Knittycat

Recipes 

Hello again, your local poor equipmentless newbie with another question!

I live in south Texas.

I don't have central air.

I'm sitting at my computer and it's currently... 75* degrees (just got warmer!). I'm quite comfortable. Often times it's 80+ and still comfy. No reason to turn on the A/C!

So, I figure home brewed beer isn't in my near future. Is there anything I can do to get brewing sooner? I live in a very small house, no basement (I live in a swamp, it'd flood!), and so, no cool place to store anything.
Also, I just realized that with my century old house, the temperatures fluctuate pretty drastically throughout the day and night, even in the winter. Is there a way to protect my brew from that?

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Golddiggie

Recipes 

Two words for you...

Fermentation chamber.

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Knittycat

Recipes 

One word bac'atcha

Poor.

Srsly. I'm living on a bout 1000 dollars a month.

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Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, does not try it on.

TyTanium

Recipes 

Many use a "swamp cooler" with great success. Requires a bit more maintenance, but is cheap and easy to assemble.

EDIT: See below for description

HibsMax

Recipes 

I see that you have quite a few limitations. Do you have room for a trash can that you can place your fermenter in, and then top up with water? The water's temperature will change much slower than the air's so ambient temperature changes won't affect your beer as much. You can add ice packs, frozen water bottles, etc. to chill the water more if necessary. That's what I do when I ferment lagers in my basement.

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

...or...

Get a ~15 gallon tub; put fermenter in tub; fill tub with water to level of beer; add frozen bottles or ice as needed to keep the tub water at the temp you want to ferment at.

Knittycat

Recipes 

Hmmm. Thanks, I shall search the forum for swamp cooler.

Is it good for lowering temperatures, or just maintaining a constant temp? I'm figuring that for about 7-8 months I won't be able to do much because the ambient temperatures in the house are just too darn high. We're talking mid 80s most of the year. (When it's 105 outside with 80% humidity... 85 is a pretty good house temperature)

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Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, does not try it on.

kmos

Recipes 

How do you feel about Belgian Ales?

Some of these yeast strains will flourish in the mid-70s up into the 80s (and some say 90s). You'll still need a swamp cooler to get your wort down to pitching temp, but you should be able to make some pretty beautiful ales with your ambient conditions.

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Yooper

Recipes 

We don't get the hot temperatures that you do, but what I do in the summer is to put my fermenter in an igloo cooler. I fill the cooler with water, up to the level of beer in the fermenter, and then drop in a frozen water bottle or two. Even if the house warms up, the water bath stays cooler than ambient temperatures plus it takes a LONG time for that much water and beer to warm up so it really stops the temperature fluctuations in the fermenter!

Here's a photo:



The lid was hollow, so I removed it (and kept it to use my cooler as a cooler when it's not a Yooper Fermentation Chamber) and used some foam insulation sheets, cut to fit. I think that is four layers of that foam board. It works great!

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Knittycat

Recipes 

I *might* I'd have to move stuff around, but I just might.

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Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, does not try it on.