Anybody brewing in this heat?

weird.
Portland is hot when we in SF Bay Area are strangely cool.

I remember some pretty hot times in Portland growing up... no AC, just a 4 block trip to Pier Park to cool off in the pool. full on lathe of heaven weather.

Now, Living in the SF East Bay, I have adapted to the heat. Saisons are usually king this time of year. i have porters and stouts bubbling away right now.

My standard O'Fest ( aka brewfest ) steam beer is kicking as well.

Us PacNorWesters like to complain. We complain if it rains and wonder where the sun is. As soon as it hits 70 we start complaining about how hot it is and wonder where the rain is.

MGAZ said:

My tap water is usually 92*-96*f

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My well water temp is around 60* And the temp outside today is 80* And cools down to the mid 60's at night.we havent even needed to run the AC yet this summer!

I've only been able to cool last couple batches down to around 82F with local water (San Antonio) plus it's been in the 100's for like, 3,000 straight days.

Last batch I used a large half barrel bucket to ice the beer. I just bought a pre-chiller though for next batch.

Another problem is that I have a lager in the beer fridge, so my ale has to deal with room temp. Coldest room in the house currently is 72 if I want to keep my electric bill sane.

creefer said:

I've only been able to cool last couple batches down to around 82F with local water (San Antonio) plus it's been in the 100's for like, 3,000 straight days.

Last batch I used a large half barrel bucket to ice the beer. I just bought a pre-chiller though for next batch.

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I was able to get down to 52F with 90F tap water and 20 lbs. of ice by recirculating ice water through my IC. The trick was to get it down to about 100F before switching to ice.

EvilGnome6 said:

I was able to get down to 52F with 90F tap water and 20 lbs. of ice by recirculating ice water through my IC. The trick was to get it down to about 100F before switching to ice.

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I'll have to work on a recycling set-up. For now, at least open loop gives me a way to water the lawn, too.

Haven't seen the official number, but it peaked at 108.4F here. But it's a dry heat. The air out of the evaporative cooler in the garage is 81F. It was a pain ordering the machine, but worth it. I can work in the garage without turning into popcorn.

I did get 2.5 gallons of cider started. Had to use Red Star champagne yeast, so it will be bone-dry. I plan on back-sweetening with another can of concentrate.

david_42 said:

Haven't seen the official number, but it peaked at 108.4F here. But it's a dry heat. The air out of the evaporative cooler in the garage is 81F. It was a pain ordering the machine, but worth it. I can work in the garage without turning into popcorn.

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swamp coolers don't work here in florida(in spite of the name). it's too humid.
i've been to the desert in august(burningman), seen 110 in the shade, and 90 degrees and 90% in florida is worse! the sweat just soaks your clothes and drips off(hopefuilly not too much into your wort). in the desert, it evaporates before you feel it and helps cool you off.
we do tend to go through a lot of beer out there, though!

It has certainly been hot here although this is not as hot of a summer as 3 years ago, but still warm and my evap cooler is cooling the whole house nice. Just like David_42, we have really low humity which helps out a whole bunch.

I went home yesterday and it was 107 outside and the cooler had the house at 78.5 only running on speed 3 out of 10 :rockin: So basically for the same amount of energy to run 3 light bulbs, I was cooling my entire house. I kicked it up to speed 5 and within 30 minutes the house was 74.

If anyone else lives in a dry climate I would suggest one. Everyone I talk to about them remember when they were kids and had the ugly yellow ones on their roof that made their house all humid, well the one we have is new and made by people that understand how to make them work better and even more efficiently. Check out Breezair® Evaporative Air Conditioning if curious, I am not a salesman but this is probably one of the best investments I have made.


It has been over 100 for a few weeks now and my house has not gone above 78 and it goes that high just because I don't want it lower when I am not there.

from weather underground

Date HighF HumidityLow
7/16/2009 113 11
7/17/2009 113 8
7/18/2009 116 8
7/19/2009 117 9
7/20/2009 113 4
7/21/2009 110 8
7/22/2009 107 8
7/23/2009 108 11
7/24/2009 104 12
7/25/2009 105 15
7/26/2009 110 10
7/27/2009 113 7

sharpstick said:

swamp coolers don't work here in florida(in spite of the name). it's too humid.
i've been to the desert in august(burningman), seen 110 in the shade, and 90 degrees and 90% in florida is worse! the sweat just soaks your clothes and drips off(hopefuilly not too much into your wort). in the desert, it evaporates before you feel it and helps cool you off.
we do tend to go through a lot of beer out there, though!

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Swamp coolers will work if you rely on ice to keep the temps down, no way with evaporation unless you have the A/C on but then you are defeating one of the benefits of A/C by putting humidity back in the air.


Well i opened my big mouth too soon 90°+ today with 100% humidity. Strong to severe thunderstorms this afternoon with flash flood warnings... Love the NE weather we get below 0° in winter and FL weather in summer

I brewed yesterday. Because of this thread I took note of the temp in the garage. It was 92F with very high humidity. Heck, it was warm, but I would not have even thought about it if not for this thread! I'll be brewing in the winter too, when it's so cold that anything wet I put on the counter for a few seconds will freeze to the surface. It's BEER fer chrisakes! We just gotta do it!

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

It's BEER fer chrisakes! We just gotta do it!

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Amen, Brother Gnome. Preach it!

springer said:

Swamp coolers will work if you rely on ice to keep the temps down, no way with evaporation unless you have the A/C on but then you are defeating one of the benefits of A/C by putting humidity back in the air.


Well i opened my big mouth too soon 90°+ today with 100% humidity. Strong to severe thunderstorms this afternoon with flash flood warnings... Love the NE weather we get below 0° in winter and FL weather in summer

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Tornado warning is posted for where I am seems one was located about 20 miles from me. Not often we get them here

texas summer is the most beautiful thing god ever gave us. average heat at about 100 degrees in my garage when i fire up both burners it gets to be about 110. aint bad at all. i brew a hefe that i water down to about 3.2% abv and about 6-8 of those during a brew session does me just fine

Last Sunday when I brewed it was 110° in my garage as I recall.

My Dad spent a lot of time in Saudi in the 70's and 80's. I asked him how hot is was. He said "Son, on the hottest day in Houston, put on a parka and run around the block". I think of that everytime I see a picture of our service men and women serving over there. Be sure ya'll hoist one (a beer and a prayer) for them when your brewing in this heat - Dwain

Was 110 here today. Riding my motorcycle to work was like having a dragon breath on me the whole time.

As for brewing... I bottled in my nice 70 deg house!

Dual Stage Ranco + Fridge + Fermwrap = Perfect Fermentation regardless of climate

With 2 16 month old kids and a baby sitter in grad school, I don't get a whole lot of chances. I brewed a Summer Citrus Wheat (from the recipe section) today because it was now or never. I use Death Brewers All Grain Stove Top method and it turned out pretty darn good. Some how my OG was 1.060 and the recipe was looking at 1.040. I think the fact that my LHBS got a new mill helped out quite a bit. It was hot and it was sweaty (especially with a crying child during the boil), but what are you gonna do?? I chilled down to 69*, pitched my yeast, moved the fermenter to the basement and added 4 bags of ice, and I will hope for the best. Sometimes you just gotta do it.

whutever said:

Last Sunday when I brewed it was 110° in my garage as I recall.

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Tucson, 110° It's BULL**!*, but we deal( like we have a choice!)...

I'm feeling ya bro!

Like thes perfect climate dwellers know what the deal is... For Real!!!!

Schnitzengiggle said:

Tucson, 110° It's BULL**!*, but we deal( like we have a choice!)...

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Got an early jump on it this morning. Moved the brew stand to the back porch and have 36 minutes left in the boil. Currently it's (only) 92 in the shade.