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Re: warm yeast
On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, olga at arts_ubc.ca wrote:
<<Now I'm getting confused. :( We've been discussing keeping the yeast
warmer but if what Greg says is true wouldn't it be better if it remains
room temperature? How significant is the difference in life span -- a week,
a couple of days?>>
If you keep your bucket of warm water for the CO2 bottle(s) at "normal" room
temperature (70F? 75F?), then it shouldn't go *ridiculously* fast. If you
put your bucket at 85F, then it might speed up rather a lot. Another reason
folks might do this is that radically differing day/night temps in your house
could conceivably cause the tank water to siphon into the CO2 bottle (though
in theory, as a closed system, the water won't go anywhere once the bottle &
tube are full). The bucket or reptile heater can even the temp out to
preclude such rapid contraction of the gases.
To throw in one more variable, I've had good luck with bottom-fermenting
Lager yeast**. This is designed for colder fermentation, and works well in
my unheated California winter house. I switched to this because I found that
I was more likely to be lazy about keeping up with the yeast mixture if I had
to extract it, dripping, from a bucket under the tank! Also nearly lost a
heater by forgetting to top the under-tank bucket up. I guess you can tell I
don't use a sump ;-) (which, BTW, is one more warm place to put your CO2
bottle... I seem to remember someone who even put it right in their fishtank
along with the plants & fish...to each his own).
Anne in rainy green Santa Cruz
**Look in the yellow pages (do you call them "yellow pages" in Canada?) under
"Brewery Equipment & Supplies."