Help with temperature

[Stray59]

Hey Lads,

Could someone please list the best tempreature to brew the different styles of beer
Eg: Stout, lager, Dark ale, etc

Also will opening the lid wilst fermenting affect anything

Much appreciated
Stray

[Marty]

Stray,

Lagers are generally best fermented between 8-12C. Ales are best at 18-22C.

I wouldn't advise opening the lid during fermentation as you risk introducing an infection to the beer. In theory the CO2 produced by the fermentation (which rises) should ward off any bugs but I believe it's better to be safe than sorry.

Marty

[Oliver]

My understanding is that 8C might be a little too cold for some lager yeasts. Maybe 12C is about right?

But 18-20/22C is right for ales.

If you just remove the lid for a few seconds and replace it I think that you'd be pretty unlucky to get an infection.

(The idea of CO2 is that it's heavier than air (?) and so forms a protective layer over the beer.)

Cheers,

Oliver

[Dogger Dan]

Oliver,

denser my friend denser.

a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead.

Popping the lid is no issue especially if it still having a ferment.,



Dogger

[The Brown Hornet]

Apologies to the OP for hijacking his thread,

I'm in WA and have never managed to even come close to the temperatures you gentlemen recommend for brewing. All my brews to date have simply stuck with the yeast supplied with the HB kits, so I assume most of them have been ale yeasts.

On your recommendations I should be looking at 18-22 for these.
Most of my brews sit at a steady 24 or 25 during fermentation (Maybe I should brew more in winter ).
I'm pretty happy with the beers I'm producing, but excepting an excellent stout haven't managed to make a lager styled beer I would call exceptional. How much impact does a few degrees in the fermentation temperature make to the finished product, and why do our friends at Coopers recommend we brew between 21 and 27?

Thanks in advance.

[normell]

Apologies to the OP for hijacking his thread,

I'm in WA and have never managed to even come close to the temperatures you gentlemen recommend for brewing. All my brews to date have simply stuck with the yeast supplied with the HB kits, so I assume most of them have been ale yeasts.

On your recommendations I should be looking at 18-22 for these.
Most of my brews sit at a steady 24 or 25 during fermentation (Maybe I should brew more in winter ).
I'm pretty happy with the beers I'm producing, but excepting an excellent stout haven't managed to make a lager styled beer I would call exceptional. How much impact does a few degrees in the fermentation temperature make to the finished product, and why do our friends at Coopers recommend we brew between 21 and 27?

Thanks in advance.

Hey Hornet
If you are happy with your beers, thats all that matters.
But if you want to improve on them, try to keep the temp. controlled a little bit.
Simple things like wet towels on the fermenter works a treat.
As you travel more on the HB track, little things like fermenting fridges will suddenly appear.

Normell

[grabman]

I'm with the Hornet, my brew temps are mostly around 22-25, I suppose it's a Perth thing. I've have tried a few in vats of water to help keep temp down and it worked a bit.

But I seem to have struck it lucky, our fridge in kitchen has been making gurgling noises for a while and I managed to convince the missus yesterday that we needed a new one. Needless to say the new fridge arrives on WEdnesday and the old one will join my other two in the garage. That will give me a keg fridge, a packaged drinks fridge and now a fermenting fridge. I just hope it wasn't stuffed for real

[Dogger Dan]

Well Done Grab

Dogger

[Guest]

Id have to agree with Normel, if your beer is fine and you like it it doesnt matter how you achieve the end result.
But if you want to try different ways of achieving that end, may I suggest a temperature controlled fridge.

It is the best bit of kit I have ever purchased. Ask Normel about his its a rippa, it has the abilty to act like a fridge and he has installed a 100w light bulb on another circut.

When the switch is on, the light works with the thermostat. When the switch is off it is cut off, funny that hey rob.

I get the idea, but some people in another place didnt, go figure.

Peter

[normell]

Nearly right Pete
I use a 40watt globe, but it can be changed to 60-75-100 what ever you may need.
Could even be fitted with a dimmer switch.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i ... entry52407

For some Pics. of it

Normell

[Guest]

A question for the folk able to brew at lower temperatures. are you using the standard yeast or buying special ones from the HBS. I ask this because the manufacturers seem to recommend the following; eg Cascade 19 - 26, Coopers 21 - 27 adn i got the impression the yeast wouldn't work below these temps.

BTW, I have trouble getting the temp down to even those temps when putting the wort in. Is it OK just to put the lid on with the airlock and wait until the temp goes down, even if it takes a few hours?

[normell]

I personally use Saf** yeasts
http://www.fermentis.com
a lot of other brewers use liquid yeasts

With the Cascade yeasts, the are proper lager yeasts, but in a smaller size than normal, 7g compared to 11.5g, so to use them properly for lagering at lower than 19*C, you need 2 or 3 sachets per brew.
A couple of hours without the yeast won't hurt your brew.

Normell

[Guest]

Oh like wise make a 600ml starter, 4 days before hand

[r.magnay]

Just reading grabmans post about the three fridges in the shed, I am still working on my brew room, it is almost to a stage were I will be sending a few more pics, and in fact hopefully doing my first brew in there in the next couple of weeks, I'm still waiting for my son to do the plumbing for me, me to do the electrical and a few finishing touches and it should be a go. But I digress, someone suggested in the early days that my power bill would be blown out of the water with the a/c for cooling, but I am thinking that it will be cheaper than running three fridge motors, admittedly I will still have to use my beer fridge, but I am hopng it won't do too much damage to my power bill. The beers will be better then anyway I hope, so who cares?

[Andrew]

After reading this I feel like kicking myself.

Was given some you-beaut Salf lager yeast, but didn't know much about temps or anything. I couldn't get the temp much below 21. Is this beer now undrinkable?

[Oliver]

Andrew,

Your beer will be fine.

It's just that the flavours that the yeast would have produced during fermentation are not the same as those that it would have produced if it had been kept cooler.

The crisp, clean, less fruity (as compared with ale yeast) taste produced by lager yeasts is achieved around the mid teens (C).

Cheers,

Oliver

[Andrew]

Cheers for that.

Damm new comers to this hey?

[Evo]

From reading Oliver's post above, I'm assuming Saflager doesn't produce much sulphur when brewed at higher temperatures. Is this right ? I know we brewed a "Rotaurua Special" when we did a lager at ale temps. God awful stuff that was.

[The Brown Hornet]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Does anyone have any comments as to why Coopers recommends fermenting between 21 and 27 degrees if 18 -22 degrees is the ideal temp range.

Hornet

[normell]

Thanks everyone for the input.

Does anyone have any comments as to why Coopers recommends fermenting between 21 and 27 degrees if 18 -22 degrees is the ideal temp range.

Hornet

Because it suits the "average" australian climate me thinks

Normell