before opening the tap to take a hydro.

 

[white.grant]

buga
I just remembered I left three fermenters outside last night in Wollongong!
Hmm..
maybe I wont have to crash chill them after all

There was a nice frost at my place this morning!