Fermentation Temp

You risk off flavors and phenols from stressing the yeast. The ferm temp can get 5-10 degrees higher than ambient. Google 'swamp cooler' for a cheap and effective way to help control temps.

Also a spot in the 60's isnt really enough. Ideally you have a reactive controller that gets colder as the fermentation gets warmer to keep a steady temperature.

 

Increased Esters and possibly Fusels are the main risks. This is also somewhat dependent on your yeast strain, pitch rate, and cofactors such as oxygen levels and nutrients.

 

As @VikeMan says, this is largely dependent on yeast strain. It is also dependent on the style of beer you are brewing.

In the most basic sense, lagers need to ferment in a cooler range and ales want to ferment slightly warmer. That said, there is huge variation between (for instance) types of ales. You'll want to ferment a crisp, clean pale ale in the 60s, but might try to have a Belgian-style beer with lots of yeast-driven esters ferment in the 70s. Some saison yeasts even like to go as high as the 80s.

@Mag00n is spot on that your fermentation temperature is going to be higher than ambient temp. If the room you are fermenting in is 72 degrees, your beer might be around 80 degrees. As I understand it, that is largely the result of motion of particles and friction created by your fermenting beer.

If you are interested in knowing the effects your fermentation will have on your beer, try to find the manufacturer's page and read what they have to say about it. Wyeast, for instance, will often describe the characteristics of each strain when fermenting on the higher or lower end of the spectrum.

 

I used to ferment in a closet which was a steady 68F. I did not experience off-flavors or other obvious problems from fermentation temperature being too high. However, there would be a TON of caveats to go with these observations.

• the location was very steady in temperature, but if it deviated much from 68F it would almost certainly go a couple degrees colder
• I made fairly simple beers without high ABV (never more than about 6.5%)
• the strains of yeast I used were few and simple (US-05, S-04, Bavarian wheat yeast) and were probably (due to mostly luck) ok in the temperature range I was actually fermenting in (which was obviously slightly higher than ambient room temperature during the peak of fermentation)
• Once I moved to a much warmer climate (i.e. the southwest) any dumb ideas about continuing to ferment in a closet went out the window, and I bought a freezer with Johnson controller to control fermentation temperatures

Of those caveats, I would take most note of the last one and realize its importance in brewing. There are a lot of parameters, worries and possibilities that simply go away and cease to be a concern if you have good temperature control during fermentation. For instance, at a steady 62F there are about a bzillion yeasts that will be happy as a pig in a muckpile. But few places anywhere with "south" in the name will ever allow you to keep a steady temp that low for very long, so you'll need fermentation temperature control.

A swamp cooler would probably be great for your current skituation tho. Consider it. But consider an upgrade to "professional" ASAP Too.

 

Anybody use a BrewJacket immersion temp controller? I am eyeing this pretty seriously as my next gear purchase. I don't really have the room at this point to do a big freezer, so I like that the BrewJacket doesn't increase my equipment footprint.

 

Craigslist or Yard Sale.

 

Sometimes the issue isn't the money, but rather the space...

 

I am fortunate. My basement is in the LOW 60s. Even right now. That's where the magic happens for me.

You might want to seek a location a bit cooler than where you are, if possible, but you will still make beer in the end.

 

This

 

I do get that, but a 5 Cu. ft chest freezer is just not much larger than your carboy or bucket (if your batches are 5 gals. or more).

 

If your beer tastes like Welch's Juicy Fruit gum ... it was fermented too warm.

Otherwise ...
Your best beer ever
It may not be but it's beer
Better brews ahead.

-- homebrew haiku

 

I have a chest freezer and temp controller and rarely use it for fermentation. I find a closet, Walmart tub, various sized soda bottles filled with ice, water, a T-shirt, and a small fan to be more than adequate. The temp controlled freezer is usually full of conditioning/lagering kegs anyway.

 

Just get one of these: http://www.partycity.com/product/blue+tub+with+rope+handles+17+gallons.do

...and one of these: http://monsterbrew.com/Prod_FermentingThermometer.cfm?gclid=COmi16TW7MYCFQyoaQodQ8YG4g

If your fermentation temp starts getting too low, throw a frozen plastic bottle of water (or two) in the swamp cooler and you're set! The big plastic bucket also doubles as a nice sanitation bath for your equipment. Just make sure you have a few more frozen plastic bottles on hand that you can put in once the ice begins to melt on the others.

 

When you regularly need a swamp cooler and the swamp cooler is barely smaller than a freezer, well craigslist may start to be more appealing.

I have one freezer I bought new but one is a second hand special that I didn't pay much for. And the new one was a sale $175 and it fits two fermentations at a time

 

That looks interesting. If you could really dial in effective temperature control, it would be a nice way to save some bucks compared to the BrewJacket. The BrewJacket is certainly appealing from the "set it and forget it" standpoint.