Temerature

[Peter Dear]

Hey, i'm very new to home brewing, and have my first one on now.
i'm struggling to keep the temperature above about 15c. i understand that 18-30c is recommended.
any tips/hints?

thanks
pete

[Peter Dear]

i've used a bit of initiative and put a hot towel round it, and a sleeping bag over the top to try and keep the heat in?
any advice?

[JoKing]

What yeast are you using bro?

[Peter Dear]

whichever one came in the munich lager pack that i bought - sorry i can't be in any more specific than that, this is very first attempt so i bought a kit with everything included.

[JoKing]

I used to put mine in the hot water cupboard, infront of the heater... stuff like that. Once you've hit the temp you want, your sleeping bag should do the rest of the work. The kits generally only take 3 - 5 days to finish off.

[MrC]

Depending on the yeast you will want to target different temps. Did the yeast have a temp range specified? If it's an unlabelled kit beer yeast I would aim for 18-20c.

Once you determine what temp you want you can always put it in the bath and control the temp of the water around the fermenter. Assuming you have a bath :-) The temp of the beer will soon come in line with the temp of the bath water.

[Peter Dear]

thanks guys!
am i guessing right, that if it doesn't get up to temperature the yeast won't ferment?
does it kill the yeast or will it just be 'sleeping' until the correct temperature is reached?

[JoKing]

Lower tamps make the yeast go lazy. You'll get a few funky characters come through if you leave it for too long... but dont go OTT with heating it up. Pitch cool helps keep the funk under control... but leaving it cool for too long (2 weeks or so) doesn't help a thing. If you can get it to 18 - 20 for a week... it should be fine.

How long ago did you put the yeast in?

[Peter Dear]

i put the yeast in yesterday, so hasn't been cool for too long.
im on the case now to keep it at 18-20 for a week! thanks so much!

[Peter Dear]

have got hot water bottles, towels and sleeping bags insulating the fermenter. i'll let you know how it goes - i'm sure there will be questoons again soon - especially surrounding the hydrometer!

[Christian]

Over winter, I've been fermenting in the living room (bubbling can get a bit anoying) and wrap a duvet around it - seems to do the trick.

[Peter Dear]

much to the gf's disgust, and cats intrigue, my fermenter is now on a stool in the living room, with all of our hot water bottles strapped around it, and then wrapped in towels and a sleeping bag......and i must say it has worked a treat. the air lock is bubbling quite frequently, and the temperature is now sitting nicely at 22c consistently.
so this hydrometer.........after 5 days i take a sample of beer and measure the s.g. with the hydrometer?
do i put the sample back in? this measurement has to be consistent over a 48hr period i believe? and i've been told that it has to be under 1.008 otherwise the bottles will burst, true/false?

thanks again for all of your advice! i owe you guys a beer!

[JR]

that sounds about right - but 1.008 is fairly low - dont stress if you dont get quite that low as long as it stops changing.
Alternately, if you are not in a rush you can just leave it for 10 days or a couple of weeks and dont worry about the hydrometer at all, it will be done after that long (as long as it has long since stopped bubbling.)
Dont put the sample back in - unnesasary risk. Taste it and remember the taste for future reference.