Hello, i have a question regarding the temperature of my fermentation for my honey ale. I am currently keeping it at 65 degrees in a “ghetto bucket”. Im assuming 60-72 degrees is optimum temperature for this type of brew. Do i have keep it at this temperature for the duration of primary and secondary? I think Im just gonna invest in a mini fridge cause keeping it at cool with this method is tedious. Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
:cheers:
You can let it warm up after 3 days or so, and your beer will have no ill effects. If it’s a low gravity or just a fast fermenting yeast 2 days could be long enough. This is time from first sign of krausen, not from pitching the yeast.
It really depends on which strain you use, but from my experience, you want to ferment on the lower end of the temperature range of the manufacture guidelines.
Keep in mind that if you are not using a thermowell with a probe, odds are you are fermenting roughly 5 degrees warmer than what the external thermometer reads.
As far as the secondary goes, there is A LOT of debate on this subject, but for me I skip the step entirely. If you are bottling, check your gravity and bottle once you are at terminal gravity, or keg and age.
However, at the end of the day, I found my beers got much better when I followed a strict temperature control schedule.
I agree on fermenting at the low end of the yeasts’ optimum range. I ferment most of my ales around 60-63 F. I don’t agree that you need a thermowell to know internal temperatures. I think there’s enough movement from yeast and natural convection that the thermal mass is pretty close to what the external ‘fermometer’ stuck on the carboy/bucket reads. Besides if I’m staying close to the low end there’ a plenty of room for 1-2 degree difference from the center to the exterior wall.
