Fermentation Temperature Control
Introduction
You will all see people who are good brewers talk about brewing about brewing their beer at this or that temperature.
Well this is very critical. In fact in my opinion of all the factors that can improve your beer, brewing temperature is most overlooked and yet the most critical thing you must address. The majority of problem flavours craftbrewers face is the fact they brew at too hot a temperature and thats what helps give that 'homebrew' taste.
Now what you need is a fermentation cabinet that will range from 1c to 20c. This is not impossible. Now you dont need one for fermentation, one for storage, one for lagering. All this can be done with one fridge. If you use the space properly, you can cram a lot into a fridge.
How I do it
Take mine for example - you can click on the pictures atthe left to download
a larger image. You will see the tall keg is one of my fermenters, I have
3 kegs in storage. now thats a total of 74 litres of beer. You will also
see grolsch starter bottles for my next beer, and a petre-dish on the
floor with young yeast colonies growing. When the beer finishes fermenting,
it will be kegged and put into the fridge.
So how do I control the temperature. you can get expensive fancy thermostats to do that, (costing over $100.00) or for $10.00 do what I do. You will see a cheep timer hanging on the door. By setting the on off cycle you can adjust the temperature with surprising accuracy. Less you turn the fridge on and off, and the less you run it, the warmer it gets. You will be surprised how easy it is to get the settings right, only a couple of days at the most.
So there you have it. Good use of your fridge and an easy way of controlling the temperature.
Shout!
Graham Sanders