Non-Belgian beers to brew in summer?

I've got an unusual weekend off, and with the nice weather here in Seattle of late, I want to brew!

However, my house has been hitting ~80F, which puts a damper on things. I've looked and looked for ideas, and all I find are shouts of Saisons, Wits, and other estery Belgians.

Now, I don't mind a Belgian beer now and then, and I can certainly appreciate them, but it's not the kind of thing I want to drink over and over (though I do love my 'quads', not very refreshing). I've got 4lbs of various hops in the freezer needing used up, and I thought I'd make a hefe or a hefty American rye wheat to put a dent in all the Hallertau or American hops I've got, I dunno.

Anyway, I'm going to try surrounding my carboy in a tub of water with frozen water bottles, but I doubt even then I could get stuff down past mid-high 60's if I was very lucky.

Am I out of luck for the next month or two, or can anyone suggest a yeast strain that will not be overly estery?

You'd be surprised how cool you can get a fermenter in a water bath with some ice. especially if you add some salt to the bath.

Summer brewing seems to be the realm of saison and belgian brewers, though, i agree. Except for those with refrigerated fermentation chambers, or the patience and perseverance for swamp cooling.

That Being Said, a friend of mine in kentucky is having good luck with an anchor steam clone recipe, brewing with lager yeast at temperatures in the 70's. Which is the california common way.

Thanks! Hmm...that's not a bad idea! Maybe I'm underestimating the power of a water bath. I guess there's only one way to find out. I'll check out doing a steam beer, that's one style I've never really looked at much.

Im hitting consistent 60 degrees in my swamp coolers- in 80 degree ambient in NY - nasty time for weather here. Darn heat and a kids party dropped my temp a ton, and used up all my ice.

You can always do a wheat of some kind...esters are no big deal that way.

Florida brewer here.

with a swamp cooler and changing out frozen water bottles ~2 times a day, i am able to keep my fermenting beer in the mid 60s.

Berliner Weisse, yumm

The tub with frozen water bottles is called a swamp cooler. It's a fairly common approach to maintain fermentation temperatures in the warmer months. If you could get the temperature of the fermenting beer down to the mid to high 60s, that would be perfect for the majority of ale yeast strains.

Lots of good ideas, thanks guys! If I can decide on a style I'll do a half batch to see what my swamp cooler is capable of. I feel much better about this prospect. Temp seems to have spiked at 90F here yesterday but should drop to at least low 80's.

I hadn't thought of a Berliner Weisse specifically but you guys are right, the esters would be okay there. I've been wanting to make one inoculated with dregs from a bottle or two of 1809 since it has live cultures. That's definitely going on the to-list. Any tips on doing one without contaminating my equipment?

Alright, so while doing more research, I discovered Dampfbier, basically the German California Common, but it uses hefeweizen yeast, and ferments in the 70's (though I may keep it a bit lower to keep the banana in check). Recipe is simple, here's what I came up with:

6.5lbs Pilsner Malt
3.5lbs Munich
1.5oz Hallertauer (~4.8%AA) @ 45 min
1 oz Hallertauer (~4.8%AA) @ 0 min

I haven't decided on a yeast yet but am leaning towards Wyeast 3056 as I understand it's a bit milder on the banana and bubblegum.

Any thoughts?

I had an imported dampfbier once and it will be a long time before i try it again. It wasn't good though it could have been spoiled. i thought dampfbier was lager yeast brewed at higher temps.

Anyway, have you considered witbier (another subclass of wheat/belgian). ... i hear it can do well at higher temps....

iambeer said:

I had an imported dampfbier once and it will be a long time before i try it again. It wasn't good though it could have been spoiled. i thought dampfbier was lager yeast brewed at higher temps.

Anyway, have you considered witbier (another subclass of wheat/belgian). ... i hear it can do well at higher temps....

Click to expand...

If you've had Anchor Steam, that's brewed at ale temperatures with "california lager" yeast.

My friend in kentucky who for whatever reason refuses to try and control his fermentation temperatures has brewed a couple 1 gallon batches of an anchor steam clone with S-23 dry lager yeast at temperatures in the low 70's and tells me that it compares well with the real thing.

I'm in Seattle, and I'm fermenting right now without a fridge/freezer/fermenation chamber.

I am using the bathtub full of water in my basement and it is staying around 65-66 degrees. It's an old steel tub, and is great for this kind of thing. Even when it got up to 90 this weekend, the bathroom got up to 73 max until I left the door open.

Have you tried a White IPA? I had Deschutes Chainbreaker and it was very drinkable.

Chainbreaker White IPA Clone

Deschutes even gives recipes, well, ingredient lists at least and a few other specifics.

iambeer said:

I had an imported dampfbier once and it will be a long time before i try it again. It wasn't good though it could have been spoiled. i thought dampfbier was lager yeast brewed at higher temps.

Anyway, have you considered witbier (another subclass of wheat/belgian). ... i hear it can do well at higher temps....

Click to expand...

Everything I've read says it's brewed with weizen yeast. I was thinking of just brewing a half batch to be safe but seems like a bit of a waste for the yeast.

I've never much cared for wits really, but I haven't had many either. It's possible there are some out there I'd like, but I would have to find them before I brew one.

http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/Dampfbier.html

This is the link for one of the articles I read on Dampfbier. There's a BYO article but it's almost the same, verbatim.

It's definitely cooling down, 76F in the house today so as long as we don't get a heat wave I'm not too worried. I'm picking up the grains and yeast tonight, and will be brewing this weekend. I'd thought of kräusening it but I think that will be impractical.

My previous post didn't appear for some reason, but my recommendation is a White IPA; such as Deschutes Brewery's Chainbreaker White IPA. It's a very drinkable beer. They even give ingredient lists for all their beers for home-brewers to try and clone.

Anachronist said:

http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/Dampfbier.html

This is the link for one of the articles I read on Dampfbier. There's a BYO article but it's almost the same, verbatim.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I see now that the traditional dampfbier is barley ale brewed with a wheat ale yeast. And that as another poster pointed out, the Anchor Steam version uses a California lager yeast.. Just only slightly confusing. I might have to try the Anchor Steam finally.

I liked the anchor steam i tried. Interesting brew. I can see how a wealthy dilettante could decide that he didn't want to live in a world where he couldn't have that beer with his plate of spaghetti. Would go really well with tomato, basil, and oregano.

I've only ever had Anchor twice. Once before I really found my love of beer and thus under appreciated it, and the second time I remember really liking it. I need to refresh my memories of it! In my outdated signature, the Sorachi Ace steam beer which used a Bavarian lager yeast my buddy happened to have turned out to be one of the best beers I've ever brewed. Wish there were more steam beers out there!

if you can keep your fermenting beer in the low 70s (70-72 F), i think you could get away with using US-05.

make an american wheat beer.