Thread: Homebrew temperature control

Originally Posted by kimjon

Thanks kiwijames, I'll look into the finings a bit more. I've read about it. My beer (ales) were coming out clean as. But over winter I made my first true lagers, however they were cloudy. Fining them may be what's required.

It's all a steep learning curve for me, so just plodding along learning one step at a time.

The controller is a STC-200, I don't know much about them, but it's holding 18°c air temp. I figure that mass of water in that sealed fridge must be close enough without getting too anal about it.

How's your brewing going, have you found a rhythm to it all?

Kj

I hope I have started to fine tune things a bit now. The last beer was a real lazy hefeweizen. No finings at all and all came out well. Its the smaller details are the hardest now to get right for the subtleties that makes a good beer great. Yeast control and proper quantities I find is the most important. Its the heart of the beer. Any good grain/hop combo will come out OK.
I have yet to have the patience to do a proper larger. There are a few demands on the yeast and it is strongly suggest to do a lager right you really want to rack to a secondary fermenter after the primary ferment. You also require about 2 times more yeast than an ale with the lagers. How long have you let the lager ferment run? IIRC its going to need at least 3 weeks at about 4C to do right. The secondary will clean up the beer and being off the yeast cake will give it a good bright and crisp flavour. There are a few cheats for no-lager lagers I have read about but does require some regular attention. Im lazy and too time poor for this level of detail.