Beer Forum

I brewed up 2 5-gallon batches of JZ's Flander's Red in late may to do a comparison of his two pitching methods, Roselaire only and yeast->then roselaire.

Things are looking great, they've both got a nice pellicle and all of that, but now that winter is arriving the closet where I've been storing them is cold and the beers are in the mid 50 degree range instead of the high 60 degree range like they should be. My question is, should I risk disturbing the pellicle by moving them to a warmer room, or let them sit in the cold (and likely to get colder) closet?

I need them to be ready by next May because a good portion of them are going to be a wedding gift. Assuming they turn out well at least.

Any thoughts would be great. Thanks!

Leave 'em be, and get a fermwrap and temp control.


Mylo

Mylo wrote:Leave 'em be, and get a fermwrap and temp control.


Mylo

That would be ideal of course, but I can't afford 2 fermwraps and another temp control at the moment. Stoopid lottery never pays off.

Ok, then get a big rubbermaid tub that will fit both. Carefully lift them straight up and in. Fill with water up to the pellicle line. Get a small aquarium heater and stick it in there. If you can't afford the temp control, then you will just have to improvise or manually switch in on and off. A cheap timer can be used - but you will have to figure out how long to cycle it on to get the desired temp. As long as there are not huge ambient swings - you should be able to dial this in relatively easy.


Mylo

Mylo wrote:Ok, then get a big rubbermaid tub that will fit both. Carefully lift them straight up and in. Fill with water up to the pellicle line. Get a small aquarium heater and stick it in there. If you can't afford the temp control, then you will just have to improvise or manually switch in on and off. A cheap timer can be used - but you will have to figure out how long to cycle it on to get the desired temp. As long as there are not huge ambient swings - you should be able to dial this in relatively easy.


Mylo

Well if he is going to go through all that then might as well just bring them into the warmer room. FWIW I moved my Flanders Red twice during the souring phase with no issues.

Let me preface this by saying "It gets that cold in your house?" Never gets much below 65 in mine.

But, if I were a cheap bastard, could I use an electric blanket, as long as I monitor the temperature regularly? Or is that too warm or unreliable?

Dirk McLargeHuge wrote:Let me preface this by saying "It gets that cold in your house?" Never gets much below 65 in mine.

But, if I were a cheap bastard, could I use an electric blanket, as long as I monitor the temperature regularly? Or is that too warm or unreliable?

It does get thatcold in the house, mid 50's at night, excellent sleeping weather. But the room where the beer is, isn't used for anything except when we have guests. So we keep the door closed and heat off in the room to save $$ since I practically need a second job to heat the house in the winter. Thus the cold closet.

I've got a cabinet in the room that is heated for fermenting through the winter, I might just try to carefully move the fermenters over there once my latest batch is done fermenting to live out the winter since nobody thus far has said with certainty that it's not worth the risk and the consensus seems to be that keeping them warmer is necessary.

Brandon wrote:
Well if he is going to go through all that then might as well just bring them into the warmer room. FWIW I moved my Flanders Red twice during the souring phase with no issues.

That's good to hear, thanks.