Free up space in fermenting chamber after 72 hours?

[Kev888]

Yes, after the yeast get going they can generate a lot of heat and cause some unpleasant estors as a result if not regulated. But once this phase dies down there is far less to worry about, so you could potentially remove the fermenter from the fridge. In most cases a few days would be adequate, BUT it depends on what kind of lag time you get, how happy and vigorous the yeast are, what the OG is etc etc - so it would be safer to gauge it from the fermentation's actual progress rather than somewhat arbitrary timings.

It is a slight compromise of course, and consistency may suffer a little bit with varying ambient temperatures. But (at least with ale yeast in the UK climate) the biggest problem may be if things cooled down too much; if the fermenter goes somewhere cool then some form of warming (perhaps from a modestly powered heat belt) may be needed in cooler seasons to ensure the yeast don't prematurely grind to a near halt.

[jaroporter]

i often take beers out the ferment fridge at 48hrs when i'm hammering the brewing to build up stocks, but then i know my ferments well (i tend to use consistant yeast) and it works for me at my batch sizes (10-20l). at a guess i'd imagine the ferments are more than halfway through by then and the increase in temp helps. why not just try it and see.. maybe it comes out a bit different or 20l goes down the drain.. worse things happen at sea.. :p

[guypettigrew]

I have to figure out a better way to take multiple gravity readings then as I only brew small batches and several readings will eat into that.
Thanks

Refractometer. 0.5ml of your beer to get a reading. But you must have the initial reading and then use one of the online calculators to determine the SG during fermentation.

Guy

[Jim]

I have to figure out a better way to take multiple gravity readings then as I only brew small batches and several readings will eat into that.
Thanks

Refractometer. 0.5ml of your beer to get a reading. But you must have the initial reading and then use one of the online calculators to determine the SG during fermentation.

Guy

Do you have much success using those calculators? When I've tried the results have been out by quite a bit so I went back the hydrometer.

[chefgage]

I have to figure out a better way to take multiple gravity readings then as I only brew small batches and several readings will eat into that.
Thanks

Refractometer. 0.5ml of your beer to get a reading. But you must have the initial reading and then use one of the online calculators to determine the SG during fermentation.

Guy

Do you have much success using those calculators? When I've tried the results have been out by quite a bit so I went back the hydrometer.

Same here. I never got consistant results even when taking multiple readings from the same sample. I made up quite a few different gravity samples to get a calibration figure but the refractometer never agreed with the hydrometer.

[WalesAles]

Refractometer. 0.5ml of your beer to get a reading. But you must have the initial reading and then use one of the online calculators to determine the SG during fermentation.

Guy

Do you have much success using those calculators? When I've tried the results have been out by quite a bit so I went back the hydrometer.

Same here. I never got consistant results even when taking multiple readings from the same sample. I made up quite a few different gravity samples to get a calibration figure but the refractometer never agreed with the hydrometer.

opalko,
Why don`t you just leave your Hydrometer in the Brew?

WA

[guypettigrew]

It's been a long time since I compared the refractometer and hydrometer readings. The suggestion they may differ has prompted me to re-check.

A couple of days ago I dropped some beer into a keg, so this seemed a sensible one to try it out on. The only other beer I've got was brewed yesterday and I didn't want to run 100ml off for this test. Also, it seemed best to use a beer which was ending its fermentation as any discrepancies between refractometer and hydrometer would probably be greater.

Here's the numbers.

Before fermentation a brix of 12.8, after fermentation a brix of 6.2.

Using the Northern Brewer refractometer calculator this gives a starting gravity of 1.052 and a current gravity in the keg of 1.008.

The hydrometer gives a gravity of 1.008/1.010 for the beer in the keg. Sometimes it's not easy to see a hydrometer reading!

This is close enough for me. The hydrometer is about 25 years old and reads correctly in tap water at 20C, the refractometer was bought on ebay about three years ago. It needs calibrating each time it's used, but that's simple enough.

Guy

[opalko]

Do you have much success using those calculators? When I've tried the results have been out by quite a bit so I went back the hydrometer.

Same here. I never got consistant results even when taking multiple readings from the same sample. I made up quite a few different gravity samples to get a calibration figure but the refractometer never agreed with the hydrometer.

opalko,
Why don`t you just leave your Hydrometer in the Brew?

WA

Late reply but 2 reasons: I usually have more than one brew going at a time and since I'm doing small batches, the hydrometer will hit the bottom before it floats.