2 batches of beer ruined out of the last 4

I am very upset with my 50% success rate.

Fermentation temp is the culprit. During primary, the room ambient temp approached the high end of the yeasts fermentation range...I am guessing the beer itself went too high (i've since adjusted the placement of the crystal therm sticker)

I have a basement that sits at 58. My house is ranging from 65 to 85 right now.

My chest freezer that I bought for use as a fermentation chamber is set on my digital johnson controller to 65.

What I am seeing is that at night the 65 drops as low as 57.

I am looking for a cheap way to get a steady 65 out of my chest freezer.

Any ideas? Would I be better off waiting 2 months until the summer nights stay of the 30's? I live in Southern Maine.

Thanks....I can't believe how upset this makes me....I can't even relax and have a home brew.

I'm confused. If your fermentation chamber stays between 65F and 57F how are you fermenting too warm? that seems pretty ideal for fermentation. I always keep the ambient temp in my fermenting fridge at 60F and the beer temp peaks at 66F.

And how is it ranging from from 57 to 65 if you have a Johnson Control on it and your basement is a steady 58 degrees?

What are your settings and where is the probe?

Sorry I was very confusing.

The chest freezer is in my barn. At night the temp goes down into the 30's and by morning the chest freezer is sitting at 57...I have seen this climb to 61 over the course of the day. I have the johnson control set to not allow the temp to go above 65. The probe is set about halfway down about the middle of the carboy height...dangling. I have a small fan circulating the air.

My concern is that if my freezer dips to say 54 during primary i may shutdown my fermentation early. Sounds like these lower end temps are still going to be my best bet.

Does the johnson controller allow you to run a heater as well? If so, get a light bulb, mount it in a metal coffee can and use it as a heater.

I'd say brew with the seasons. Make some lagers in the cold months, setting your probe somwhere near 50, and brew ales in the summer months when the freezer that is in your garage will hold 65F

Sadly I didn't know any better and bought a single, not a dual controller.

Seems like you need a heat circuit.
I have a few STC 1000 units and they are great. Allow you to have both heating as well as control of the fridge/freezer cooling side. Pick them up on eBay for around $25 delivered.

If the ambient temp in the chest freezer dips to the 50's at night but warms back up into the 60's that should not be enough to swing the beer temp more than about 2 degrees. It takes a long time for 5+ gallons of liquid to change temp when the ambient temp only fluctuates by 10 degrees or so. I have my johnson controller set with a 5 degree differential. The beer temp never changes.

I second the STC route. I've now made two controllers that can run both heat and cool. They work great, they are cheap, and you get good control over temps.

Your set up will work fine, but the chest freezer needs to be in a warmer place. Can you move it in your house?

Still not clear why you think the temp is getting too high. If the ferm chamber temp drops into the 50s at night, that won't hurt the beer like high temps would. I've fermented ales in my 54F basement and it works fine.

Sounds like you could simply put the ferm chamber in the basement. Or simply put the fermenter, without chamber, in the 58F basement.

I just don't see the problem here.

If you have a Johnson Controller set at 65 degrees how can you be experiencing high fermentation temps? If the temp is dropping to 57 that would only slow down the fermentation. I agree that the wort is not swinging in temperature that much. Take a dish towel and tape it over the probe holding it tight to the fermenter and insulating against ambient readings.

If you cannot move the freezer to a warmer place, wait for it to get it's warmest during the day then bury it in blankets or some other sort of insulation.

Unless there is something else going on I think the problem lies elsewhere.

kh54s10 said:

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Unless there is something else going on I think the problem lies elsewhere.

Click to expand...

+1. That was my thought too.

Thanks Iowa, i was thinking along the same lines.


Thanks everyone!

Thanks a ton for all the solutions, i will explore them all. Another option i was thinking about was switching to some less sensitive yeast. The wyeast 1098, seems sensitive. Maybe, ill go back to some Nottingham during this time of year. The overheating part was coming from me thinking it was to cold in my chamber and bringing it indoors where room temp was 68-69. My crystal temp tape was placed to high on my carboy above the beer line....which was giving me room temp, and not beer temp. So while i though my beer was fermenting at 68, it was really probably at 74 or around 74. Going to Nottingham in my 57-62 chest freezer, will work out well.

STC 1000 has just been purchased and the significant other just rolled her eyes. . I love it!

Your temps are not in the right range for 1098 . It's happy at 64-72 . So even your high temp of 62 was still too low.

I also attach my probe to the side of my carboy with an insulated pouch . Packing bubble wrap works good .

What's your home set to keep it in a closet or somthing

Sorry Maple, my 1098 was pitched at 68. From there, I realized my crystal therm sticker was placed too high on the carboy. Ambient room temp was 65, but it climbed to 69 as the day went along. I then rushed it to my freezer...which had an ambient temp of 65. My best guess is that the true temp of the beer during the initial big rush of fermentation was about 74..or higher...as the ambient room temp was at 69.
I believe my yeast created fusel alcohol.

The reason I believe this to be the case is that 2 of my last 4 batches have tasted like paint thinner.

Middle of the living room benzy. I cover the carboys with my sig others wind breakers. She doesn't like this at all.