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I just brew Irish Extra Stout and it's now supposed to go through fermentation. According to the manual 18 to 20°C is optimal. But I can only choose between 14°C in my cellar and 23°C in my flat. What should I choose?
I'm tending towards 10 days at 14°C and then 4 days at 23°C. For other Ales this seemed to have worked always. But I never brew a Stout. So I would like to confirm that it is not overtly sensitive to low temps.
It may be slower at 14C but I would go for that since 23C may create too much fuse alcohols and fruity esters. Esters are common in English yeast strains but not desired for Stouts. Also if your temperature is not constant on 23C it may get waaaay up during fermentation, because fermentation generates a lot of heat.
It all depends on your yeast.
Some yeasts do very well under colder temps, other drop out and go dormant.
Some do well at higher temps, other create fusel alcohols, or other off flavors.
My suggestion is choose the yeast that is best suited for your environmental temperature.
