Beer Forum

Hi everyone, I'm new to brewing and this website. I brewed for the first time yesterday. If this is not the best place to pose my question please let me know

I was telling a friend today that I brewed for the first time and we were discussing the process, generally. The topic of room temperature's relation to water temperature came up and we disagreed on this question: is water/liquid/wort temperature the same as the room temperature, invariably, after a certain (small) period of time for the temperatures to regulate? I thought the water/liquid/wort would be essentially the same. My friend thought there could be variation up to a degree or two. Does anyone know the answer?

Thanks!

Water temp will be much slower to change, so it may not match exactly (if your AC/heat kicks on, etc). But basically water that has been left out sufficiently long should stabilize at room temp (or there about). Under fermentation, though the yeast will be producing heat of it's own, so your fermentor will be warmer than ambient if you don't control it.

spiderwrangler wrote:Water temp will be much slower to change, so it may not match exactly (if your AC/heat kicks on, etc). But basically water that has been left out sufficiently long should stabilize at room temp (or there about). Under fermentation, though the yeast will be producing heat of it's own, so your fermentor will be warmer than ambient if you don't control it.

Nice, thanks! The room temperature has fluctuated between a low of 64.5 - high of 67.5 over 2 days. It's a little recipe kit so it came with the instruction to ferment between 64-72.

kjb22 wrote:

spiderwrangler wrote:Water temp will be much slower to change, so it may not match exactly (if your AC/heat kicks on, etc). But basically water that has been left out sufficiently long should stabilize at room temp (or there about). Under fermentation, though the yeast will be producing heat of it's own, so your fermentor will be warmer than ambient if you don't control it.

Nice, thanks! The room temperature has fluctuated between a low of 64.5 - high of 67.5 over 2 days. It's a little recipe kit so it came with the instruction to ferment between 64-72.

Try to keep fermentation temp below 70 F to keep down fusel alcohol production. If you have to you can put your fermenter in a water bath with some bottles of frozen water to keep temps down. This is most important during very active fermentation.
Good luck!

captain carrot wrote:

kjb22 wrote:

spiderwrangler wrote:Water temp will be much slower to change, so it may not match exactly (if your AC/heat kicks on, etc). But basically water that has been left out sufficiently long should stabilize at room temp (or there about). Under fermentation, though the yeast will be producing heat of it's own, so your fermentor will be warmer than ambient if you don't control it.

Nice, thanks! The room temperature has fluctuated between a low of 64.5 - high of 67.5 over 2 days. It's a little recipe kit so it came with the instruction to ferment between 64-72.

Try to keep fermentation temp below 70 F to keep down fusel alcohol production. If you have to you can put your fermenter in a water bath with some bottles of frozen water to keep temps down. This is most important during very active fermentation.
Good luck!

Thanks! Brewing is so much fun

kjb22 wrote:Thanks! Brewing is so much fun

Is there a forum post of the year award? If so, I nominate kvb22 here. Well, and simply, said.

No they are not the same...since the fermentation process is exothermic ie creates heat....so if you ferment in a room that is 68...during primary fermentation your beer is probably more like 71-72..as the fermentation slows down it will get much closer to room temp.., but during primary you need to make sure the ambient temp is lower than where you want to ferment it...