Temperature control for beer kits

norrie · Sep 16, 2024

Ok so I've been making home brew kits for a long time however I've been unhappy with some of the off flavours I've had recently and I think it's due to temperature control in the summer. Far too hot during the day for instance. Anyway one of our big upright freezers has packed in so I've decided to use that as a homebrew vessel. I've stripped most of the cooling pipes out as it wasn't working anyway. I've left two shelves in for the buckets to sit on, fitted a heater and have connected an Inkbird temperature controller to control the temperature. The question I've got is what is the ideal temperature for brewing these homebrew kits at. I've set it at 19.5°c with a 1°c lower temp so it will start to heat at 18.5 and shut off at 19.5. Does that sound about right? I always leave the kit for at least two if not three weeks to ensure fermentation is complete.
I then transfer to a Corny keg crash cool it in my beer fridge and connect it to my beer tap.
Any advice on what else I can do to improve these kits is always helpful.
Thanks.
Norrie.

RichardM · Sep 16, 2024

19.5 sounds about right, but how are you going to address it getting too warm in the summer?

Rodcx500z · Sep 16, 2024

As above, the whole idea of of temp control using an inkbird is a working fridge with an heater in, fridge plugs into inkbird heater plugs into inkbird so you have control of the temp summer or winter

Rodcx500z · Sep 16, 2024

Like this

MashBag · Sep 16, 2024

Thank chaps, I read that and first thought I was going to be the bearer of the bad news.

The obvious method needs the freezer to be a working fridge.... Or do you have a cunning plan for another external cooling device? There is more than 1 way to skin a cat.

Graz · Sep 17, 2024

As a kit only brewer I do believe proper temperature control has made my beer a lot more consistent over the years, I very rarely get one with any odd flavours now and invariably that is probably due to the kit rather than anything else. Tend to find the premium, all malt, type kits tend to make much better beer than anything that is malt + sugar.

I now have two brew fridges though annoyingly one of them seems to have stopped cooling, need to look into that though not so much of a problem this time of year as they are both in an unheated garage so shouldn't need cooling now.

I tend to ferment all my "ale" type kits at around 20 °C. I've never brewed proper lager but that needs cooler temperatures. Some yeasts, Saisons and Kvieks spring to mind, like it hotter.

GhostShip · Sep 17, 2024

There's no question that temperature control has made a huge difference to the quality of my beer over the past few years. I only do kits and was getting the dreaded twang and various off-flavours, so decided to bite the bullet and do something about it. Got a fridge off ebay locally for £12 and bought a tube heater and Inkbird controller from Amazon. Total spend was only a bit more than a premium kit and it's more than paid for itself. I normally set the temp at 20ºC, with 1ºC either way. I still avoid July/August but it's an absolute game-changer in terms of beer quality.

norrie · Sep 18, 2024

Ok thanks guys. To be honest I live in Scotland so I don't think heat will be a problem as it rarely goes above 20 degrees here. Also it's in a garage which is pretty.cool admit then in an old freezer which is pretty well insulated. I used to just leave my homebrew on the landing which has a radiator that is always on in the winter but it was the high temps in the summer with the sun coming in through the window which was causing the problem. I'm hoping to now get a more consistent temp control now. I will of course report back.
Norrie.

The Baron · Sep 18, 2024

As long as the garage does not go above your set temp it will be ok or you may just not be able to brew say Lagers in its hottest months but it should work for the majority of the year.
I use my garage as I do not have temp control and it works fine. I have just started brewing lagers at this time of the year as the temp is perfect @ 15c ish.
No beating full temp control but what you have suggested should be fine

allotment_fox · Sep 18, 2024

Has many above have said using a ferm fridge was the way forwards for my fermenting also learning not to splash the fermented beer around when bottling / kegging once it's in the fermenter keeping the lid closed as much as possible has helped oxygen and beer are a big NO NO.
In my early days (1970's) boots kits being very impatient it was lid on lid off test the brew chuck it back in the bucket then bottle with an open lid using a jug and funnel splashing it about. you live and learn !

Collo · Oct 16, 2024

GhostShip said:
There's no question that temperature control has made a huge difference to the quality of my beer over the past few years. I only do kits and was getting the dreaded twang and various off-flavours, so decided to bite the bullet and do something about it. Got a fridge off ebay locally for £12 and bought a tube heater and Inkbird controller from Amazon. Total spend was only a bit more than a premium kit and it's more than paid for itself. I normally set the temp at 20ºC, with 1ºC either way. I still avoid July/August but it's an absolute game-changer in terms of beer quality.

When you set this way, how quick does your fridge react when the inkbird turns it on to cool? I've bought a fridge recently and it was quite slow to start cooling?

Mash Monster · Oct 16, 2024

Collo said:
When you set this way, how quick does your fridge react when the inkbird turns it on to cool? I've bought a fridge recently and it was quite slow to start cooling?

There is a compressor delay setting on the inkbird. From memory I believe it’s 3 minutes but of course you can change it to whatever you want.

Collo · Oct 16, 2024

Mash Monster said:
There is a compressor delay setting on the inkbird. From memory I believe it’s 3 minutes but of course you can change it to whatever you want.

Yeah I've seen that :) but what i mean is how quickly from the fridge compressor kicking in does it start to cool?

Mash Monster · Oct 16, 2024

Collo said:
Yeah I've seen that :) but what i mean is how quickly from the fridge compressor kicking in does it start to cool?

I’m no expert but being the son of a refrigeration engineer I have a little knowledge. (Sadly he has passed away so I can’t ask him)
I would suggest that there are many factors including the setting of your fridge, its efficiency it’s volume and also the type of fermenter you are trying to cool, again size and construction would also affect the speed of cooling. Ambient temperature must also be considered.
Every system responds in a different way
I currently have three ferm fridges and they all behave differently.
Sorry I can’t be more helpful
It’s a matter of suck it and see really

Beer-Kosh · Oct 17, 2024

I use these and they work great

https://www.pecoservices.co.uk/immersion-heater---te75-3-p.asp

GhostShip · Oct 17, 2024

Collo said:
When you set this way, how quick does your fridge react when the inkbird turns it on to cool? I've bought a fridge recently and it was quite slow to start cooling?

It's not instant - that's just not how fridges work. That said, once I've got the temperature to 20ºC (I'll put it on a few hours before I brew the beer), it really doesn't change much either way - until I open the door. The answer is to just leave it alone, unless you need to add hops, etc., and then just do it as quickly as you can.

The Cat · Oct 17, 2024

GhostShip said:
There's no question that temperature control has made a huge difference to the quality of my beer over the past few years. I only do kits and was getting the dreaded twang and various off-flavours, so decided to bite the bullet and do something about it. Got a fridge off ebay locally for £12 and bought a tube heater and Inkbird controller from Amazon. Total spend was only a bit more than a premium kit and it's more than paid for itself. I normally set the temp at 20ºC, with 1ºC either way. I still avoid July/August but it's an absolute game-changer in terms of beer quality.

Am doing exactly the same for carbonation purposes and so far it seems to make a massive difference.

Was just a step I didn't pay enough attention to previously. Also use inkbird and fridge with a heatpad inside.

Agentgonzo · Oct 17, 2024

GhostShip said:
There's no question that temperature control has made a huge difference to the quality of my beer over the past few years. I only do kits and was getting the dreaded twang and various off-flavours, so decided to bite the bullet and do something about it. Got a fridge off ebay locally for £12 and bought a tube heater and Inkbird controller from Amazon. Total spend was only a bit more than a premium kit and it's more than paid for itself. I normally set the temp at 20ºC, with 1ºC either way. I still avoid July/August but it's an absolute game-changer in terms of beer quality.

The Cat said:
Am doing exactly the same for carbonation purposes and so far it seems to make a massive difference.

Was just a step I didn't pay enough attention to previously. Also use inkbird and fridge with a heatpad inside.

What temperature (swings) did you used to get before you got the temperature control kit? I ferment in the utility room, which stays roughly the same temperature most days (19-21 degrees). As such, the beer temperature doesn't swing that much (goes up to ~23-24 inside the fermenter during active fermentation). I've used temperature control and whilst there is a difference in the flavours I can't say that it's made a lot of difference in the quality - and have never had that 'twang' (all grain here, dried yeast).

Each brewing setup is different, just curious as to what temperatures those who have had a big difference used to have "before".

Edit: or if people brew lagers? I'm purely an ale brewer, which is adapted to ferment at room temperature

The Cat · Oct 17, 2024

Agentgonzo said:
What temperature (swings) did you used to get before you got the temperature control kit? I ferment in the utility room, which stays roughly the same temperature most days (19-21 degrees). As such, the beer temperature doesn't swing that much (goes up to ~23-24 inside the fermenter during active fermentation). I've used temperature control and whilst there is a difference in the flavours I can't say that it's made a lot of difference in the quality - and have never had that 'twang' (all grain here, dried yeast).

Each brewing setup is different, just curious as to what temperatures those who have had a big difference used to have "before".

Edit: or if people brew lagers? I'm purely an ale brewer, which is adapted to ferment at room temperature

Mine just used to go onto shelves in the garage so different times of the day and different times of year could cause a swing. Now it's controlled and seems much better.

Collo · Oct 18, 2024

GhostShip said:
It's not instant - that's just not how fridges work. That said, once I've got the temperature to 20ºC (I'll put it on a few hours before I brew the beer), it really doesn't change much either way - until I open the door. The answer is to just leave it alone, unless you need to add hops, etc., and then just do it as quickly as you can.

My Inkbird and tube heater came yesterday so I've been having a play - i'm happy with the performance, i thought maybe the cooling side would take ages as when i initially turned the fridge on it took a good few hours to start cooling - but that's not the case. What value have you put in for compressor protection, I've put 5mins in while i test.

Temperature control for beer kits

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