my first 5 gal brew

[spiderwrangler]

Yeah, heat sink works well, large trashcan or the like, monitor temp and add ice or switch out for cold water as needed. Wet towel/t-shirt also works. As far as the activity and cloudiness goes, try to stop thinking in terms of X number of days and more in terms of when its finished out.

[KFBass]

IF you are going to go the heat sink method, keep a couple frozen bottles of water on hand and just swap em out every day or as needed. saves on making ice everyday.

I have a pretty cold basement (17c +/-1) and tend not to use temp controlled anything and havnt noticed any problems so you are probably fine with just leaving it.

[jimlin]

Going to check the temp today (still no adhesive thermometer on the bucket, going to clean/sanitize the thermometer I used in the boil and dip it through the hole the airlock goes through).

If it's dropped back to the mid 60s now that the fermentation has dramatically slowed (days 6) should I worry about trying to get the temp up closer to 70? I've got the bucket in a larger plastic tub already (whish now I had used that as a heat sink during the first couple of days), so I could drape a t-shirt soaked in hot water over it, or put some hot water bottles in the outer tub up against the bottom of the fermenting bucket. Is it worth it, or should I just let it go if in the mid 60s?

[scotchpine]

Going to check the temp today (still no adhesive thermometer on the bucket, going to clean/sanitize the thermometer I used in the boil and dip it through the hole the airlock goes through).

If it's dropped back to the mid 60s now that the fermentation has dramatically slowed (days 6) should I worry about trying to get the temp up closer to 70? I've got the bucket in a larger plastic tub already (whish now I had used that as a heat sink during the first couple of days), so I could drape a t-shirt soaked in hot water over it, or put some hot water bottles in the outer tub up against the bottom of the fermenting bucket. Is it worth it, or should I just let it go if in the mid 60s?

It helps if you can. A brew belt type of heater (cheap)would work for this if you had a controller for it. I don't have one, but I use a sealed electric radiant heater (register type, on wheels)to keep my ferm closet within a 2 degree range. The heat cycle is gentle and therm control on it is pretty tight and works well for this.

[scotchpine]

That is typically more like what you want to do... keep it on the lower end of the range for the first few days, then allow a bit of a rise and yeast will clean up diacetyl and other early ferment by products. Too hot at the start can lead to products that they won't clean up later.

That explains (possibly) the cloudiness of the batch I have in my MrBeer fermenter. Supposedly a Hop Head Red recipe suing MrB extracts. I replaced the MrB "booster" wit DME and added some honey. Also used some Amarillo hops. I had a ton of krausen in the first week, and it took 3 weeks before the krausen started to settle. Took a sample to test with the hydrometer, and it was cloudy as hell at 14 days, and still pretty cloudy at 21. Left it in to see if it could clear a bit more this week. When I started it, I had it in a cooler intending to need hot water bottles in there to keep it warm enough given the winter temps, but it got pretty warm fast and I had to pull it out of the cooler and just leave it in the closet where the temp settled at 65-66.

Well, every day I learn a little more for the next batch!

Just wanted to share this about your cloudiness. I don't have a spare fridge like many of our brothers, but I tried this for the first time a couple weeks ago. After my ferm was totally finished, we had a few nights at about 30 dgrees outside. This batch was cloudy from a pineapple addition, so I set the carboy out on the covered porch for 3 days, in the shade with ski vest snapped around it. Those 30 degree nights dropped out all the cloudiness! Even when it warmed up during the day, as the beer was not moved, it stayed very clear. I think the honey may cause some initial cloudiness, and may take longer to attenuate too. Hope you find some of this helpful.

[jimlin]

Just wanted to share this about your cloudiness. I don't have a spare fridge like many of our brothers, but I tried this for the first time a couple weeks ago. After my ferm was totally finished, we had a few nights at about 30 dgrees outside. This batch was cloudy from a pineapple addition, so I set the carboy out on the covered porch for 3 days, in the shade with ski vest snapped around it. Those 30 degree nights dropped out all the cloudiness! Even when it warmed up during the day, as the beer was not moved, it stayed very clear. I think the honey may cause some initial cloudiness, and may take longer to attenuate too. Hope you find some of this helpful.

scotchpine, thanks. You are describing what I've heard called "cold crashing". People do say this is one method to help clear beer prior to bottling. I suppose I could have done that, but I ended up choosing to let it ferment a little longer and will give it plenty of time in the bottles to condition.

[jimlin]

It helps if you can. A brew belt type of heater (cheap)would work for this if you had a controller for it. I don't have one, but I use a sealed electric radiant heater (register type, on wheels)to keep my ferm closet within a 2 degree range. The heat cycle is gentle and therm control on it is pretty tight and works well for this.

Yeah, I don't really have a closet I can use for the bucket fermenter. I use my bedroom closet for the small MrB tank, as well as about a case of bottles to condition.

I just checked my amber ale in the 5 gal bucket (6 days in) and the temp is 70°. I've got it in a bathroom, in a plastic tub. I keep the bathroom door closed to keep in the hear so as to keep the room a little warmer than the rest of the 2nd floor. This will be the case until it really warms up in the later spring. So I think for the next batch, I would plan on using some ice bottles during the first few days to keep it in the mid 60s during to the initial activity, then let it sit w/o any "temp control" after it slows, as I think I can keep the bucket around 70° without any help other than closing off the room and keeping a blanket over it. Worst case I use some bottles with hot water if need be.

[jimlin]

11 days in to my amber extract brew. Been a good doobie and left it alone all this time. This morning though, I sanitized the turkey baster and pulled a sample. The krausen had pretty much all fallen back into the beer. The color is a deep amber (I had steeped additional dark caramel malt, 135L, to the amber kit). Still a bit cloudy, so I may cold crash it.

The gravity reads 1.013 (OG was 1.045 @ 60°) and the sample's temp was 68°. I know in the first couple of days the temp had risen (pitched dry S-05 @ 60°) to 72°. I know now to make the attempt to temp control a bit at the beginning to keep it in the mid 60° while so active (got a big plastic tub I can use water/ice bottles to cool), and then allow to rise a bit after the initial fermentation slows to clean things up. But I didn't do that this time. Been using a few hot water-filled bottles to try to keep the temp up since fermentation slowed.

Given it's staying around 68°, I'm not planning to try to raise it any higher at this point. It's not a high gravity beer by any means (just over 4% ABV using today's reading), so I'm thinking I will just take another reading this weekend and likely bottle. Saturday will be 2 weeks. If there were more fermentables in the brew I would likely give it more time, but the kit/recipe was a bit mild.

Took a sip of the sample this am. Not noticing any of the tang or cidery flavor I got from my Mr Beer brews prior to going to this 5 gal batch. Not sure it tastes like the beer I expected, but hopefully a few more days in the bucket, and then a month conditioning in the bottle will give me decent results.