Please help me overthink - Temperature control during fermentation

[gyurmaember]

Commercial brewers need consistency. When you drink beer from a commercial brewery you expect it to be the same every time. One aspect of achieving this is controlling fermentation temperature.
Where as most home brewers expect variation between brews.

It's not bragging, but I (most of us)have the knowledge and the equipment to make better beer than 99% of the commercial breweries, and I(most of us) expect if I(we) brew the same recipe, it'll turn out the same.

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

Yeah, people thinks that some variation make a huge impact in beer. That's for industrial brew. Homebrew it's a different thing. I live in an apartment and don't have room for a extra fridge, according to my wife (and I kind agree with that). So it's always room temperature. Sometimes ice bath.

It can make an impact. I had a stalled fermentation in the recent cold spell because I couldn't get my FV above 14 in my kitchen. I had to re-pitch with new yeast and move to my brew fridge when that became available. (A logistics cock up meant it was occupied) Because the fermentation progressed slowly I was concerned about increased risk of contamination - fortunately that didn't happen.

Of course, I could brew seasonally or use a different yeast strain. There are several ways to crack the same nut.

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

Commercial brewers need consistency. When you drink beer from a commercial brewery you expect it to be the same every time. One aspect of achieving this is controlling fermentation temperature.
Where as most home brewers expect variation between brews.

As a small batch brewer, I expect consistency between batches of the same beer. After all, the process is the same and the recipe is the same. Of course there will be minor, practically imperceptible differences, but fundamentally the beer will be the same. Why would I want to brew something that I am not confident on how it turns out?. We develop recipes and brew under conditions with an end goal in mind.

 

[RichardM]

It's not bragging, but I (most of us)have the knowledge and the equipment to make better beer than 99% of the commercial breweries, and I(most of us) expect if I(we) brew the same recipe, it'll turn out the same.

I make beers that many people say are better than commercial breweries but I don't think I have ever brewed the same recipe twice

 

[gyurmaember]

I make beers that many people say are better than commercial breweries but I don't think I have ever brewed the same recipe twice

No-one denied that, but it's still not prove the point why homebrewers don't need temp control, and why commercial brewers does.
And how is it connected to the original post?

 

[hoppyscotty]

I make beers that many people say are better than commercial breweries but I don't think I have ever brewed the same recipe twice

There is a difference between brewing the same BEER twice and the same RECIPE twice. Clearly if you brew a different recipe you're going to get a different beer, but even if you do brew a different recipe twice then surely you're setting out to brew a specific beer and to do that it all depends on the controls you have over the brewing process. I could start out with the same ingredients and recipe than a Micheline Starred chef, but the dish I end up producing would be very different than what the Micheline Starred chef would produce. It's be edible and probably tasty for sure but not as tasty as the pro chef's dish and would probably look like its been put together by a blindfold toddler.

I have three or four 'core' beers that I've brewed many times and tend to brew in larger batch sizes because I have friends and work colleagues who like it and always want some when I brew it, so consistency and brewing the same beer from batch to batch is exactly what its all about.

I also brew smaller batches of other one off beers and having control over the process so I have some level of confidence I'm going to end up with the beer I set out to brew is the whole point of it for me.

Brewing beer is not witchcraft..its a scientific process and if you have sufficient control over the various parameters that impact the end result and can minimise or eliminate variability from batch to batch then you will brew the same beer batch to batch. Its a scientific inevitability.

 

[Agentgonzo]

if you have sufficient control over the various parameters that impact the end result and can minimise or eliminate variability from batch to batch then you will brew the same beer batch to batch. Its a scientific inevitability

Even with the best will in the world, it's impossible to totally control everything. Barley varies a bit each year with different growing conditions. Hops even more.

Big breweries need to tweak their recipes annually to take account of this and brew the same beer.

 

[Alan_Reginato]

I was saying relative to temp control. So, the OP may not worry too much about it. It's homebrew. Not industrial/commercial.

Most of us reuse yeast, mine sit for 2, 3 months before go again. We don't have a bio lab to count cells or check viability. So the pitch rate changes. We don't have a lab to verify the malt and the hops conditions. Unless you use RO water, water changes too. If you bottle and don't pasteurizer, beer will keep changes while mature. And so go on...

If it's the same recipe you may get a similar beer. Hardly it will be exactly the same.

Fermentation temperature it's another parameter. You can keep a rigid control over it, or not.

Room temperature usually isn't an issue. It's homebrew, just have fun!

 

[Birdsnestbrewery]

Most of us reuse yeast, mine sit for 2, 3 months before go again.

You mean yeast from one brew is used for the next? I'd be interested to know how true it is that "most of us" do this. I have never done this and it would be way down the list of changes and improvements to my process (if it would indeed be an improvement).

 

[RichardM]

You mean yeast from one brew is used for the next? I'd be interested to know how true it is that "most of us" do this. I have never done this and it would be way down the list of changes and improvements to my process (if it would indeed be an improvement).

I don't think it is true that "most of us do this".

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Never reused yeast.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Never reused yeast.

I have. But dried yeast is cheap and reliable so I haven't reused yeast in over 15 years.

 

[hoppyscotty]

I’ve tried it out of curiosity but at homebrew level with yeast being cheap I didn’t think the faff was worth it. Only ever use dried yeast now but make sure I use a decent pitch rate calculator.

 

[gyurmaember]

I always re-use yeast, exempt dry hopped beers.
Some lagers could have £20 worth of yeast in them, even more if I ferment in the F80, so to eliminate the cost I have to reuse a couple of times, with good hygiene regime it's completely doable.
I have yeast bubbling for 7 generations right now, shall I call it my own house yeast?

 

[Alan_Reginato]

You mean yeast from one brew is used for the next? I'd be interested to know how true it is that "most of us" do this. I have never done this and it would be way down the list of changes and improvements to my process (if it would indeed be an improvement).

I don't think it is true that "most of us do this".

ohhhh, wellll... So cut that off or replace "most" with "some" or "part"... Sounds better? That doesn't invalid my point of view.

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

There is an excellent podcast on Beersmith (#episode 269 with Colin Kaminski) that talks about how process control at the professional level can be applied to the homebrew setting to increase consistency between brews of the same recipe.

It talks about all the ingredients and key elements to watch for and walks stepwise through the brewing process to enable you to brew consistent batches of the same recipe. Going back to the question posed by the OP, there is an informative piece on why fermentation temperature control is important.

For a lot of what Colin talks about, you don't need a lot of shiny expensive equipment, just a thorough understanding of your ingredients and process. That understanding doesn't stop making homebrew fun.

If you have a spare hour or so - I would recommend giving it a listen.

 

[gyurmaember]

It's very interesting that the bollocking stopped once I've mentioned the model of the fermenter.
The consensus for me is DYOR.

Currently I'm cold crashing the brew in question, i have 3 degrees difference between the temp probe and the top of my beer. I think the inkbirds capabilities are good enough for the application.