Brewing down south

For all of you peeps who brew down south; Florida, Texas, etc., now that summer is here, what do you do differently as far as fermenting? Do you pull out more/different equipment than in the winter?

Im new at this and I just keep my primary in the darkest coolest room in the house, which still isn't really cool. Just wondering what you more experienced people do.

not anywhere close to experiance, but i got a wine chiller that can range from 44-64. my primary fits inside perfectly.

Well, Im not that experienced, but I'm here in GA, and I have my fermenter sitting in a plastic tub in some cool water with a wet-t-shirt over the fermenter bucket. I aim a little fan on it and that keeps my temp just below 70 on most summer days.

Just looks up swamp cooler in the search. Thats what I use.

MonkHeDo said:

Well, Im not that experienced, but I'm here in GA, and I have my fermenter sitting in a plastic tub in some cool water with a wet-t-shirt over the fermenter bucket. I aim a little fan on it and that keeps my temp just below 70 on most summer days.

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^^This is what I do also. Works like a champ. Just be sure to top-up the water in the plastic tub every few days because the air from the fan causes a lot of evaporation.

I also move full kegs that aren't in the keezer (my pipeline) into the house during the summer because it's too hot to store them in the garage.

Thankfully my girlfriend loves beer and brewing so she has no issue with me having equipment and beer in various stages of fermentation scattered all around the house.

I've got a chest freezer, fermwrap, and dual temp control out in the shop for year-round fermentation exactly where I want it to be. My "coolest, darkest room" was the closet under the stairs, but I live in an pier-and-beam house from 1926...too much hot circulation under the house to keep below 74, typically, during the blistering months of continuous heat in Texas; hence the chest freezer, etc.

I have a fridge with an arduino temp controller on it. Works well, can set the temp on an SD card and get temperature logs from time to time. Look on craigslist for cheap or even free firdges, freezers, and wine coolers. You just have more possibilities and control than swamp coolers and pool/shirt/fans.

I keep my house at about 74 and ferment. My fermentation temps seem to average around 76. The only drawback to this is that the high fermentation temps release esters that produce an off taste (a late sour note). However, the ester off taste only lasts about 3 weeks, so I generally just need about 2 extra weeks of conditioning to make good beer without worrying about maintaining fermentation temps.

That said, one of my next upgrades is going to be a temp controlled freezer converted into a fermentation chamber.

Mini fridge and a johnson controls thermostat, otherwise I'd be fermenting beer near 78-80 degrees when it's 100+ outside.

I did the swamp cooler method for like 8 months, then one hot day I was gone for something like 8 hours and came home to beer near 80. Chest freezer with controller all the way.

bottomofthebarrel said:

not anywhere close to experiance, but i got a wine chiller that can range from 44-64. my primary fits inside perfectly.

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What kind? I have a vinotemp and it has a big hump in the rear. Just tried this and it fit, barely! Thanks for the tip!

robaincltnc said:

What kind? I have a vinotemp and it has a big hump in the rear. Just tried this and it fit, barely! Thanks for the tip!

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avanti 28 bottle.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/wine/wine-refrigerators-coolers/avanti/avanti_swc2800m.html

got it for like $138.

Best is a freezer or extra fridge with a temp controller, but my house is always around 69* inside, so I just set it in a dark corner or closet. I see a lot of houses down south with only a 3 ton a/c unit for their house. Having a 4-5 ton unit makes such a huge difference.

Backporchbrewery said:

Best is a freezer or extra fridge with a temp controller, but my house is always around 69* inside, so I just set it in a dark corner or closet. I see a lot of houses down south with only a 3 ton a/c unit for their house. Having a 4-5 ton unit makes such a huge difference.

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You keep it cooler in your house than nature keeps our winter noon temps.

This has been good info guys. I realize now, I am going to need to get a minifridge.

I just put mine in front of an a/c duct. This afternoon it was 98 degrees. Right now at 10:00 p.m it is 86 degrees. I have my a/c set at 76 degrees and the beer sitting near the a/c duct is 66 degrees. I usually have three or four buckets lined up and sometimes I put a heavy insulated blacket over them and roll the top and sides against the wall to maintain temps, but I am not doing that now. They are just sitting on the floor near the duct.

Another chest freezer here with Johnson controller set to ~65* and all is well.

I went with a swamp cooler for one batch; got tired of running frozen bottles of water around the house and refilling cooler. Picked up a chest freezer and temp controller; now I don't worry about keeping temps low anymore. One thing I have noticed as it gets warmer here in GA and using chest freezer w/ controller; put a tub of Damp-Rid or one of the Eva-Dry units inside makes a huge difference in moisture.

I have a chest freezer that I use. I also had two son of fermentation chillers that I used. It got so hot in West Texas that I had to give up the son of fermentation chillers as they were constantly on. Then again my power bill was so high that I didn't turn my air down. Also the poor insulation in the 80 year old house didn't help that out. When I get back to the states I'm going to build a room in our house specifically for cellaring and fermenting. It will have different 'zones' for different situations.

I use a refrigerator with a johnson controller. If I don't have room in the fermentation chamber, I just wrap my fermenters in a towel or an old t-shirt and keep it damn with a spray bottle. I can keep temps around 68 degrees, but requires a good bit of baby sitting.

I made a little chamber that I put fermenters in out of reflectex material.
I can keep temps below 70 for several days with just a few frozen water bottles. Look at my Gallery Images for more details, I saved a few pics of it there. It works great and took about 20 minutes to make. I have used them for over 2 years.

I don't do anything differently, except wait longer for my immersion chiller to work as tap temps are higher.

The swamp coolers are a great idea if it isn't too humid in your house, humidity can really lower the efficiency of it. A fridge with a temperature controller would be ideal, not just for the summer, because you can control any day to day temperature swings throughout the year.

If none of those are options then try brewing with the seasons. Many brewers let belgian beers free rise until around 80F or so. A saison, wit or belgian blonde are great summer beers. Hefeweizens typically do well in warmer temperatures as well.

In the winter, I use one frozen coke bottle in my swamp cooler. In the summer, I use two. In both cases, I swap them out once before work and once when I get home. It keeps the water temp around the carboy between 68 and 74 degrees.

I'd rather have a keezer but SWMBO's patience with my gadgets is currently at it's limit. Maybe next year.

Fermenting at 68 or 70 isn't really that temp - keep in mind the exothermic activity of yeast! 4-8 degrees higher!

Your beer will be incredibly better when you pay close attention to temperature control. Check your yeast requirements and shoot for the low side to compensate for the rise in temps inside your fermenters -

In the south, in the summer you have to do something! The tub of water with the t-shirt, or with some frozen water bottles is good - even better, make that tub an ice chest. Then it will hold the temps longer. Keep a rotation of frozen bottles, and change them out as needed to maintain the water where you want it.

or...go for the fridge/chest freezer, or other device.
good luck!

plastic tub with water, covered with a blanket, and old coke bottles i fill with water, then freeze. change out the ice bottles every 8-12 hours during fermentation. keeps the brew at 65-66 degrees (all in the house, of course)

7cu chest freezer set at 62* ad fridge set at 50*-52*and we run the A/C at 82*-84* @38% humidity

do you have a GE chest freezer by any chance? Im just wondering because I need to know if you can fit two carboys/buckets in a 7cu freezer.

AmusedBystander said:

do you have a GE chest freezer by any chance? Im just wondering because I need to know if you can fit two carboys/buckets in a 7cu freezer.

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There's a thread about this here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ge-7-0-cu-ft-2-6-5g-carboys-234046/

Hang Glider said:

Your beer will be incredibly better when you pay close attention to temperature control.

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Seriously.. this is the one of the easiest and biggest bang for your buck in terms of making better beer. I have a chest freezer + Ranco controller. I had a chest freezer break on me once and had to go back to brewing without a ferm chamber for a few batches until I was able to find a new one. The CA spring temps were almost perfect (~60), but the temp swings between night and day were enough to cause the yeast to stress a bit and put off some flavors I didn't want. The beers were still drinkable and actually over time most of those flavors went away, but after getting my new chamber set up - the first beer out of it was on a whole other level compared to the non temp controlled.

Central a/c and genrally brew Belgium at this time.

I make saisons, and brew a lot of styles with Saison yeast.

jbrookeiv said:

I make saisons, and brew a lot of styles with Saison yeast.

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Same here. Once May is over I switch almost all my beers and ciders to Saison strains. I might make a few regular ales or lagers throughout the summer, and if I do, I sacrifice my kegerator for a week to ferment in.

Chilling wort is my biggest hurdle. When I brewed last weekend the groundwater was 83 degrees. I adjust my recipes to add ice after the majority of cooling has taken place.

Austin_ said:

Chilling wort is my biggest hurdle. When I brewed last weekend the groundwater was 83 degrees. I adjust my recipes to add ice after the majority of cooling has taken place.

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I had the same problem last weekend. My 'cold' water was coming out of the tap at 85*. I think I'm going to make a prechiller to get my wort down to where I want it.

I definitely need to brew a Saison sometime soon. I guess with weather like this it makes sense to use a hot fermenting yeast. But I still want to brew my wheats and pales...I guess I'll have to build a separate fermentation chamber sometime soon.

IffyG said:

I had the same problem last weekend. My 'cold' water was coming out of the tap at 85*. I think I'm going to make a prechiller to get my wort down to where I want it.

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I've been toying with going no-chill. The only problem is I keep my apartment around 80 in the summer so it still wouldn't get down all the way. I guess once it gets to ambient temperatures I could throw it in the kegerator for a few hours.

Austin_ said:

I've been toying with going no-chill. The only problem is I keep my apartment around 80 in the summer so it still wouldn't get down all the way. I guess once it gets to ambient temperatures I could throw it in the kegerator for a few hours.

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That's why I don't chill :rockin:

Look into no-chill brewing, it's a god send for those of us in the South.

jbrookeiv said:

That's why I don't chill :rockin:

Look into no-chill brewing, it's a god send for those of us in the South.

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This thread inspired me. Ordering the 5 gal Winpak pail now.

Austin_ said:

This thread inspired me. Ordering the 5 gal Winpak pail now.

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You won't regret it. I've been no chilling for about 6 months now and haven't noticed a single difference in my beer.

Hang Glider said:

Fermenting at 68 or 70 isn't really that temp - keep in mind the exothermic activity of yeast! 4-8 degrees higher!

Your beer will be incredibly better when you pay close attention to temperature control. make that tub an ice chest. Then it will hold the temps longer. Keep a rotation of frozen bottles, and change them out as needed to maintain the water where you want it.

or...go for the fridge/chest freezer, or other device.
good luck!

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The cooler/frozen bottle rotation is what I do.

Now, Blasphemy Alert, I'm not so sure precise temp control will make that big of a difference taste-wise. Given: I haven't had a chance to try it both ways on my own beers. However, I have done side-by-side comparisons to similar commercial examples. Neither myself nor my "beer knowledgeable" friends can detect off-flavors from non-perfect ferm control.

This is not to say temp control is unimportant, it is. However, the levels of off-flavors produced by a non-automated ferm chamber appear to be over-rated.

Let the flames begin.:rockin: