I am new to brewing. I just bottled my first batch ever and I tasted it before bottling and it was sour. I was told by experienced home brewers that sourness most likely came from worm temperatures during fermentation. I did not know that the temperature of the wort will be higher than the room temperature. I set my AC unit to 76 (highest recommended temperature) and I thought I am good but it turned out my beer is sour. Question... How can I check temperature of the wort during the fermentation. I thought I should buy a thermometer for liquid and keep it inside my brown-clear fermenter during fermentation. I thought I could check the thermometer any time with my flash light? Is this a good idea? If not, how would you check the temperature of the wort? I am looking for a cheap solution. Another question... Let's say that the recommended temperature is between 68-76. If I find out that my wort is too worm, how do I cool it down? Can I put my fermenter in a fridge for few minutes? Thank you all.
76 is very high for yeast strains. Hopefully you brewed a saison. In my (4?) years of brewing, I've brewed a few too hot. They tend to take longer to set up and become drinkable. Be patient. The beer will get tasty in a few months. I usually get a raw alcohol taste when this happens. It's like someone drops a shot of vodka in the sample. Any kind of thermometer should work. You can tape it to the side of the fermenter for an accurate read, or you can go with something fancy like a thermowell if you're using carboys. I use bucket fermenters, so I just take the lid off, sanitize a thermometer that pulls double-duty in the kitchen and dunk it in the wort for 10 secs. Something like this: https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/digital-single-probe-roast-alert-cooking-thermometer/1045510991?skuId=45510991&mcid=PS_googlepla_nonbrand_kitchenaccessories_&product_id={product_id}&adpos=1o3&creative=43742642509&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CjwKEAjwj92_BRDQ-NuC98SZkWYSJACWmjhl9OtRETs5CdS8-uFde22ReKRGgRnm1kZnT5oONhR12BoCAAzw_wcB Try to run on the cool side of fermentation until you get your bearings. You can do this with frozen 2 liters, a water bath, and a wet t-shirt around your fermenter. Frozen 2 liters do a good job for about 10-12 hours, depending on your ambient temp. I shoot for mid 60s in most of my brewing. If you want to upgrade, you'll go with a dedicated fridge/freezer and an external thermostat to manage your temperature.
https://www.amazon.com/Fermometer-8...TF8&qid=1475926465&sr=8-1&keywords=Fermometer I've used the water bath which worked well even in Chicago in August
Google 'swamp cooler' or search for those words on YouTube and you'll see what the "water bath" mentioned above is all about. Unless you have a dedicated refrigerator with an external thermostat to keep the fridge at 65-70 degrees, trying to use your regular fridge is not worth the effort of repeatedly putting your fermentor in and taking it out, even for 1-gallon batches.
