Hey guys,
So my new brew spot is a little colder than I thought. Also a bit of a cold front happening right now. Anyways the ambient outside temp is 40 degrees. I checked on the stainless conical fermenter and the stick on thermometer is registering at 42 degrees. Have a spunding valve on and it hasnt produced enough pressure to register yet. The strain temp calls for 46 to 56. Do you think this is too cold?
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Do you have a heating pad? Just enuff to get to 50*F. I’ll bet you’ll warm up naturally and the fermentation will take off. We do store yeast in a cold environment .
Sneezles61
I do have a heating pad actually.
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A heating pad would work with a temperature controller to monitor. If not bring it to a warmer spot let the temperature come up to the high end until fermentation starts. Then wrap in a blanket and bring it down. The fermentation temperature and blanket will keep it in the zone you need. It will slow as it cools but its still fermenting. After a week bring it up again for the d-rest for a day wrap then back down and lager
Ok I’ll try that. Im wondering how accurate the stick on thermometer is with a stainless fermenter
I just checked on it and its at 46 degrees and 5 psi so I think its rolling!
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Have a thermapen? See if it reads the same as the stick on shtick…
sneezles61
Actually those stick on thermometer are pretty darn close
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Yeh I thought about the thermopen. Im going to let this one roll and order a thermowell for the next batch. That will sit somewhat inside of the fermenter and then I can put a probe in there and have the temp controller set with a heating blanket or something. Kind of strange trying to keep it warm for a change, haha its usually the opposite.
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My Christmas light hack for keeping a fermentation going when the garage gets too cold for ale fermentation.
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The price of packaged brews has gone up quite a bit, so home brewing makes sense… again?
Sneezles61
Ha!! It gets that cold down there? (:
Sneezles61
About one week a year, maybe 2. 
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That’s clever! And festive!
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Well I checked on it before leaving on a trip for the weekend and it was at 40 with almost 15 psi built up. Added the electric heating pad that I use to use on buckets with some electric tape so I will see how it is tomorrow.
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Alright its at 52 degress, 15 psi and bubbling away like crazy. 1 week (lager) later now.
Sounds like it’s rolling along… when it slows then start a slow warm up. Try 5*F and see if activity starts… couple days?
And repeat.
Sneezles61
So the fermentation went fine. I only got about 3.5 gallons in the keg using the new conical. I think I need to aim for 6.5 gallons into the fermenter next time since I think the actual cone at the bottom holds a gallom or so before it even registers. Lots of trub amd sediment in there i must have dumped almost 2 gallond out. I didnt really mess with the rotating racking arm while I was filling it was angled slightly down toward the cone just didnt feel like moving it anymore once i saw some sediment enter the line to the keg i closed the valve and popped the ball lock off. Crystal clear beer otherwise though tastes great.
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Are you saying you got more trub than usual in the conical? How long did you crash? This last batch I cold crashed (34F) a good week and the cake was pretty solid which allowed me to transfer wort without stiring up the trub. I probably get about 4.5 gallons from 5.5 in
My fermenter has a little bit of a dish compared to yours. I did cut the pick up tube off so it leaves about 1/2 gallon behind…. I really don’t mind a bit of trub… good B-complex vitamins for you!
Sneezles61
