We have been experimenting with places around the house to keep our primary fermentor so that it stays at a consistent temperature. The closet was too cold, which made our yeast slow to react. We put a space heater in there, but that made the temperature change throughout the day. Our current batch is in our dining room and started out at a nice 70F which made for a fast fermentation, but after 6 days it hovers around 62F. So here are my questions:
Is it bad to have the temperature change throughout the primary fermentation?
If you are saying that a stick on thermometer read 70 during fermentation and now 6 days later it reads 62, that is fine. Fermentation generates heat. When fermentation is done the beer will be room temp.
Here are a few ideas to keep the temp is a steady range if the room the carboy/pail is in has a fluctuating temp.
Just a word of caution. When using a very flocculant yeast ( most English yeasts) you will not want a temperature drop towards the end of fermentation. These yeast drop out of suspension very quickly, and a temp drop only speeds along that process. If they drop out to early they will neglect to clean up fermentation byproducts ( Acetaldehyde and Diacetyl ). I warm all of my ales to around 70F after about 75% of the fermentation is done (regardless of type of yeast). Yeast love the warm temps and are less likely to drop out early. I’m not saying your beer will have these problems, but if you detect these flavors you will know why. :cheers:
Beerginer- I did notice that after about 5 days when the temp drop the yeast was not circulating through the carboy.
How do you warm your ales?
I was looking at a heating pad, is this a good idea or should I go with a water bath?
On a side note we moved the Celebration clone to the secondary carboy because the final gravity was reached after 7 days, so it seems to be on its way.
In the winter my furnace room in the basement stays between 69F and 72F so I just keep it there to finish up fermentation. In the summer when the AC is on I sometimes have to bring it upstairs to warm it up. The heating pad or the water bath with a fish tank heater would work, I’m just to cheap to buy one. :cheers:
