Primary Fermenting Temp, Room or Brew?

[Mungri]

Hi there
Not done any brewing since the exploding bottle days of the 1980s.
Bought a starter kit last week with a Woodfordes Nelsons Revenge beer kit.
My question is, does the primary fermenting temp (18-20) refer to room temp or
the temp inside the brew. Using the stick on thermometer that came with my kit at the moment. Has been between the recommended 18-20 for the vast majority of the 3 days it's been in.
Not much coming out of the bubbler. The top of the fermenter is domed though, so it must be releasing some gas. Should I put fermenter in a warmer place?
i.e 18-20 room temperature.

 

[Graz]

Sounds okay to me, plastic fermenting buckets rarely ever seal well enough round the lid so the CO2 from fermentation escapes through means other than the airlock. If the lid is domed then something is definitely going on.

20°C is the ideal temperature for an ale yeast and better to be slight cooler than too hot. Leave it alone in the 18-20°C room for at least 14 days then take a gravity reading with a hydrometer. If it's around 1.010 then it's probably done and ready for bottles / a keg.

If you get back into brewing then you may want to think about a brew fridge in the long term. Allows perfect control of the temperature and possibly the most useful thing I've made for brewing. Bit of info here though I'd now recommend using the Inkbird controller (they're a forum sponser) rather than the STC-1000 as it's plug and play: http://www.berrybrew.co.uk/fermentation-fridge-build-brew-fridge/

 

[Mungri]

Thanks for the quick response. 18-20 should be the room temp then? I think my room temp was more like 16. Just ordered a digital thermometer, so I can keep a track on the room temp.
If this one's drinkable, I might be able to persuade the missus that I really need a brew fridge.

 

[IainM]

The fermentation temperature refers to the temperature of the brew itself. I learnt this lesson the hard way.

 

[stigman]

While fermentation is vigorous at the beginning the temp of the brew can be a good few degrees higher than room temp, due to fermentation being exothermic, But as it slows towards the end and the yeast is cleaning up after itself it should be more like room temp. Hope this helps

 

[Mungri]

Thanks,
will leave as is for now then. Maybe test the sg after 6 days or so. Just to make sure it's doing something. Started at 1050, but didn't know about needing the correct temp for the hydrometer to be accurate.
Learned loads from viewing this forum. Should have read before I started really.

 

[Mungri]

Checked sg yesterday. Now at 1014 from 1050 starting point.
Must be fermenting ok. Will leave for another week and then keg.
Thinking of starting either a youngs IPA or a beer works presidents sierra when this one is out of the primary. Both sound great.
Thanks for all the help.