Humidity and Beer??????

I was wondering , by living in ( the deep south lol ) is there anything i should worry about when getting ready to do my brew? b.t.w i will probably be doing a extract first but i will then work to a partial mash and then an all grain so any advice would help and maybe if there are any other members from southern Mississippi if they could give me any additional advice.

cheer's

Brew inside!!!

humidity won't factor in on your batch since you don't have a huge boil to do like an all grain brewer, but be sure you can maintain the proper fermentation temperatures. Low 70's to upper 60's for ales.

Bug spray! Mosquitoes were killing me while brewing yesterday.

Drink plenty of water especially if you are drinking beer. Nothing like being so dehydrated/exhausted that you forget to pitch you yeast or something.

lol im a true southerner dont worry about me in the heat lol im ok its my beer im going to be worried with lol

Depending on what type of Kettle you use (specifically the surface area of the wort), make sure that you don't boil too vigorously in the good ole deep south heat (easy to do). I live next door in LA and boiled yesterday in a larger Kettle than I usually use, and brewed way too vigorously, losing 2.25 Gal in 60 min (out of 6.25 Gal!). In addition it was windy yesterday which I read can also increase the rate. Just get a nice gentle boil going and you should be good (and lose a lot less than I did yesterday!). My previous batches were in a turkey fryer kettle and less vigorous and I had no issues with the boil off rate.

And like malkore said, get that primary fermenter in the coolest/darkest place in your house. I use a swamp cooler and can maintain mid/upper 60's by throwing ice packs in as needed. Pic of my swamp cooler (without the shirt): http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/o8m_k80wT-Vjo59UuAhLlA?feat=directlink

Happy Brewing/Good luck!!

hey man thats an amazing idea you posted there umm but what is the shirt of your swamp cooler , the lid?

DuffManMississippi said:

hey man thats an amazing idea you posted there umm but what is the shirt of your swamp cooler , the lid?

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no, its to cool down the fermenter more. Water will wick up the shirt which is draped around the carboy and evaporate. Evaporative cooling!

EXACTLY (Edcculus), just a wet shirt (wet it with the cool water) that you wrap/put over the top of the carboy that also drapes into the water. It basically helps pull the cool water over your entire carboy helping it stay cool via evaporation, or something like that (what I read). Here's a pic of the shirt being pulled back to view fermentation (it wraps all the way around, no pic of that )...

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FUG6HW43t1wr1PuQRkZhEg?feat=directlink

FYI DuffManMississippi - tried to reply to your PM but your mailbox is full, shoot me an email via our club site (site owner) and I'll reply.

Humidity will affect your beer if you're only using a wet shirt to cool the carboy. I find a wet shirt is almost useless down here as it's so humid that no evaporation takes place and thus no cooling. Throw a couple of bottle of ice in the water and keep rotating them out as needed.

Austin's right, you have to add ice (I've used the re-freezable gel packs, but have since moved on to ziploc medium size containers filled with water and frozen (larger than bottles/melt slower)). About the shirt, every time I check on the beer, the shirt is sopping wet and cool (during the entire fermentation), so I figure it has to be pulling that water from somewhere, but like Austin said, might be the air!! Either way, I recommend the shirt, it certainly doesn't hurt or cost anything, and can only help keep the bottle cool and covered/not exposed to light (I use a dark shirt and dip it in the cool water when I start). And I forgot to mention, I put a blanket on top of the whole cooler to try and keep the cool air from escaping as much as possible!!

Duffman, you can see the frequency of my ice pack additions (gel packs) below, my optimal temp for that yeast was 68-73 (according to manufacturer):

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t5_wRdtNHBpGruwDthIoNRg&output=html
:rockin:

Gainesville FL brewer here. +1 on brewing inside, or at night, or in winter (you know, those 2 weeks in Feb when its a frigid 40-50F).

Never thought about it, but I was always disapointed when I tried to do the swamp cooler thing with the t-shirt wick. I guess the massive humidity down here does cut down on the evaporation rate.

ghpeel said:

Never thought about it, but I was always disapointed when I tried to do the swamp cooler thing with the t-shirt wick. I guess the massive humidity down here does cut down on the evaporation rate.

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Yeah, all that does when it is humid is start you a nice mosquito colony in your house.