The IPA's moving up in the world

Literally. Too cold down in the basement given the recent weather, so I carried both carboys upstairs and put them behind the sofa. So that's three days at 50-60F, and then three more at 60-70F. They were still fermenting at 50-60, but they're really humming along at 60-70. From the White Labs webpage, both yeasts optimal fermenting temp is around 68-70, so we should get a cleaner, more fully fermented beer at this temp.

At some point in the future, we should think about creating a fermentation chamber we can accurately control the temperature of - we could probably do so for under a hundred bucks. Some plywood, foam insulation, a mini fridge (or AC unit?) off of CL, a wall heater, and a temperature controller to plug the fridge and the heater into. Plans for the temperature controller would be more or less like this. Not too hard, and only 30 bucks. Then some day, a chest freezer to lager in. Actually knowing the temperature we ferment at is sort of critical to quality control and reproducing the beer we make.

All in the future.