Keeping it cool

Tony1951 · Jun 27, 2015

Heatwave coming (at least by UK standards). How to keep FV down below 22C?

Living up at 55 N, I don't have much need for aircon and my landing brewing cupboard more usually has to be kept warm for fermentation. Not this week and even more so next week.

I have two brews fermenting in there - my English IPA Geterbrewed prize (10l) which is now into its second week of fermentation, and my now second day fermenting mild (23l).

I have curtained off the small window to keep the sun out, provided good ventilation from outside and I am keeping the door shut so heat from the house doesn't get in. The temperature of the brew is currently 23C which is a touch high, but it is likely to get worse next week.

All I can think of now is to wrap the FVs in wet towels and hope air movement will evaporate enough water to cool them down.

Is the problem of heat less when the initial strong fermentation has passed by? I'm hoping so, because the higher temps are forecast for Wednesday (24c outside air) and by then the newest brew will be 5 days in.

Racinsnake · Jun 27, 2015

Hi Tony
This seems to be a general problem for all us none brew fridge owners.
I put my FV in the garage where it's cooler (stone floor) if I didn't have this option I think I would be looking at a swamp fan or cool water bath. Good luck.

Rob.

MyQul · Jun 27, 2015

Heat tolelerant yeast is the way I will be brewing my way through summer. So I don't have to bother trying to keep my FV cool

LarryF · Jun 27, 2015

MyQul said:
Heat tolelerant yeast is the way I brew my way through summer. So I don't have to bother trying to keep my FV cool

+1 MyQul, Tony I'm using Mauribrew and Mangrove jacks workhorse. They'say they're tolerant up to 32c. I'm re-pitching using the trub every second brew to stretch them out over the summer months.

Tony1951 · Jun 27, 2015

Thanks for the replies chaps. Had to look up 'Swamp Fans' and found some interesting videos. I have put a fan in my brewing cupboard and it is blowing on a soaked towel wrapping my big FV so I can see how much it cools the vessel. It is 22c now and I will check back in an hour and see what has happened.

Good tips on heat tolerant yeasts too. Will do some reading on that and maybe try them on future brews. Obviously, what is already in the process can't be helped that way, but I think the fan and wet towels will work. A small bowl of water with the towel dipping into it to wick up the H2o will probably give reliable cooling for a while between inspections.

This isn't a problem we get that much in Newcastle, but I'd hate it to taint my hard made beer. :)

Cheers all.

MyQul · Jun 27, 2015

We've a heatwave coming next week and I'm brewing on monday (pitching on Tuesday). Guess I'll be testing exactly how tolerant to heat my newly bought Workhorse yeast really is. Especially as the BBC weather page predicts 33C for London on Wednesday

Hops_and_Dreams · Jun 27, 2015

MyQul said:
Heat tolelerant yeast is the way I will be brewing my way through summer. So I don't have to bother trying to keep my FV cool

Am I right in saying you've used Mauribrew a few times? Do you find it a bit lazy? My current one has finished I think at 1015 from 1044. Thought it might go a bit nearer to 1010.

Hops_and_Dreams · Jun 27, 2015

Tony1951 said:
Thanks for the replies chaps. Had to look up 'Swamp Fans' and found some interesting videos. I have put a fan in my brewing cupboard and it is blowing on a soaked towel wrapping my big FV so I can see how much it cools the vessel. It is 22c now and I will check back in an hour and see what has happened.

Good tips on heat tolerant yeasts too. Will do some reading on that and maybe try them on future brews. Obviously, what is already in the process can't be helped that way, but I think the fan and wet towels will work. A small bowl of water with the towel dipping into it to wick up the H2o will probably give reliable cooling for a while between inspections.

This isn't a problem we get that much in Newcastle, but I'd hate it to taint my hard made beer. :)

Cheers all.

I've tried the fan/towel combo before and it does work. Mine was at 23c when I came home on a lunch break, did the towel and fan trick and was back down to 21c when I got home 4 hours later.

MyQul · Jun 27, 2015

Hops_and_Dreams said:
Am I right in saying you've used Mauribrew a few times? Do you find it a bit lazy? My current one has finished I think at 1015 from 1044. Thought it might go a bit nearer to 1010.

I've been using Mauribrew 514 since about April (although I haven't brewed for almost 2 months) I'm not sure whether I had a wild yeast infection or it was a combination of a dody thermometer (to give me low mash temps and therfore very fermentable wort) and high attenuation from the 514 but my brews have been over attenuating. My London Pride when from 1.040 to 1.003.

I took steps to eradicate what I thought was a wild yeast infection and my last beer went from 1.047 to 1.010. So my experience with it has been the opposite

LarryF · Jun 27, 2015

Hops_and_Dreams said:
Am I right in saying you've used Mauribrew a few times? Do you find it a bit lazy? My current one has finished I think at 1015 from 1044. Thought it might go a bit nearer to 1010.

Hops, my first time using Mauribrew I got an 80% attenuation rate, OG:1060 - FG:1012 doing a Coopers Canadian Blonde. I'm doing a Coopers Stout now that I started last week OG:1066 and today the SG:1016 so the attenuation rate is currently at 76% so I'll see how how the SG goes down over the next week. I don't mind the attenuation dropping as the weather heats up just once I don't end up with any funky beer.

Hops_and_Dreams · Jun 27, 2015

MyQul said:
I've been using Mauribrew 514 since about April (although I haven't brewed for almost 2 months) I'm not sure whether I had a wild yeast infection or it was a combination of a dody thermometer (to give me low mash temps and therfore very fermentable wort) and high attenuation from the 514 but my brews have been over attenuating. My London Pride when from 1.040 to 1.003.

I took steps to eradicate what I thought was a wild yeast infection and my last beer went from 1.047 to 1.010. So my experience with it has been the opposite

LarryF said:
Hops, my first time using Mauribrew I got an 80% attenuation rate, OG:1060 - FG:1012 doing a Coopers Canadian Blonde. I'm doing a Coopers Stout now that I started last week OG:1066 and today the SG:1016 so the attenuation rate is currently at 76% so I'll see how how the SG goes down over the next week. I don't mind the attenuation dropping as the weather heats up just once I don't end up with any funky beer.

Hmm, after my last batch got stuck and this one finishing a bit high, maybe the yeast is a bit old possibly. Mash temp wasn't that high for either (about 66c). Never mind, it's still beer.

Thanks chaps.

MyQul · Jun 27, 2015

LarryF said:
Hops, my first time using Mauribrew I got an 80% attenuation rate, OG:1060 - FG:1012 doing a Coopers Canadian Blonde. I'm doing a Coopers Stout now that I started last week OG:1066 and today the SG:1016 so the attenuation rate is currently at 76% so I'll see how how the SG goes down over the next week. I don't mind the attenuation dropping as the weather heats up just once I don't end up with any funky beer.

My last beer I put it in was my HBC price which was a dry stout. Including the attentuation for the priming solution it hit 85%AA. It's absolutley lovely. This yeast is a goodun for dry stouts so I think I will go very well with your coopers stout

Tony1951 · Jun 27, 2015

Hops_and_Dreams said:
I've tried the fan/towel combo before and it does work. Mine was at 23c when I came home on a lunch break, did the towel and fan trick and was back down to 21c when I got home 4 hours later.

Yes it worked a treat. The temperature of the wort came down 2C in a couple of hours which takes some doing considering the thermal inertia of 5 gallons of liquid. I think it will probably fall even further, so I reckon I will be fine next week. The predicted temperature for Ncle is 24C on Wednesday, so I have no concern now that my 'swamp fan ' lash up will hold the temp down in the range of 20C.

I'm still not sure if I only need be concerned if there are high temperatures when the yeast is very active, and not so worried when it is just ticking over.

MyQul · Jun 27, 2015

The precursor for most off flavours is 24-48hrs after pitching. As for the rest of the the fermentation time I'm not sure. It's just best to try and keep it at a stable temp as best as you can

LarryF · Jun 27, 2015

Hops_and_Dreams said:
Hmm, after my last batch got stuck and this one finishing a bit high, maybe the yeast is a bit old possibly. Mash temp wasn't that high for either (about 66c). Never mind, it's still beer.

Thanks chaps.

Good call Hops, I'm thinking that I'll re-pitch once with both the Mauribrew and with the Mangrove Jacks Workhorse and then break out a fresh pack. I ordered four Mauribrews and two Mangrove Jacks, they should see me through the summer. As soon as the temps drop then it's straight on to Safale US05, I've never used it but as I'm hearing such good things about it I've got to have a crack at it. Anyone got any advice on the best place to stock up, i.e. what's the best sale to hit?

Wardy · Jun 28, 2015

Just thought I would mention what is known as the wet bulb temperature. This is the temperature that would be obtained from evaporative cooling and is proportional to the relative humidity. Humidity will be high this week too so evaporative cooling will not work as well. If you can put a dehumidifier in the room this would lower the wet bulb temperature. As an example, temperature here just now is 17 C, humidity is 74% and wet bulb is 14.5 C. At 74% humidity it would lower the temperature of a FV by 2.5 C.

MyQul · Jun 28, 2015

LarryF said:
Anyone got any advice on the best place to stock up, i.e. what's the best sale to hit?

You can by bricks of 500g which works out cheaper than by individual packets but why not just repitch trub from one brew to another or culture up one packet. Pretty simple to do. Just rehydrate one packet then pitch it into 1gallon of DME starter medium then split the resulting yeast crop a la:

http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id45.html

lukehgriffiths · Jun 30, 2015

I've got most things I need for a brew fridge except power to the garage... until then it'll be a rough tub of water with an aquarium heater stored on stone floored, concrete roofed lean to that lies in shade most of the day.

The bucket of water thing is great since it takes a hell of a lot of energy to heat it and means temp stays stable.

Tony1951 · Jun 30, 2015

lukehgriffiths said:
I've got most things I need for a brew fridge except power to the garage... until then it'll be a rough tub of water with an aquarium heater stored on stone floored, concrete roofed lean to that lies in shade most of the day.

The bucket of water thing is great since it takes a hell of a lot of energy to heat it and means temp stays stable.

That's not a bad idea. I use it with an aquarium heater in winter to keep a steady 20C in my cupboard, so why not in summer? I have managed to keep the brew at 21c so far today, but it is damned hot for these parts - 26C in the shade. Not the usual Geordie weather at all.

I looked about on Freecycle for old fridges today. I have garage power, even though I'd need to go to the dump with a few car-loads of junk to make enough space. Come to think of it, I pass by about three fridges a day waiting for the council to take them away while walking my five miles with the dog. Maybe I should give the folk a knock and find out if they work and are just being up-graded, or whether they are junk that doesn't work.

jamie72 · Jun 30, 2015

MyQul said:
Heat tolelerant yeast is the way I will be brewing my way through summer. So I don't have to bother trying to keep my FV cool

Dammit I didn't know about these yeasts.
Last week I brewed 2 batches of all grain. The first on Tuesday using us-05 the second on Thursday with s-04.
Both have been reading 22/24 on the strip thermometer and I barrelled the Thursday brew tonight as it was down to 1010 and clear. (This one not dry hopped)
Hoping for no off flavours from the heatwave!

Keeping it cool

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

Bungling Amateur

Regular.

Chairman of the Bored

Brew Numpty

Bungling Amateur

Chairman of the Bored

Landlord.

Landlord.

Chairman of the Bored

Brew Numpty

Landlord.

Chairman of the Bored

Bungling Amateur

Chairman of the Bored

Brew Numpty

Junior Member

Chairman of the Bored

Senior Member

Bungling Amateur

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!