I am a complete newby and have only ordered the equipment to begin home brewing yesterday. I am looking forward to this being a retirement hobby. Question #1: The basement closet in which I intend to do the fermentation has a concrete floor. I have monitored the temperature of the floor for the last several months and it is a very steady 70 degrees. How will this temperature affect the fermenting, and/or aging of the finished bottled beers.
Bob
Warmer temps can product flavors that you may not want in the finished beer.
Below is an older version of How to Brew. It’s worth while to read, and order the new edition.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html70* is a good temp to bottle condition/carbonate the beer at.
See my signature line for ways to get the temp down below 65*.
Can it be too cold? I mean, obviously yes… but what I really mean is I’ve been doing that swamp cooler thing i for my last couple brews and been keeping it in the carriage house where it gets cold at night then traps the cool air.
A few times I have seen the thermometer read out at 58* or 60* which is the low spectrum of the fermometer and I assume isn’t bad but what if it got down to the lager temps?
Could it kill the yeast? or produce off flavors?
To kill the yeast, you will need to freeze them, bursting the cell walls. If it gets to cold, but not freezing, they will go into hibernation.
Every yeast strain will react differently to the temp it is fermenting at. US-05/1056/001 will ferment fine and produce a “lager like” beer in the mid to upper 50’s.
Conversely, I use a lager strain fermented in the 60’s to make a porter. My version of New Belgium’s 1554.
[quote=“Bobb”]I am a complete newby and have only ordered the equipment to begin home brewing yesterday. I am looking forward to this being a retirement hobby. Question #1: The basement closet in which I intend to do the fermentation has a concrete floor. I have monitored the temperature of the floor for the last several months and it is a very steady 70 degrees. How will this temperature affect the fermenting, and/or aging of the finished bottled beers.
Bob[/quote]
If you are brewing ales the best temperature of the wort will be 65°. 70° is a good bottle conditioning temperature. In an area that is 70° a swamp cooler fan combo can hold your fermenting wort in the mid 60°s.
