Finally Some Control

To be honest we’ve not done a good job with temp control and relied on ambient basement temps. Well, I ended up with a small chest freezer so I bought a bayrite BTC-201 for about $34 on Amazon. As a little exbeeriment, I subbed safe04 for saf05 in one of the beers we did this week. I noticed the fermentation took off like gangbusters so after reading some posts by others and having plans to be away for a few days, I put it in my new fermentation chamber/keeper at 50-55 degrees F. I am extremely interested to see how this goes and how it compares.

I think you will find it takes off slower and ferments not as violently. The best way I can describe how the beer tastes with cooler temps is “cleaner”.

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I agree. However us-05 is known to throw peach esters below 62°.

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So that’s what it is. I’ve noticed some type of fruity flavor in some of my beers with US-05. I made a (m)Oktoberfest this spring and kept it at 58 degrees for a cleaner taste. I guess I won’t do that again! Thank you for the information.

How about 04? The beer I’m starting cooler was us04.

WY 1056 is the liquid version of US-05. I’ve used 1056 quite a while holding the fermentation temperature at 63°F to 64°F. Most of these brews were the American Amber Ale and IPAs. Never noticed the peach flavor until I brewed the Dry Irish Stout with 1056. An ounce of strong cold brewed Folgers coffee in each glass masked the off flavor.

A coffee stout is pretty good tasting.

I’ve never used S-04, but have used a liquid alternative. That’s pretty cool for that yeast. English yeast are notorious for their flocculation. Temps that low will facilitate flocculation. This is good and bad. Good because it produces clear beer; bad because they can flocculate out before fully attenuating.

Ale yeast should be fermented at mid 60’s… Myself, I take it a bit cooler… 63… maybe it takes a few days longer, but I like how my brews are finishing up… Sneezles61
PS… And I see its good for cask conditioning! Think it could finish at 1.012, rack it into the keg at about 1.017, then seal the keg and let if finish up in there, ALA cask conditioning!

Congratulations on the gear acquisition.

I will say, temperature control did way more to improve my homebrew quality than any other gear or technique I’ve learned.

Enjoy!

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Thanks! After all the discussions I’ve read here, I’m looking forward to some experiments. :relaxed:

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I haven’t done a casked brew in a long time… My Mockfests will be them! Sneezles61

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I think i might try that with 3g of barleywine.

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