bottle conditioning..keeping em warm

[Matatak]

G'day all ,

Just finished fermenting a batch of beer which is now in the bottles ready for secondary fermentation . From what I have read the bottles need to be kept at or above 18 degrees for secondary fermentation to occur .We are coming into winter and the temps here are getting quite low so I considered  putting them back into my fermenting fridge for the next 4 weeks....problem with this is that I want to put in another batch of beer !!!! I don't have a room with a water heater or similar that is warm or any spots that I can think of around the house that will keep it at a moderate temp . Just wondering what methods other people are using for secondary fermentation during the colder months ( that wont start a house fire )   I saw one bloke on the net using christmas lights in a box .......not sure how effective this would be 

thoughts ?

[Otto Von Blotto]

You could try using lager yeast over the cooler months to ensure carbonation occurs. I had an issue with a small batch of ale around this time of year a while back, it failed to properly carbonate in the bottles so I decided to brew lagers in winter instead. They all carbonated fine.

I'm kegging now so it doesn't matter but with bottles you either have to keep them warm or use a yeast that works at lower temperatures.

Cheers

Kelsey

[Graculus]

I had a think about this too at one stage. I only had one brew fridge so I was on the look out for a way of keeping them warm.

I had a few ideas, that I never got around to.

Heating a small cupboard, although there would be no insulation.

Running a reptile heater cable into a biggish marine esky I have through the drain hole. Connected to stc 1000 to maintain temperature.
I think this one would have been good as I could have got 40 odd bottles in there.
Missus wouldn't have been happy as this is the one she uses for Girl Guide BBQ's at Bunnings.

Now I don't worry too much. I have quite a stash of beer and if they take a few weeks extra to carbonate, so be it.

I do have two beer fridges now though so if I need to I can chuck a batch in one of them.

[murbkoman]

I have a water bed in one of our spare rooms; we rarely have an overflow of guests into that room so the bed normally has a few boxes of beer on it under a sleeping bag.

[Smitdog88]

How much space do you have in your brew fridge?

Mines got enough space that I can fit all the bottles from a 23lt brew in and around the next batch that’s brewing away at 18deg for 2 weeks. Using a mdf shelf cut and jammed into place. 

[Matatak]

i would have to lay the bottles down to be any chance of doing this as the fridge is not that big . Would that affect anything ? apart from the sediment of course...

[Matatak]

5 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

You could try using lager yeast over the cooler months to ensure carbonation occurs. I had an issue with a small batch of ale around this time of year a while back, it failed to properly carbonate in the bottles so I decided to brew lagers in winter instead. They all carbonated fine.

I'm kegging now so it doesn't matter but with bottles you either have to keep them warm or use a yeast that works at lower temperatures.

Cheers

Kelsey

I used saflager w34/70 for the brew , do you mean that the bottles should carbonate at a lower temp due to this ?

[Otto Von Blotto]

43 minutes ago, Matatak said:

I used saflager w34/70 for the brew , do you mean that the bottles should carbonate at a lower temp due to this ?

They should. Lager yeasts can work as low as 4 degrees. I wouldn't recommend that low but if the bottles drop to around 8-10 they will still carbonate, it might just take a bit longer. Lagers are usually fermented between 8 and 12, so if it works in the fermenter at that temp it'll work in the bottles too.

Cheers

Kelsey

[Smitdog88]

18 hours ago, Matatak said:

i would have to lay the bottles down to be any chance of doing this as the fridge is not that big . Would that affect anything ? apart from the sediment of course...

I can’t see any problem bottle conditioning with the bottles laying down. Just so long as your lids were clean and sanitised too. 

I would say that when you want to drink them to perhaps give em a little shake to grab the sediment off of the side of the bottle and then sit in the fridge for a few days and the sediment will/should resettle in the bottom of the bottle. 

[Worthog]

If you can lay your hands on some of that 5mm foam sandwiched silver papered roofing insulation, here are a couple of ideas I used.

First winter was simply a large garbage bin from Bunnings, insulation wrapped around it and under the lid, taped in place with duct tape. The bin sat on a board with a heat mat on it. You need to place something in the bottom of the bin to keep the bottles up off the base. The inside temp controlled by a Willhi ETC set on 18c, off 22c. This bin held about 48 PETs.

This winter I purloined and old tradesmans toolbox from my chippy son. It's one of those that they have on the back of their work ute. I insulated it internally with above specified insulation. It holds 80-90 bottles placed inside in cardboard PET bottle boxes. It runs a continuous internal temperature of 20c with the help of 2 heat mats placed on their sides in the toolbox, both running off 1 Willhi ETC.

The above setup could be done in a cupboard also.

This toolbox sits in my garage through night ambient temperatures as low as -2c to 4c. It only needs to condition the bottles for 2-3 weeks until carbonation is done, then they can be stored elsewhere. This setup had resolved all my brewing issues and leaves my 2 brew fridges to ferment ales and the longer fermenting lagers.

Cheers,

 

[porschemad911]

I had a very dodgy solution involving the box my Coopers kit came in. Coopers have so designed this box that you can fit 60 PETs perfectly. I placed my head pad in the centre of the box with the power cord run along the bottom then up the side, then plugged into a controller set to 18° C. I then placed 30 PETs in a single layer on the bottom (5 x 6 is a perfect snug fit), then laid the included cardboard separator on top of those, then added 30 more PETs in a single layer on top which filled the box. I reinforced the seams a bit with duct tape as cardboard is not very sturdy over time.

This did work surprisingly well, but now I just ferment with lager yeast from April / May to September / October. My Cool Brewing Bag makes it easy to control the primary fermentation and lager yeast makes the bottle conditioning worry-free. And I get to drink some nice lagers for half the year!

Cheers,

John

[Boot Straps]

hmmm, I bottled on Friday night put the PET bottles back into their box, and stacked them on top of each other. I then placed a heat pad between the 2 and set the thermastat at 20deg with the probe sittng in  the centre of the top box, as I figured the heat would rise therefore the top box would be heated first. I had a temperature probe sitting in the bottom box measuring the temps there, with the bottom box sitting on a towel just to keep it off the cement floor. I checked it on Sunday only to find the the thermostat probe had fallen out and the temp was reading 23deg, the bottles in the top box were rock hard and the necks of the bottles were pretty much fully distended. The bottles in the botom box were normal with the temp reading 20deg but still pretty hard for only two days. Now I'm thinking that wasn't very smart. I slowly cracked open a bottle yesterday to relieve the pressure fully expecting it to gush, but was relieved to see it didn't, I got a nice fizzz but that was all, so I re-sealed it, marked it with a cross and put it back.

It says secondary fermentation should be 18deg or higher, does fermenting at higher temps cause any damage to the beer, I understand what could happen if I was using glass bottles of course. So if I just leave them to ferment at ambient temp which at the moment is still around 20 should the beer be alright.

[Otto Von Blotto]

High temps won't necessarily cause the bottles to blow up, and 23 degrees isn't what would be considered high. I'm sure they'll be fine. 

Higher storage temps will cause the beer to go stale faster though, so once they're carbonated it's best to keep them cool.

[Matatak]

Thanks for the replies guys , it looks like I am going to have to invest in another temp controller and a heat belt / pad if I cant fit them around the fermenter . Wont hurt for me to wait a few weeks anyway  I was following the advice on the coopers recipe regarding the 4 weeks secondary fermentation .... Am I safe to assume that when the pet bottles are hard that they would be right to take out of the fridge and store ? or should I be leaving them for the full month ?

[Otto Von Blotto]

You won't need heating with lager yeast but if you brew ales you will. In any case, I'd be inclined to leave them the full month just to make sure carbonation is done properly.