BeerBorg

Well, I'm just going to ride it out. There might be some fusels, but I'm not too worried. The yeast was WLP001, by the way, which is a good, hearty strain, and one I use in a couple of my favorite recipes.

Usually the basement is a great place for fermenting, as it stays in the low-mid 60s most of the time. It's just that the weather has been really hot this whole summer, so the temp raised bit by bit until it got where it is now. It should sink once the cooler weather arrives.

alb wrote:And a couch was a davenport, and stair rails were bannisters. Thanks, now I feel old.

You would be if these are the words you use normally... Was the davenport also covered in plastic so you stuck to it?

Doesn’t it make you wonder how the old guys managed, before refrigeration and reliable thermometers? I know they probably used their root cellars or springhouses to keep things cool, but how to maintain and adjust as necessary? Seems like a beer recipe would never turn out the same twice. Kind of like mine. Maybe you need to “treat us” to a “treatise" on this, Dave. See what I did there?

Ahh, but you look young!
BB, the basement is great in winter, holding steady in the low 60s, or a bit less. One giant fermentation chamber.
And I suspect that they are under houses in the NE because farmers kept vegetables in them 200 years ago. No tornadoes around here.

RickBeer wrote:Was the davenport also covered in plastic so you stuck to it?

No, but we weren’t allowed to sit on it. It was in the living room. As opposed to the “sitting room,” which had a sofa anyone could use. Grandma’s house.

(Sorry ‘bout the hijack, Dave.)

Basements also keep the living areas dry. Some of the neighborhoods around here have really high water tables, and those houses are on slabs. Others have crawl spaces or partial basements. My house has a full basement, but it's unfinished. Good for the washer/dryer, as Alb noted, good for storage, good for setting up a work space if you're a handyman, and good for a fermentation area. I've taken over about 1/4 of the basement with my brewing stuff. We sometimes get a slight trickle of water if there's been a lot of rain or there's a great deal of snow melt in the spring, but it's nothing bad.

And for the most part, temperatures are ideal for fermenting ales.

Same here Dave,

110 year old house, full, unfinished basement... Haven't had water in years... (I did paint the flint block walls with Dryloc a bunch of years ago...)

I have fermented in it a few times but don't like to... Much easier in the kitchen...

It works for conditioning and storage though... And lagering in winter!

The only basement I recall was in my Grandparent's house in Washington state. I would LOVE to have one myself. Can you say MAN CAVE?!?!

As you already know, 77 is a wee bit high for WLP001 but I think with some extra conditioning time it should be fine. I would just plan on it not being ready as soon as previous batches might have been.

I live in a house built in 1934. Basement is 1/2 finished living space, and 1/2 utility/work area. The part that is 1/2 finished living space was built that way in '34, it has a full real working fireplace that feeds into the main chimney, although I don't use it now since the previous owner carpeted the area in a way that would make it unsafe to use. One day I might undo some of the carpet so I can light me a fire.

It's where I'm at now typing this. I ferment my beer down here on a book shelf. I store it in the other section of the basement in a dark cool corner.

It's totally dry, but I'm on "high ground" as such. Some basements in other areas around here do flood if their sump pumps go out. I don't even have a sump pump.

FedoraDave wrote:I brewed a batch of FedoraDave's American Ale on Sunday. I figured it would be cool enough for the basement to be in the mid-high 60s, but we had a bit of a heat wave early in the week, and the temp strip showed a wort temperature of around 77 or so.

Dave, For getting back on OT, I had been watching the weather channel for what's that's worth and hurried up and racked my pumpkin ale and brewed my last Saison the same day you brewed yours (8/31). It is working out good and staying right on target at around 77 - 80 deg in my basement with this heat that we had come across the state. I gambled and hit it.
Now about Basements, I grew up in a house with a wet, dark, dank cellar. The furnace was down there as was the water pump and all the plumbing and my Mom did store some can goods down there and also a freezer. But it wasn't a place you could enjoy being there for long. When I had my new house put in about 8 years ago I wanted a nice dry Basement and I now have one. I love my Basement, It's not a 100 percent finished yet but this is where my bar, fish aquarium, brew room, chain saw repair shop and lot's of storage space is, and I spend a lot of time here (also where I do most of my posting on the borg).
A nice dry basement is worth having, twice the space as above ground and the temps. might fluctuate some but not even as close to above ground.