Fermentation temperature

[clay5769]

Hi
Most of the recipes I've been doing beer and cider have said fermentation is best between °68 and °78 degrees but best at °70 to °72 degrees that's per their instructions


My kitchen pantry is a steady °69.6 degrees , under the inclosed instructions it's near perfect but I've had problems when I follow their instructions
They said 7 day fermentation of ciders. I ended up wearing most of the cider because it didn't finish fermentation.

So as a rule of thumb whats a good overall ideal temperature for fermentation of beer and ciders I'm sure each has their own temperature but I'm looking for a safe middle of the road temperature

Thanks

[John Sand]

I let everything ferment three weeks. When I was using MrBeer and BrewDemon fermenters, I generally waited until the beer dropped clear, ie the yeast flocced out. But I found three weeks a good standard. I haven't made cider since childhood, when we just let fresh local cider ferment on the counter.

[MadBrewer]

If you don't already have them, get yourself some of the stick on thermometer strips for your fermenters. Most ale yeasts, and I would think similar for cider strains will be very happy in the mid 60's range. Typically, most ale strains will start to produce a more noticeable and perhaps some unwanted esters and flavor characters after 70*. Instructions indicate these higher temps on the basis of they want to make it as simple as possible for the brewer to produce a finished product, with warmer temps, they are also trying to guarantee less fermentation trouble such as stalled fermentation or sluggish activity. The whole making beer in 7 days thing is ridiculous for these kit recipe companies, but again they do it to make it sound as simple and fast as possible...but with bottling it's nearly impossible to be able to pull that off.

If you have your fermenter in a panty at near 70*, fermentation without any outside control is going to take that temperature well into the mid-upper 70's...and despite what the instructions say, that is not ideal for most middle of the road ale yeasts...aside from specialty strains now available and perhaps Belgian yeasts. Some old school tricks when I started out was to put my fermenter in a water bath of cooler water or help keep the temps in better range. You can stick your fermenter in a big cooler and add ice bottles or ice packs. Do you have a cooler spot of the house, maybe a crawl space, basement, corner of the house that's a bit cooler, a sunroom, patio room, enclosed back porch...etc? Well, I guess where you live those areas could possibly be even warmer. I typically shoot to ferment my ales around 66* and I need an ambient temp several degrees lower to do that during initial and peak fermentation, after that I let the temps rise and it's no worries after the first 5,7,10 days whatever. You want to go as long as fermentation needs, once it's done and the beer has cleared some...it could be 2 weeks, could be 3 before you are ready to bottle. Temperature control and better yeast choices are the 2 best things you can do for your beer, even with the most basic of equipment, ingredients, recipes...etc.

[HerbMeowing]

48 QT fermentation chamber for the LBK ...

lbk.JPG (168.47 KiB) Viewed 10988 times

Note how the fermentor rests in a lasagna dish to make clean-up easier should fermentation get carried away.

Leave the keg's lid a little loose in case the notches clog during hi-K.
More better: adding 8 drops of Baby Gas-X ~48 hours after pitching the yeast prevents foam-overs.

A 22-oz bottle of frozen water swapped out twice a day maintains a fermentation temperature between 64°F and 66°F ...

[MadBrewer]

^^^That pic brings back some memories, the good ol' LBK

[John Sand]

"If you have your fermenter in a panty at near 70*"

If he has his fermenter in a panty, no wonder it's too warm. But I like his style!

[MadBrewer]

"If you have your fermenter in a panty at near 70*"

If he has his fermenter in a panty, no wonder it's too warm. But I like his style!

Need a spit beer out emoji lol

[John Sand]

[clay5769]

Thanks everyone

[clay5769]

"If you have your fermenter in a panty at near 70*"

If he has his fermenter in a panty, no wonder it's too warm. But I like his style!

Will a G-string be OK next time I'm still new at this

[John Sand]

[cheech226]

If you don't already have them, get yourself some of the stick on thermometer strips for your fermenters. Most ale yeasts, and I would think similar for cider strains will be very happy in the mid 60's range.

i've had good luck using an ir thermometer. point and shoot. the strips are hard to read when my lbk is in an ice chest. i've checked the accuracy of mine using an instant read into cool water in my lbk and checking the temp of the outside of the lbk with my ir. that's what a stick-on aquarium type does anyway. i'm within .5 degrees.