[quote=“Demus”]The most basic is just strategic placement in your house. If you have a room w a/c or a cool basement that’s best. A shallow pan of water will allow some limited adjustment with ice and/or cloth for wicking and evaporation. Also make sure you chill the wort to a little below desired fermentation temp, & keep a close eye on it until you get it stable. I think you get better results from a stable temp that’s a bit warm (but still in range for yeast strain) than cooler temps that fluctuate a lot.
Hope this helps…[/quote]
So I had my brother place a glass of water in the upstairs closet where we’ve been fermenting, and also downstairs where we are thinking about moving to.
The temps after 24 hours were 68 upstairs and 66 downstairs.
Would that lead you to still believe that we are fermenting at too high of a temp in the 68 degree closet?
[quote=“stompwampa”]
So I had my brother place a glass of water in the upstairs closet where we’ve been fermenting, and also downstairs where we are thinking about moving to.
The temps after 24 hours were 68 upstairs and 66 downstairs.
Would that lead you to still believe that we are fermenting at too high of a temp in the 68 degree closet?[/quote]
I bit high yes, but I doubt high enough to cause the flavors you described. If the closet is 68 your initial ferment was probably around 75, gradually cooling as activity slowed. This can lead to underattenuation as yeast really would prefer the opposite, starting cool with a slight warming as activity winds down. Again, this is the ideal situation and I doubt fermenting in a 68 degree closet would cause serious off flavors. Do you remember the temperature of your wort when you pitched the yeast? How long and at what temperature did you steep your grains?
So far I think you’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions on how to improve your beer, but I don’t think we’ve discovered exactly what caused your beers to taste like vinegar. It sounds like some kind of infection, but I’ve never had that problem so I can’t say for sure…
Perhaps my off favors are a result of a multiple of things: brewing with the lid on, EasyClean instead of a sanitizer, slightly higher than normal fermentation temps.
We steep our grains as soon as the water reaches 120 and then steep for either 20 minutes or the water is 170…whichever comes first. We follow the instructions on our kits pretty closely.
After steeping, we bring wort to a boil and then add whatever extracts are called for. Then bring back to a boil and start the timer for 60 minutes and follow hop and other ingredient additions.
Once the boil is done, we put the kettle in an ice bath in the sink with the lid cracked open to vent steam. Cooling takes anywhere from 20-40 minutes.
We cool down to 100 degrees then we mix with room temp water. Temp of wort is usually 70-72 degrees when we pitch the yeast.
If you put your steeping grains in the pot with the heat on I can’t help but wonder if maybe you are scorching the grains as you bring the water up to temp.
I used to use grain bags and suspend them off the bottom of the kettle to prevent scorching.
I’m in the suburbs of the twin cities where the water is very hard and alkaline, guessing you’re dealing with the same kind of water. I had a lot of problems with some off flavors until I spent some time learning some things about water chemistry as it relates to brewing. Granted I’m mostly doing all grain now but I think my extract batches turn out way better now than they did when I was using straight tap water. I’d suggest that you try using RO water for a brew. It isn’t that costly and at least in my case it made a big difference.
A lot of people have these issues when first starting.
The most important things,
Good Water if in doubt use spring water
Temp- keep those temps below 70 mid 60’s— femementation generates heat
Pitch enough yeast
USe Star San or Iodophor
Get chlorine, chlorimine out of water used campden tablet or GOOD filter (not a brita)
Take lid off
Dont scorch the extract If not doing full boils do late extract method
Directions given with some kits can be very poor, do a lot of reading and asking questions
Grainbelt makes a good summary, but he (and everyone else so far) has left out one big potentil issue: ingredient freshness. Old cans of extract can give you an unpleasant metalic taste, or possibly a stale taste. Old hops can be cheesy. This is probably not your problem, as fresh ingredients are the norm in the US, but if you are buying kits off ebay, beware.
Also, swamp cooler is a good way to go to keep temperatures down. Just place the fermentor in a tub with an inch or two of water in it, then drape an old cotton tshirt over it. It will keep the beer temperature down by 2-3 degrees. Add a fan to blow across it and you can drop the temperature 5 degrees. In my experience, effective fermentation temperature control is the #1 step to convert your beer from “good” to “great”. This contrasts with effective sanitation, which is the number one way to convert your beer from “undrinkable” to “drinkable”.
“don’t scorch the extract” is also worth elaborating on. When adding the extract, take the kettle off the stove first, and then stir it in well so there is no extract on the bottom (make sure it has all disolved into the liquid) before putting it back on to the heat. Otherwise you can get burn-beer flavor.
A huge + 1 here. When I moved to Florida I was bummed because I lost my year round 65-ish basment in Boston. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I really had no choice but to go to a dedicated fridge for fermentation. With a temperature contoller, I now cater the temp to the yeat strain and beer style. My brews have been more consistant, predictable and above all tastier! Just remember, it’s the beer temperature, not the room or fridge temperature that’s important. To keep the beer at a stable temp requires quite a bit cooler surroundings than desired fermentation temp initially, gradually warming as fermentation slows.
I feel like brewing is all about making the yeast happy, and they are very temperature sensitive little creatures!!
