Beer Brewing Temperatures

[aneray]

What is the correct temperature to keep your brew at while
fermenting ?. During the day at home it is quite cool but from late afternoon I have the fire burning in the lounge and the whole house is like a bloody sauna.

To combat the temperature fluctuations I wrap an electric blanket around the fermenting vessel and have it set at number one. This gives the brew a constant temperature of 24 degrees C. Now after reading the previous posts my temps seem to be too high.

My last few brews have been Coopers. I have just taken the destructions out of my latest kit (Coopers Dark Ale) and they recommend 21 - 27 degrees C for optimum results. I thought 24 degrees C would have been perfect according to their guidelines. Is the answer different temperatures for different beers ?.

Cheers Neil

 

[Bru4u]

I pitch at 20, let it drop to 18 and hold it for about 4 days then raise the temp by 3 deg over 3 days and job done, when you but the kit get a fresh quality yeast aswell, you will notice a big improvement, a different yeast can change a beer beyond belief

 

[corby_brewer]

Try to keep your brew between 10 - 20oc

 

[aneray]

Thanks for the advice guys. Already it seems that we have all different preferences regarding temperatures. I did take note about using a different yeast. On a couple of occasions my Coopers brews have been very sluggish. What yeast would you all suggest for Coopers Real Ales and Stouts.

Cheers Neil

 

[Bru4u]

I use S-04 a lot, I like the profile and has good floculation, try here Barley Bottom Yeast

 

[corby_brewer]

+1 with Bru on the yeast, S04 is my yeast of choice :thumb:

 

[unclepumble]

Temp Depends on yeast variety & what you want out of the beer.

For lager yeast I try to pitch at 12 deg then let it free rise to 15 and leave it at that till its done.

For Ale I pitch at between 15-20 deg depending on my mood, and let it ferment out at 18deg, for ale I use either nottingham or a liquid yeast i am not sure what the strain is apart from its top fermenting ale yeast.

Shane

 

[aneray]

Being quite a newbie to the game I really didn't realise how much the whole art of brewing has advanced since the first pint of dishwater I made in the mid eighties. Instead of asking all the time I think I really need to explore this great forum a little deeper by reading previous posts.

At the end of the day all I want to do is brew a pint to the best of my ability, and from there make it even better.

Thanks for all the help guys.

Cheers Neil

 

[Aleman]

Depending on the yeast 24C is not to high to ferment at. The ideal is to keep the temperature constant and not have it shooting up and down over the course of 24 hours or the yeast get well and truly fed up that you are not looking after then properly and start to sulk . . . then you end up with a stuck ferment.

While many brewers try and ferment between 18-20C for ales (that being the lower end of the recommended temperature range for most ale yeasts ) it is possible to ferment higher . . .I know of one award wining microbrewery that ferments at 26C with Nottingham . . . and several that ferment at 24C with SO4. So while the wisdom says ferment cool . . if you know your yeast you can break the rules very successfully . . . in this case the trick is to pitch a lot of yeast, this means that the length of time the yeast are reproducing is cut down . . . and funky esters and fusel alcohol precursors are formed during this reproduction phase. A short reproduction phase means fewer esters etc.

 

[Wez]

I've been converted from over using s-04, I have had much better results with Nottingham and US-05 particularly in pales. S-04 flocc's well though.

S-04's temp range is 15 to 24c iirc.

 

[Dunfie]

I've been converted from over using s-04, I have had much better results with Nottingham and US-05 particularly in pales. S-04 flocc's well though.

S-04's temp range is 15 to 24c iirc.

Spot on Wez. S-04 Spec Sheet Linky :clap: