CKH1

Recipes 

I am in southern Florida, what is the best homebrew recipe for the high temperatures here in Florida?
(I am thinking of fermentation)
Taking into consideration that room temperature here is usually mid to high 70's (F)

I have seen a lot of recipes that require fermentation in the 50's(F).
I have a wine cooler that gets to mid 50's(F), but only holds about 22 bottles of beer.

Being from Denmark, I would love to make a Carlsberg/Tuborg clone, either from extract or from and all grain or even a combination.
Anyone have any great, easy, step by step (beginner) recipes and instructions?
suggestions?, comments? questions?

Thanks

BrightSpot

Recipes 

With temps that high, fermentation will be tricky for most beers... and a Carlsberg clone is pretty much out of the question. Hmm, perhaps a wit of some sort?

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RM-MN

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Since you are in south Florida and don't get the cold weather of us up north, use the savings in heating cost to purchase a refrigerator or freezer off Craigslist to control your temperatures if you need to lager. If you want to do an ale, buy a big cooler an put your fermenter in there surrounded with water that you keep cool by adding ice. You only need to control the temperature in the low to mid 60's and that only for the first 4 or 5 days. Then you can let it warm up to the low to mid 70's for another 2 weeks and bottle if your hydrometer shows that the beer is done.

HBngNOK

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I'm faced with the same problem here in the central Oklahoma summers. I'm a relatively new brewer, and have only done commercial extract kits. My "solution" is to comb through the beers I'm interested in brewing to see what yeasts are recommended, then look up the temperature range for that particular yeast; and brew beers that use more heat tolerant yeasts.

In my limited experience, I think the kit instructions from Northern Brewer and Brewer's Best are excellent - although, the more I've learned here on HBT, the more confident I am in tweaking the kit instructions .

BiscayneBrewing

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I live in the Homestead/Miami area. As RM-MN said, the temp controlled freezer/fridge is your best option. I finally broke down and got one this year and it has made a bigger improvement to my beer than anything else I've purchased or changed. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

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SwampassJ

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I started out using a cooler with ice bottles and water for the first few months but it's tricky here. The swamp cooler method isn't very useful here due to the high humidity most of the year. I got tired of swapping bottles out or calling home during the summer to have her swap the bottles for me so I went out and bought a freezer from Home Depot so I could fit two carboys and then ordered a temp controller from one of the brewing sites.

You can try craigslist for a freezer but down here it's slim picking for anything in decent shape or at a decent price. For some reason people here think listing a 5-10 year freezer for $30 dollars under Lowes/Home Depot is a good price and give you hell if you try to bargain it down to a reasonable amount.

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Jersh

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Maybe look at some Belgian recipes? I have a golden Belgian strong ale that I brew and let it ferment as high as it wants to get, last timeit got up to about 83F and turned out AWESOME, the closet it was in was about 76F.

Beyond that I have a small under counter fridge that fits a 6 gallon fermenter perfectly and I can set it at it's lowest thermostat setting and it holds at 63F.

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CKH1

Recipes 

Wow, thank you for all the assistance and information. I wasn't expecting anything.
I will look into the swamp cooler, along with some of the recipes mentioned.
Thanks again!
You'll be hearing from me again soon!

CKH1

Recipes 

Looking at whitelabs.com:
Looks like the Belgian yeasts have some of the highest fermentation temperatures that will suit south florida temperatures.
with a swampcooler, and a fan, I can most likely get the temp down to low 70's or high 60's.

QUESTION: What happens if I take a Belgian strain of yeast and add it to a Lager or Pilsner type recipe? Is it possible?

CourtHouseBrewing

Recipes 

I Live in central Florida and wanted to brew a pilsner. I found a small fridge for $180.00 delivered to my door in three days. I cut off the shelves on the door, painted the foam so it would not mold from moisture when not in use. What I did not realize is that the door shelf is what closed the switch to turn the unit on. I was hoping that the unit would be at 55oF in time before the yeast got going too much. What a mistake, I looked this morning and it was still at 75oF. That’s when I realized it never came on and the light was on all night. I put a toothpick in the switch and it came to life. The moral of the story is if you get a fridge get it to temperature and check it works before you put your beer in it. Oh well Hope it works out. Good luck and happy brewing.