[Hickory]

Two packs may be overpitching a bit, depending on OG.  Next time use the blowoff tube and check on pitching rate using Mr Malty or similar yeast calculator.  You are probably fine, but keep those temperatures under control.  I love this time of year, because here in Northern IL I can put a heat wrap on my ales and ferment them right in the sweet spot.

My OG was 1.084. I had originally gotten one pack of S-04, but when I got to the counter the guy said I should get a second pack. And temp control is my biggest battle. I'm trying to maintain my temps in a closet in North Texas. We just hit 96*F two days ago so it's been quite the struggle.

[klickitat jim]

Two packs may be overpitching a bit, depending on OG.  Next time use the blowoff tube and check on pitching rate using Mr Malty or similar yeast calculator.  You are probably fine, but keep those temperatures under control.  I love this time of year, because here in Northern IL I can put a heat wrap on my ales and ferment them right in the sweet spot.

My OG was 1.084. I had originally gotten one pack of S-04, but when I got to the counter the guy said I should get a second pack. And temp control is my biggest battle. I'm trying to maintain my temps in a closet in North Texas. We just hit 96*F two days ago so it's been quite the struggle.

90º plus  1.084 equals blow off for nearly any kind of yeast, I would think.

[Slowbrew]

In my house anything over about 68F for room temp means blow offs on ales.  I really need to figure out temp control.  It seems to be the next frontier for many of us here.  Standard problem with lack of space though.

Paul

[majorvices]

Phew that's a relieve. To be honest this is only my 3rd brew and it's never happened before. I'm not 100% clear what the airlock is for except to keep wondering bacteria out?

The good news: During active fermentation it is very difficult for contamination to take hold, mostly because of the positive pressure of Co2 coming out of solution pushes everything out. As far as contamination goes, your beer would be fine.

The bad news: Blow offs like that usually happen when you pitch too warm, and especially when you don't have good control of fermentation temps. I recently pitched US-05 at around 78 degrees for an "experimental purpose" and the fermentor had plenty of head space and still blew off. Normally, when I pitch at a more reasonable temperature like 64, I get no blow off. And the thing is, warm pitching and fermentation temps are almost as bad for the flavor of beer as contamination. You should never pitch over 70 degrees (and preferably much cooler) and you should never let the temp of the fermentation - which can be as warm as 6-8+ degrees over ambient - get much warmer that 68 degrees (70-72 at the highest) for most ale yeasts. In other words, if you are fermenting at "room temp" you are fermenting too warm, unless your rom temp in 58-62 degrees.

[Hickory]

Majorvices I get what you're saying. I pitched at 71 degrees but it's nearly impossible to maintain that for a fermentation temp. I'd love to get a ferm tank of some kind, but until I do, I have to make do with keeping the a/c on when it gets too hot in the closet.

[Stevie]

Majorvices I get what you're saying. I pitched at 71 degrees but it's nearly impossible to maintain that for a fermentation temp. I'd love to get a ferm tank of some kind, but until I do, I have to make do with keeping the a/c on when it gets too hot in the closet.

Try a tub full of water. Use bottles of ice to keep the temp low. The more mass, the less prone to temp swings.

[HoosierBrew]

Majorvices I get what you're saying. I pitched at 71 degrees but it's nearly impossible to maintain that for a fermentation temp. I'd love to get a ferm tank of some kind, but until I do, I have to make do with keeping the a/c on when it gets too hot in the closet.

Try a tub full of water. Use bottles of ice to keep the temp low. The more mass, the less prone to temp swings.

+1.  Did it for years. If you can cool your wort to the low 60s before pitching and change frozen water bottles out at least twice a day, you can make pretty good beer. Denny did it for decades.

[narcout]

Before I got a chest freezer, I also used the tub full of water method (changing out ice bottles twice a day).  It works pretty well.

They also make an insulated cooler bag designed to fit a carboy that you can chill down with ice packs.  I think they are $60 from MoreBeer.  I don't have any personal experience with this product, but it might be worth checking out.

[Hickory]

So I'm going to brew on Wednesday and I had no luck on convincing SWMBO on buying a chest freezer, looks like I'll try out the tub method this time. How full do y'all fill the tub, just a couple inches? Is that enough to displace temp throughout the entire carboy?

[Stevie]

So I'm going to brew on Wednesday and I had no luck on convincing SWMBO on buying a chest freezer, looks like I'll try out the tub method this time. How full do y'all fill the tub, just a couple inches? Is that enough to displace temp throughout the entire carboy?

as full as you can without floating the fermenter. 3/4's up should do. The idea is to increase the thermal mass to prevent temp swings. Bonus is the ability to heat or cool as well. Frozen water bottles are a PIA but work on the cool side. Aquarium heaters work well for warming it up.

[majorvices]

Keep your eye out for the next time she spends $600 on a purse and make your move. A chest freezer/w temp control will really make a big difference in your brews. But you certainly can get by with the water filled tub method and make great beers out of it.

Another thing you can do is keep a towel wrapped around the carboy but in the water far enough that it wicks moisture into the towel.

As added insurance be sure to cool your wort down into the low to mid 60s before picthing your yeats (and make sure you have enough yeast - see the pitching calc at www.mrmalty.com to see how much yeast or how big a starter you will need) and then you can let the temp raise a few degrees during fementation. After 48-72 hours the temp won't be a big deal any more. Most of the fusels are generated during the first 48 hours so if you can watch the temp closly for 2-3 days afterward you can raise it to high 60s/low 70s with no worries.

[klickitat jim]

+1 to this

Ill add that once it does start to go up you want to avoid it dropping back down again before the yeast are done. Lets say you are at 1.020 hoping for or expecting 1.010. Your temp has crept up to 70 but its been after the major flavor contribution time. Youre gold. Unless it gets cold over night and the beer drops to 60. They are getting toward the end of their job anyway with only ten points to go. They are struggling to find energy to eat up nasty bi products. Then comes a temp drop. They might just call it a day and leave you with an under attenuated diacetyl bomb. Point being that for every argument to keep temp down, keeping it up is important too.

[reverseapachemaster]

Your closet is probably the worst place you can keep that beer. It won't have any access to the air conditioning to help cool it down, which means you're just trapping your beer up with all the heat in your home plus the heat it is generating.

I've always had bad luck here in north Texas with the whole swamp cooler thing. It's just too humid here. Keeping the fermentor in a tub of water and swap out frozen bottles of water is much better for keeping a cooler mass but during the summer I still always had problems keeping the beer much cooler than room temperature. Getting a reliable way to control temperature was far and away the best purchase I could have made for the quality of my beer. You can use the tub of water plus pick yeast that are most tolerant of the temperatures in your house but it is still going to limit your brewing opportunities and you may never be very happy with the quality of your beer unless you really enjoy saisons enough to brew them almost exclusively.

[glenmoorebrewing]

If you think it might be a volcanic bomb get a plastic tote and put your carbon in that. Worst case you are cleaning plastic not carpet

[Hickory]

I'm actually lucky enough that SWMBO spends way more money on me than herself. The closet is in a spare room that no one goes to and has a fan so it's actually one of the coolest places in the house. I've been doing a trial run with the tub and frozen water bottles and will go with that this time, but I may not have to worry too much. We've had a crazy unusual cool front come in that shows no signs of leaving, and the closet has been sitting at a nice 67* for about a week. Thanks for all the help everybody.