Amateur

[Rodbrew70]

Hi all, I brew my batches from a beer kit (can, yeast etc...) with success in my opinion, with the recent addition of a heat belt I have noticed a much faster fermentation rate, and have been keen to bottle, so as to get the next batch on! But after reading some posts I am wondering if a little more patience should be exercised? Does more 'time on the cake' help to develop flavour?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

its not really the time per-say but the cooler the temp the more clean the beer will taste and that makes the beer ferment longer, in most cases but not all you want to taste the malt and hops not yeast off flavors, the warmer the fermentation the more you can get yeast off flavors

 

[jeffpn]

When you get the same gravity reading 2-3 days in a row, bottle it up and get the fermentor full again!

 

[Rodbrew70]

Thanks guys! The heat belt does not have a thermostat and I cannot adjust the temp other than to move the belt up or down the vat! I'm aiming for 24-26c which seems to be the at the higher end (18-28c) as per the research I have done!
As we're heading into winter here I'm concerned about my brew stalling or killing off yeast!
Cheers

 

[jeffpn]

Get a STC-1000 temperature controller. It's a fairly cheap 2 stage unit.

 

[Bowhunter64]

When first started brewing I was fermenting at room temp and ran into all kinds of flavors I didn't want I've since started fermenting towards the lower end of whatever the range is on the particular yeast strain I'm using and my ales have been coming out perfect! It takes longer but patience pays off!! Jmho !!

 

[Rodbrew70]

Cheers guys, my instinct has told me to go warmer (warm active yeast) but your suggestions make sense, the st-1000 won't happen for the next batch but I will work on getting the temp down to the lower end! Maybe a more accurate thermometer might be a good investment?!
Cheers in advance

 

[jmcnamara]

A water bath might be a good intermediate step for you. Sometimes you'll see them called swamp coolers. You just need a big plastic tub that can fit your fermentor.

You still have to fuss with it once a day or so, but it will keep the temp much more stable

 

[J A]

...I'm aiming for 24-26c which seems to be the at the higher end (18-28c) as per the research I have done! ...

That's really too warm for clean fermentation. German and Belgian ales with lots of yeast flavor contribution may benefit from temps that high, but for clean flavored ales the lower end of that range is definitely what you want. Overheating the wort is a common mistake and leads to an overabundance of esters from the yeast and can produce a lot of acetaldehyde and make beer taste like apple cider. Eventually some of that harshness or odd flavor can fade with conditioning, but you end up waiting months for beer that could be tasting quite good in a few weeks with proper temperature control.

 

[jeffpn]

Heating fermenting ales is probably not necessary anyway, unless you live in a deep cave. If your ambient temp is at least 67°F or so, I'd just go with that. At the end of the primary, you could warm it up a bit to finish if you prefer.

 

[artbreu]

In my opinion, you let conditions select the yeast, which helps select the style.

First determine how you can best stabilize your fermentation temps. You can find the most temperature stable place in the house. Maybe put it in a large tub of water (larger thermal mass makes the temp spikes less pronounced). You can wrap it in insulator. Nothing beats a temperature regulated fermentation chamber (you can build one for $100 or so if you're crafty), but granted that's not always an option.

Wherever you can get stable temp-wise, use a yeast that is optimal in that range. Select styles based on that yeast and in that range. You might not be able to produce a great saison in the winter or a clean IPA in the summer using ambient temps, so plan your brews accordingly.

 

[Rodbrew70]

You guys are legends! Done some experiments this w/e with heating and have settled on a method! the brew room holds an ambient temp of 10-12c or 50-53f so introducing a little temp is the challenge without overdoing it! I'm running with insulating the vat and heating externally to avoid hotspots in the wort!
Brew goes in tomorrow so wish me luck gents!!

 

[J A]

... the brew room holds an ambient temp of 10-12c or 50-53f so introducing a little temp is the challenge without overdoing it! ...

If I ever had a place that naturally held that temp,I'd be thrilled!!
That's lager heaven.

 

[jeffpn]

He must have a deep basement!

 

[Rodbrew70]

Bombs away guys! Brew is down, I've gone with an amber ale, the heat belt is away in the cupboard, and the temp has settled at 18c or 64f and the yeast has activated already! Thanks again for the advice!!

 

[artbreu]

Bombs away guys! Brew is down, I've gone with an amber ale, the heat belt is away in the cupboard, and the temp has settled at 18c or 64f and the yeast has activated already! Thanks again for the advice!!

In case you're not aware, there will be a rise in temperature from fermentation. With passive cooling there isn't going to be much you can do about it, but in a perfect scenario you would be able to adjust your cooling to compensate for the effect. The temperature could rise anywhere from 4F to 8F in a typical strength batch.

 

[Rodbrew70]

Bombs away guys! Brew is down, I've gone with an amber ale, the heat belt is away in the cupboard, and the temp has settled at 18c or 64f and the yeast has activated already! Thanks again for the advice!!

In case you're not aware, there will be a rise in temperature from fermentation. With passive cooling there isn't going to be much you can do about it, but in a perfect scenario you would be able to adjust your cooling to compensate for the effect. The temperature could rise anywhere from 4F to 8F in a typical strength batch.

Thanks for the tip! I'm confident that the room temp is consistent enough to allow for a slight rise in wort temp, so far the brew is bubbling along consistently but not as fast as the last brew and the vat temp is holding nicely at 17c-18c, I haven't bothered insulating the vat at all for this brew and am anticipating 10+ days to finish!
Will letting the brew sit for a couple of days after fermentation has completed be beneficial to flavour??

 

[jmcnamara]

Couldn't hurt. The least it'll do is let it clear a bit before you siphon it off.

I usually leave it in primary for a week, same with secondary. More so because it's easier for me to do stuff on weekends.

 

[Rodbrew70]

Couldn't hurt. The least it'll do is let it clear a bit before you siphon it off.

I usually leave it in primary for a week, same with secondary. More so because it's easier for me to do stuff on weekends.

Hahaha yer my brewing calendar only has satdys and sundys on it too!

While I have some brewmasters looking at my post, freeze dried sachet vs live culture? I've read that the freeze dry process damages the yeast??

 

[jeffpn]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if the freeze dry process damages the yeast then no one would buy it. I use dry yeast almost exclusively. Is that freeze dried? I really don't know.