I live in a quite hot country (30-40°C in the summer), and from what I have heard you can not brew beer above certain temperatures. So I'm trying to think of a solution for this problem before the summer comes around in June. I'm thinking if I can brew all my beer in the spring, and then somehow keep it until the summer... although I also have very limited bottles, actually am mostly using soda bottles so far! So what is the best way to do this? Or is there a way to brew in the summer time?
Seasonal brewing
- Thread starter Noz03
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Most of us find an old fridge/freezer and attach a temperature controller to it to make a fermentation chamber. Additionally you will find some wonderfully creative other techniques for cooling your fermenter using things such as a swamp cooler (a tub of water with the fermenter in it covered with a shirt and added frozen water bottles to cool), or other ways like building a chamber and cooling it with a window AC unit. Check out the DIY section for many examples.
CircusHooker
Well-Known Member
Brew a saison!
Are there any cheaper options? The other thing is I will only be in this country for one more summer, I doubt I could brew enough to be worth spending money on a fridge :/
Is it not possible to brew the beer and then keep it in water bottles in a dark place for a few months before I bottle it in the summer?
Cheap? lets see. The swamp cooler is the cheapest I know of. But it requires you to pay attention to temps and be able to throw ice in your bucket as required. Throwing the frozen water bottles in a swamp cooler to maintain temps is probably best. Otherwise the best bet is to look for styles that are best brewed at the temperatures that you can maintain. Think of anything you can find or engineer to cool the area cheaply. Underground, dampness, utilize the coolest area you can find and maintain temps, then decide what to brew.
BansheeRider
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2012
- Messages
- 1,505
- Reaction score
- 101
I know there are certain brews that like warmer temps. A poster above mentioned saisons, I've also heard heffes and other wheat beers like warmer temps.
Mirkin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2013
- Messages
- 66
- Reaction score
- 7
circushooker said:
+1
For ales needing 20C ferments:
A big tub/bath of cold water for your fermenter, wet towel over the top of the fermenter - this will help keep temps down when ambient is around. For the hotter days have 6-9 big 2L bottles of water frozen and rotating through the water (under the towel) as required to keep the temperature down.
And option 3 is brew all winter/spring/early summer like a mad beast to stockpile enough to get through without brewing during the summer.
maybemutlee
Well-Known Member
We've had some nasty temps here of late and I've brewed a lager, which needs to be between 13 and 24c. We had nine days straight with temps over 32c so I had to keep it cool. This is my method below. I have, as mentioned by previous posters, used frozen water bottles too. I rotate...two in the freezer and two in the chiller pictured. I swap them every 12 hours or so. So far my temps have been spot on 17c so it has worked really well. The towel on top is kept damp too.
Good luck!!
Good luck!!
Is my idea possible though? To just store the uncarbonated beer in large plastic bottles after it has finished fermenting, then just bottle it in the summer ready to drink? Or would the beer go bad in this condition?
You can do a long condition, though in my opinion collecting bottles is not so difficult and you can always bottle and store them that way. If you wait too long to bottle carb, you may need to add a little fresh yeast or otherwise carbonation may take a while to rouse the yeast.
kombat
Well-Known Member
What lagers can you brew at 24° C??? That's too high for an ale, let alone a lager. Is that a typo? Did you mean to say "13 and 14c" (which would STILL be too hot, by the way)
Clever solution, and that's a good temperature for an ale, but again, still way too hot for a lager. Lagers should ferment between 7 and 10° C. That's wort temperature, so the surrounding air temperature should be even cooler than that.
Oh wow I never knew how cool it had to be! It will actually be my first ever brewing, the temperature here changes so suddenly there is literally only about 6 weeks of spring and then its warm enough to start going to the beach. does you think "19 | 6" average temps will be fine? I think I will just brew all 3 of my kits in one time. Then seal them in a secondary bottle after the ferment is finished and keep it in the basement for the summer time.
kombat
Well-Known Member
The ideal temperature range for fermenting lagers is of course yeast-dependent, but in general, you want to keep the wort temperature in the mid-40's (F). Since fermentation is an exothermic reaction (i.e., produces its own heat), then the surrounding air should be a little bit cooler (5-ish degrees F) than your desired fermentation temperature.
Ales, again, depends on the yeast. The thing is, ale yeast will LOVE warm temperatures such as in the high 70's to mid 80's F. It will ferment like crazy at those temperatures and finish up in a couple of days, producing a vigorous fermentation. However, they'll also throw off a ton of off-flavours. It looks impressive, but it will produce undrinkable beer.
In general, with ale yeast, you want a wort temperature in the mid-to-upper 60's F. So the ideal ambient temperature would be in the low 60's (since the fermentation will raise the wort temperature 5-10 degrees for ales).
The goal is to have a nice, controlled fermentation. If your normal-gravity beer is fermenting like crazy and blowing out the airlock and finishing in 3 days, you're likely fermenting too hot. Granted, some yeast are particularly enthusiastic, but in my experience, a "good" fermentation is one where I have a nice 2-3" krausen that never threatens the airlock, and falls back into the beer after about a week. That will minimize off flavours.
Ales, again, depends on the yeast. The thing is, ale yeast will LOVE warm temperatures such as in the high 70's to mid 80's F. It will ferment like crazy at those temperatures and finish up in a couple of days, producing a vigorous fermentation. However, they'll also throw off a ton of off-flavours. It looks impressive, but it will produce undrinkable beer.
In general, with ale yeast, you want a wort temperature in the mid-to-upper 60's F. So the ideal ambient temperature would be in the low 60's (since the fermentation will raise the wort temperature 5-10 degrees for ales).
The goal is to have a nice, controlled fermentation. If your normal-gravity beer is fermenting like crazy and blowing out the airlock and finishing in 3 days, you're likely fermenting too hot. Granted, some yeast are particularly enthusiastic, but in my experience, a "good" fermentation is one where I have a nice 2-3" krausen that never threatens the airlock, and falls back into the beer after about a week. That will minimize off flavours.
I live in the Willamette Valley of oregon which has very temperate climate. Winter gets cold but not extremely cold, summer gets hot but not extremely hot. I have been able to successfully use a swamp cooler in all seasons.
In the summer, I brew ales and for the first week of ferment I have add cold water to make sure the water in the swamp cooler stays around 60-66F.
In the winter, I brew lagers and have to add hot water to keep the swampcooler water in the 50-56F range.
It takes a lot of maintenance (I can't brew and then leave town in the next few days) but I've had consistently awesome results. I keep about 10gal of beer in about 20gal of water, and this bucket sits in a shed that's shaded by trees so it is also moderated from the maximum temperature variation.
It's cheap!!
In the summer, I brew ales and for the first week of ferment I have add cold water to make sure the water in the swamp cooler stays around 60-66F.
In the winter, I brew lagers and have to add hot water to keep the swampcooler water in the 50-56F range.
It takes a lot of maintenance (I can't brew and then leave town in the next few days) but I've had consistently awesome results. I keep about 10gal of beer in about 20gal of water, and this bucket sits in a shed that's shaded by trees so it is also moderated from the maximum temperature variation.
It's cheap!!
Swamp cooler is very easy, just takes daily maintenance to keep it low. I dont know how well It will do with +40C heat though, thats quite hot. I lived in Italy last summer and my house ran from 30-40 I was forced to stop a few months in the summer.
Swamp cooler and making those few select styles that work well at high temps in conjunction is really the best bet for you. Siasons liking 80-90F temps is surely the best bet. If you can get the swamp cooler down a little more Hefe's and some odd belgians. Just make sure you read up on the yeast you use beforehand and DO NOT use Nottinghams, it really tastes funky when warm.
Good luck!!
Swamp cooler and making those few select styles that work well at high temps in conjunction is really the best bet for you. Siasons liking 80-90F temps is surely the best bet. If you can get the swamp cooler down a little more Hefe's and some odd belgians. Just make sure you read up on the yeast you use beforehand and DO NOT use Nottinghams, it really tastes funky when warm.
Good luck!!
Also, if you have a part of your house/garage that is underground you will usually find an area that is cooler than the rest for that extra couple degrees.
To answer your question. The off flavors are caused by fermenting at the wrong temps, not storing. Beer does go 'stale' this is often caused by 'skunking.' Basically over time, light and heat put energy into the bonds and cause the hop acid to breakdown. So over time they will degrade, but this is not the same as fermenting to warm and generating off flavors from bad ferment temps. OTOH, if it tastes bad it may not matter why -except to correct the next batch
With that said, if you ferment and then rack 2nd container, you should be ok. This assumes fill to the top and leave very little air in the secondary. In the primary you need head space, in the secondary you want none. It is even possible to leave it in the primary for a couple of months, but given your temps 30C to 40C (86F-104F) I don't know. Try to keep them in a cellar if possible to keep the cooler.
brokendownyota
Member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2013
- Messages
- 23
- Reaction score
- 0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator
I suspect you could build something like this out of 2x4, plywood, and then scrounge up some sand. Just add water occasionally...
I suspect you could build something like this out of 2x4, plywood, and then scrounge up some sand. Just add water occasionally...
ladodger34
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2013
- Messages
- 98
- Reaction score
- 13
Lagunitas said:
I would say for about 7-8 mos. of the year, you are probably right. In the inland areas, it stays pretty consistently in the 90s from late June to early October with quite a few high 90-low 100 days for good measure.
If the temperature is that important what about the difference of night and day? For example today we had 17c in the day and down to 1 degree c in the night. A bit on the extreme side but its usually at least 10 to 15 degrees difference. Anyway, weather sites say the average is 19/7C at the time I am planning to brew, how is this? Will also look at a saisons.
