How Belgians can help save the planet

OK, the wife and I have been making an effort to be a little more "green". We're taking extra steps here and there to conserve energy.

So, with that, I've been thinking about summer and how hot it'll get. We'll probably keep the thermostat set at 80 during the day time, which means my basement will be in the upper 70's range. So, brewing belgians and hefe's will be perfect for this weather.

Think about it. If you make something else, you'll need to run your AC all day, and thus waste energy.

The sacrifices we have to make for the common good. How will we get bye? I guess we'll manage drinking our Belgians and our hefes...

There are ways to get around running the AC all the time.

I have a MASSIVE kimchi fermentation bucket and I put all of my conditioning bottles and my primary in there and fill it up with water and throw in some ice from the freezer every once in a while. Is keeping it nice, cool and stable

You said Kimchi! I have horid stories of kimchi locked in a drawer in a hot garage during the summer for a month but will not divulge that here.

Use Mauri brew yeast. It runs clean up to 85F.

Speaking of kimchee, I fell in love with the stuff, when I lived in Hawaii.

Back, (well, kinda) to the subject at hand, the large water container is a great idea for cooling. Here, in Arizona, since our RH is low most of the time, we can gain 10 to 15 degrees, with a large bucket, t-shirt, fan and a small fountain pump. This system works best, if you use AC in your house, and not a swamp cooler, because basically, you are going to be swamp cooling your fermenter.

Carboy in a large bucket, =5 degrees, or so.
T-shirt gains another 5 degrees.
Wet t-shirt, and fan will give you another 5 degrees, maybe more.

Put the pump in the bucket, with your carboy in it. Wrap the t-shirt around the carboy. Rig a syphon hose from the pump, into a loop around the neck of the t-shirt, with holes along the part around the neck. (You only need a SMALL pump, nothing more than 50 gallons per hour, or so. All you need to do is keep the shirt wet.) Now, blow the fan on the wet carboy.

steve

Dennys Fine Consumptibles said:

Use Mauri brew yeast. It runs clean up to 85F.

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A few White Labs Belgian yeast cultures are good for warmer fermentations.

They have a great website too!

http://whitelabs.com/

-- Trev

Kimchi is usually nasty stuff unless you get a good batch of homemade stuff with lots of garlic

But there being so much kimchi in Korea means that I can get GIANT plastic buckets very cheaply and they're perfect for keeping stuff cool in the summer and water is great for keeping temp steady in any season.

I'm already ahead of you on that Cheese! No AC allowed in military housing here... already ambient 75-80 every day so I have two hefes and a belgian going (secondary and bottle conditioning). Saved my wit yeast to do another soon.

Yeah, my belgian ale is at about 73 in a fermentatin closet that is at an ambient temp of 68. It is going to town at about 5 bubbles/sec in my blow off system. I am excited to see how this one turns out. I am thinking about fermenting it in a prim, second, and then a third fermenter (Carboy) before bottle conditioning. any ideas? here is my recipe. Also, what temp should I be fermenting at?

Amount Item Type % or IBU
4 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 37.2 %
2 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 18.6 %
2 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 18.6 %
1.00 oz UK Fuggles [4.00%] (60 min) Hops 13.7 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.00%] (30 min) Hops 10.5 IBU
1.00 oz UK Fuggles [4.00%] (7 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
0.50 oz Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 7.0 min) Misc
1 lbs 12.0 oz Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 16.3 %
1 lbs Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) Sugar 9.3 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Ale (Wyeast Labs #1214) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.017 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.9 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.9 %
Bitterness: 27.9 IBU Calories: 318 cal/pint
Est Color: 6.8 SRM

Randy Mosher has recomended doing saisons at 90˚F.

Love a cold Belgian Wit in the summer.

Watch that Wit yeast though. It's gonna wanna climb up those carboy walls and take a nap. You'll need to give it a swirl now and again to wash that yeast back into the beer and put it back to work.

I already ordered the ingredients a few weeks ago for a Hefe and a Belgian...I'm still new to brewing so I didn't really notice they fermented at warmer temps. Guess I just got lucky in my picks


-- and I married a Korean, so I have wonderful homemade kimchi all the time

So, about three seperate fermentation chambers... good idea or waste of time? Also, how long before I should bottle this beast.

Maybe that's why I don't like Belgians & Hefes, I don't like hot weather either. After burning $8,000 on a top notch heat pump, I'm using it!

FWIW, Jamil's talked pretty strongly AGAINST fermenting hefes, at least, at such high temps (strongly recommends 67&#176. Pretty sure he's said the same about fermenting Belgians. I'd be inclined to do a water bath and try and keep temps as close to 70° as I could without being energy-wasteful. But, I *really* don't like tasting hot alcohol in my beers, which may be why I'm not a big fan of Belgians

I like my beers served at around 89 degrees, so I should be golden

You know, my hefe I brewed tastes better to me at room temp and barely carbed than cold and carbed. It seems to have this strong citrus bite when it's cold and carbed to style.

cool brew said:

I like my beers served at around 89 degrees, so I should be golden

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Hot beer?


I don't know about saving the planet, but my Belgian Wit I'm drinking right now sure can brighten up a $hitty day.