Too Cold

[MoreBeerEh]

I am down here in Alabama and at my house, I don't think my garage will be warm enough to let the beer ferment for the 2 weeks before bottling. Is it safe to let it ferment inside? Will it stink up the house? What should I do here?

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by MoreBeerEh
I am down here in Alabama and at my house, I don't think my garage will be warm enough to let the beer ferment for the 2 weeks before bottling. Is it safe to let it ferment inside? Will it stink up the house? What should I do here?

It is absolutely 100% safe to let your beer ferment inside your house. Some aromatics come from fermenting beer but with ale yeast it's a minimum so you won't "stink up" the whole house.

[Tweek]

I have had what my wife refers to as "stupid amounts" of beer fermenting in my place. I rather like the smell. Smells good.

[MoreBeerEh]

Well, I live in a new house and I can't afford to permanantly stink up the place. It won't will it?

[Tweek]

no as soon as the ferment is done the smell is gone. you can only smell it during vigorous fermentation. With one or two 5 gallon batches you would prob not smell it at all.

[Ironhead]

There will be no problem with this I do my boils and fermentation inside my house and have no problem with longterm smells. fermentation does not give off nearly as much aroma as brewing but I would not clasify this as stink. You will also have more consistant temps inside but if you are ever are looking for a cheap way to control the temps outside you could use an old waterbed heater and a blanket usually easy to come by and has a thermostate. good luck

[toneyc]

I'm in Texas, where it is almost always too hot to ferment outside. I have done my fermenting in the house for the last three years and have never noticed any smells from it, with the one exception of a cyser that had a sulphury smell to it. As long as you keep your fermenting area clean of any spills and such, you should never have a problem. As a matter of fact, I have far more pungent smells from my stove from spicy cooking than I do from fermenting. I do, however, brew outside because the kids did complain of the strong smell when I boiled my first couple of batches in the kitchen.

:)
Toney.

[mmmBeer...]

The only time I had a problem with a smell was when I had a blow off tube get plugged over night and exploded beer foam all over the place. Until I was able to move the workbench it was on and clean behind it the smell was pretty strong…but otherwise I don’t really notice the smell. In fact the smell from the boiling wort is stronger.

[S.F.B.]

I, like toney, have been fermenting in my house for 3 years. I get some batches that give off a strong aroma and others with very little. You shouldn't have any long term smells from fermenting beer.

[Fast_Eddy]

Even fermenting with a sulphur-blowing-super-stinky lager strain won't cause a permanent funktification of your house. It probably won't yield a very good product at normal house temps, but you get the idea.

[tj beerman]

I boil in the shop and ferment in my basement I have a woodburner down there so I move the beer far enough away from it to get the temp where I need it.