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My last two brews were a Fiesta Brew IPA and Blonde Ale. Both were a bust. I had a paint thinner/acetone after taste for each brew. I tried keeping my basement at 20C (heat pump) with the pail at the opposite end of the room. I did not realize that beer ferments at a higher temperature so after much research, I think it fermented too high.

I have been doing some research on cooling methods and wondering if this would work? I was thinking of buying a Fermwrap (http://morebeer.com/products/fermwraptm ... nghomebrew" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) with an electronic thermostat (http://morebeer.com/products/ranco-digi ... nghomebrew" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and thermowell (http://morebeer.com/products/stopper-th ... nghomebrew" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). Or would buying a mini-fridge and thermostat work? I have no idea how a thermostat works either. Right now, my best guess would be to plug the fridge/Fermwrap into the thermostat and set the temperature.

Any advice for a rookie just starting out would be great.

Thanks, Mike

EDIT:

I was fermenting in a pail bought from Hop Dawgs. Both by carboy and pail were cleaned with microchlor and hot water. Both were rinsed well. I forgot to add that I haven't found a good way to transfer from pail to carboy. For both batches, the beer was mouth siphoned, hose clamped, dipped in microchlor for 5 seconds and beer was run into a waste bucket for 5 seconds before putting into the carboy. It is possible that a trace of microchlor could of gotten into both batches as well.

I personally have never used a Fermwrap, but I can tell you what I do...

I have a freezer and an electric thermostat, so very similar to your fridge idea. I basically set the thermostat temp to whatever I want to ferment at (say, 50 F for a Lager), attach the probe to the side of the carboy (cover the probe with bubble wrap and tape around it)... and there you go. Works great, but of course it's a bit pricy for the equipment. Worth it, if you want the easiest way to keep your fermentation temps under control.

With ales, though, there's lots of other things you can do, like the old fermenter in a laundry sink with ice water, a wet shirt, and a fan trick...

Fermwrap is a heater, not a cooler?
Ive never had any probs with fiesta brew and I never used to bother with any temp control. In the summer I'm sure my temps were probably higher. I'm not sure I'd jump right in to temp control for your problem.

I thought oxidation could also give you that paint thinner taste. What and how long were you fermenting in? I'm sure one of the more knowledgeable brewers may have a better idea.

EDIT: just realized you mentioned a fridge AND fermwrap, my bad!

If you already have the fridge(or freezer) an stc 1000 temp controller is only $23 from ebay, and works great on my freezer. A few more odds and ends like plug sockets, wire, mounting box etc, and it rounds out to about $30-40 for the controller(depends how fancy you wanna get!)
I did the tub/waterbath/towel thing for quite a while, but its a real PITA, and not really very stable.

I've done lots of festa brew kits at temperatures 20 and above - the only kit that had off flavors was the Bock, which was a lager that I fermented at the end of August at the temperature of 26 degrees. Needless to say, after that I learned about lagering.

I'd look into other things before temperature control if I were you.I think that your ale should have been fine at that temperature, and I'm pretty sure that the lager yeast that comes with the Blonde is good up to around 24. Maybe check your cleaning, if that were the issue it would affect both batches similarly.

I bought a large bucket with rope handles from WalMart. I put the fermenter in it and fill to the wort line and, if needed, add a frozen water bottle or two per day. Even in the hot Calif summers, it rarely takes more than two / day. The main thing is the continuity of temperature.. stability. After about the third day, the temp is not quite so important.

Fermwrap helps if the room is TOO cold.. but, in normal house temps in a water bucket.. my temps stabilize in the low 60's which is great for ales.

Why is your basement so warm in March?

As for the siphon, I hold the tube and cup my hand around the tap making as good a seal as I can, when the siphon hose is full of water tighten your clamp and voila your primed. no more sucking on the hose. just run your siphon into a bowl until beer starts coming out and then fill you carboy. This is even better if you can runs starsan or a similar no rinse sanitizer through your hose ahead of the beer.

Invest in an auto-siphon, someone on here may even have an extra one lying around to give/sell. Or use Maritimer's suggestion of pre-filling the tubing with water or Starsan, and run the water to waste, clamp, then put the beer into the carboy.

FWIW, I always start a siphon with my mouth, and it's never given me any trouble. I just clean it out with whiskey first. It's easy, and I get whiskey.

amartin wrote:FWIW, I always start a siphon with my mouth, and it's never given me any trouble. I just clean it out with whiskey first. It's easy, and I get whiskey.

I feel like an idiot. I've been doing this without whiskey.

Seems a bit odd, I have no means to control fermentation temperature and I haven't noticed any solvent like smells/taste both in festa brews and all grains. The temperature in my brewing closet ranges from 16-24 C, nothing else that might be causing this?

pet lion wrote:

amartin wrote:FWIW, I always start a siphon with my mouth, and it's never given me any trouble. I just clean it out with whiskey first. It's easy, and I get whiskey.

I feel like an idiot. I've been doing this without whiskey.

me too... great excuse to borrow SWMBO's rye bottle

I have been reading about priming sugars and I added 250g of dextrose into both brews as well. I think this is around 8.8oz. I think 3-4oz is the norm for a 23L kit.

A little more information about my brews. My pH for my blonde was 4.52 and 4.38 for my IPA. I measure my AE/SG and Alc's before adding the sugar and then after the two weeks in the bottle. Both my Alc's shot up and my AE/SG decreased. Would the high amount of dextrose and fermenting in the bottle cause this as well?

Both batches we left 5 days in the fermenting pail, 13 days in the glass carboy and 14 days in the bottle.