First time brewing

General Homebrew Discussion
1

First time brewing. Just asking for advice. Is 55 a good fermentation temp and bottling temp.

Fermented my beer at 55 degrees is that good or bad. First time brewing.
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2

55F could be a good Lager yeast fermentation temp but Ale yeast usually likes it a bit warmer. Though I don’t bottle, I understand room temp (~70F-ish) is best for carbonation.

I recommend you read ‘How to Brew’ by John Palmer to get the basics. Here’s an old copy. I understand there have been some updates. http://www.howtobrew.com/

3

What style beer are you brewing and what yeast?

4

Good questions.  In general, 55F should be OK.  There are several ale yeasts I prefer at that temp.

5

My wife bought the mr. Beer kit had a light beer with it. Hard to find  a good place to keep a steady temp. So night a mini fridge. Yeast not sure

6

The flip side being that there are quite a few ale yeasts that will never ferment at that temperature.

7

Yep, but I must have avoided those because I’ve had more luck than not at that temp.  Wonder what yeast is in a Mr. Beer kit?

8

Fleischmann’s?

9

Bought the glass bottles instead of using the plastic that was in the kit. Figured maybe would make difference. Thx for the help. Like i said it’s hard to find a spot that stays at the temp suggested. Still trying thou

10

For future reference, plastic is fine.

11

I imagine Cooper’s Ale considering Cooper’s owns Mr Beer.

12

I would assume it’s a clean ale yeast like 1056/001.  The packets are usually just stamped “ALE YEAST”.  I started with a Mr Beer myself… first tip I got was ditch the yeast.  I’m sure it’s perfectly fine yeast, but just the not knowing.  Plus I like to make beers where the yeast character is the whole point, Belgians, German Hef, etc.

To the OP, I wouldn’t ferment in a minifridge.  In my opinion that’s too cold.  I ferment my beer at “room temperature” which varies from 65-85 depending on the season and I usually don’t have a problem.  It doesn’t need to be exactly the same temp the whole time, and you’d rather be a little warm than cold.

It’s your first batch it may or may not turn out that great, but it’s about learning the process.  Don’t get frustrated with it if it’s a little squirrely.  I don’t have any kind of temp control and I do OK.

13

My fermentation area has wide temp swings as well. To account for this i tend to brew with the seasons.

14

What is cool is that i have a crawl space under my house found out the temp rounds out around 70 and dosent go much higher. Any ideas and diffrent beers other than mr.beer that’s good stuff

15

I would google a local home brew store and see if they sell starter kits or ingredient kits
I use brewers best ingredient kits http://www.brewersbestkits.com/

16

The fermentation itself generates heat. If you were to wrap your fermentation vessel in a sleeping bag or some blankets, you could probably raise the internal temperature to near 65 - 70.