Montrachet yeast question

So my friend and I are getting into brewing and we're starting a batch of apfelwein this weekend. we live in a house with 12 other guys and there is no central air just window units. ideally, we put the carboys and fermenters in the basement, but the school is sending over an architect for a housing inspection next week so it would not look that good if the school knew we had 5 gallons of homebrew in the basement (a couple of the guys are under 21) so we thought we could just throw it in the closet and lock the door to our room.

will this be too hot for the yeast? keep in mind we are going up for the weekend so after that, the air will not be on so it will get quite warm. what temperature range can motrachet yeast handle before we would start to notice off flavors?

i know, the best thing to do is wait till we move back in and have it in a cool environment but school isnt for 6 weeks and we'd like to have something good to sip on when we return

thanks

Montrachet and Apfelwein are pretty fool proof. Set it in a tub of water with a T-Shirt stretched over the carboy. The shirt will wick the water and evaporation should help keep it cool.

ok thanks alot...do you think 6 weeks is enough time for it to age in the fermenter and be ready to drink?

Age it for 4 weeks, then bottle it and let it condition in the bottles for 2 weeks. If you want it bubbly, add priming sugar right before bottling.

I don't *THINK* high temps affect Montrachet like they affect ale yeasts, but I'm not a wine expert. Hopefully someone else will chime in.

I fermented my apfelwein i have bottled right now at 80f.
It's what I keep my house at in the summer, sometimes I splurge and bring the house temp down to 78, but changing the temp of the entire 5 gallons takes a while.

I pulled a couple pints of the apfelwein at bottling and it was great.
I can't imagine a closet in your house affecting anything, specially if its only in there a couple of hours.

thanks for the quick replies but here's the thing: we both live about 3 hours away from our house at school so i was planning on pitching the yeast and just letting it do its thing for 6 weeks and then put the majority of it back into the apple juice bottles and carbing a few into 12 oz bottles...would i still need the conditionong period using this method (not counting the time it takes the glass bottles to carb)

polarbearbrewing said:

thanks for the quick replies but here's the thing: we both live about 3 hours away from our house at school so i was planning on pitching the yeast and just letting it do its thing for 6 weeks and then put the majority of it back into the apple juice bottles and carbing a few into 12 oz bottles...would i still need the conditionong period using this method (not counting the time it takes the glass bottles to carb)

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That should be ok, as long as the airlock doesn't go dry from evaporation.

ya, don't even think about using vodka in your airlock if you aren't gonna even see it for 6 weeks.
It evaporates quick.

Brandon O said:

ya, don't even think about using vodka in your airlock if you aren't gonna even see it for 6 weeks.
It evaporates quick.

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That it does.

I pitched mine 5th and filled the three piece airlock and it's half evaporated already, 3 days later.