Higher Temp Yeasts

I would like to know what yeasts are good to use in a higher temp environment, around 78 degrees. I'm in Florida and it isn't economical for me to drop my thermostat down too low. I'm mostly doing ciders at the moment.

Also I tried safale-05 and it left a really strange taste that I can't even describe, this has happened to me with a mead before and I'm sure now that it has to do with the higher fermenting temp.

are you familiar with using 'wicking' or evaporative cooling? it is a cheap, pretty easy way to keep things much cooler than ambient temps without a cooler.

if that isn't an option, use Nottingham yeast.

I know what you mean about odd flavors at high temps.

I pitched my yeast at 32 degrees Celsius on my first brew. It came out fairly decent, but theres an odd flavor in it that im hoping will mellow out in time.

My ferm. went fine, but i fear the temp was too high to start with.

If it's too hot for me next time, I'm going to just buy a big veggie bucket and fill it with water and keep ice bottles in it (which is evaporative cooling? i'm not sure)

I am also in Florida, and use a picnic cooler with a homemade styrofoam lid (for the airlock to poke through) to ferment in. The cooler has water and ice inside to drop the temperature to fermentation range.

If you don't want to go that route, some of the Belgian yeasts tolerate temperatures in the high 70s, especially saison strains.

Wyeast says their saison yeast 3724 temperature range is 70-95F.

I live in south fl, so i deal with the heat and it sucks. i got a decent size plastic container from wal mart, tall enough so only the top 1/5 of my carboy sticks out over the top. fill that container up with water, stick your carboy in so its sitting in the water. I froze about 4, 2 liter bottles(old coke bottles) and added them each morning, evening and before bed, this helped keep the temp down, and even when i was at work for long days, the water holds the temp better then the air. try that, its the best i can do without buying another fridge.

japhroaig said:

are you familiar with using 'wicking' or evaporative cooling? it is a cheap, pretty easy way to keep things much cooler than ambient temps without a cooler.

if that isn't an option, use Nottingham yeast.

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Probably won't work with the humidity in Florida.