Second Brew: Should I Wait?

Hello -- I just brewed my first beer today (and already had my first n00b infection panic, posted in another thread)... and no matter how this batch turns out, I want to brew another.

Here's the thing: I live in New York, and when I am ready to brew again it will be mid-July or August... and I expect temps to hit the 90s with loads of humidity.

Is there anything I can brew/ferment/bottle in this kind of weather? I have AC of course but I do not keep it on 24/7 and certainly would not want the AC on while I'm not home, etc. etc.

So -- should I wait for cooler weather, or can I keep at it? And if so, what can I brew?

Thanks in advance.

Empty out your fridge and ferment lagers

Honestly I have no idea if there are ale yeasts that can ferment that high, but I'm going to guess no. Anyhow, you want steady temps for fermenting, or it throws the yeast all out of whack.


I think >_>

It's probably best to wait. Belgians are best for hot weather. You can go to around 75 degrees, sometimes higher. If you can somehow control the temp for the first 3-4 days, you can then let it rise to whatever to finish out. Within the first few days the flavor profile is mostly finished.

Yeast will certainly ferment at that temp, although the result may not be drinkable. Expect high esters. Yum yum bubblegum.

Swamp cooler! My apt has been 80 for the past week, and I am currently fermenting an ESB that I wanted at temps of 65-68. So I got a plastic bucket that went about half-way up my carboy, filled it with cold water from the tap (my cold water is about 68 from the tap), and chucked in an ice pack or two. I chilled the wort to 68 and pitched, then put the Better Bottle in the plastic bucket with a wet t-shirt covering the bottle and soaking in the cool water. The t-shirt soaks up the cool water and evaporates it off, creating a 'sweating' effect that cools down the wort. With regular, twice a day ice pack changes (morning and evening), my cooler has stayed between 65-70, with my wort running a degree or two cooler (I took the wort temp a few times with a sanitized thermometer).

Of course, as this has been a bit of a PITA, my next brew is gonna be a Saison. Gonna let the warm temps work for me, not against me.

After a few more batches you are going to realize that you need some way of controlling your temperature if you really want to make good beer. I use an upright freezer with a temperature controller on it that keeps an ambient temp of 58 (the beer stays right around 64 and goes up to around 70 when fermenting). I bought the freezer off craigslist for $50 and the controller from my LHBS for $60...temperature problems solved and I can fit 4 carboys in there comfortably.

I'm in the same climate (Long Island) and I wrestled with that question last year. For me, I think getting the fermentation process down to a science with good temperature control has made a huge difference to the quality of my brews. I'm not going to brew anything in July and I actually have my last brew fermenting away as of today.

Having said that, there are a lot of methods to deal with temperature - coolers with bottles of frozen water, fans with teeshirts to evaporate water and the like. Do a search and you will see some very inventive and inexpensive methods and many are well tested. For me, it's a decision over how much time and effort it will be to keep the beer at a temperature I want vs. the need to make another batch. Having a pipeline made that decision a lot easier this year so I'm avoiding July and August.

Since you are on your first brew you may want to consider some of the same things - do you have control over the environment or is it going to be up and down while you are away, are you willing/able to put in the effort once the weather gets warmer, etc... another possibility is that some styles do actually like higher temperatures - saisons as an example with the right yeast. It could be something to look into if you feel the need to get batch number 2 under your belt.

It's a great hobby - good luck on batch number one

Legin said:

Belgians are best for hot weather. You can go to around 75 degrees, sometimes higher. If you can somehow control the temp for the first 3-4 days, you can then let it rise to whatever to finish out. Within the first few days the flavor profile is mostly finished.

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I wouldn't mind keeping the AC on for 3-4 days... it's the 3-4 weeks that I wouldn't do.

gyst said:

Swamp cooler!
Of course, as this has been a bit of a PITA, my next brew is gonna be a Saison. Gonna let the warm temps work for me, not against me.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll look into it...

Refly said:

another possibility is that some styles do actually like higher temperatures - saisons as an example with the right yeast. It could be something to look into if you feel the need to get batch number 2 under your belt.

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...another saison mention -- this is good, I like saisons. Maybe I can brew one of these in July or August.

Thank you.

ryandlf said:

After a few more batches you are going to realize that you need some way of controlling your temperature if you really want to make good beer. I use an upright freezer with a temperature controller on it that keeps an ambient temp of 58 (the beer stays right around 64 and goes up to around 70 when fermenting). I bought the freezer off craigslist for $50 and the controller from my LHBS for $60...temperature problems solved and I can fit 4 carboys in there comfortably.

Click to expand...

I live in a condo. Space is an issue... I don't want to have to sleep on top of the fridge.

Try this: Use a 6 gallon carboy to ferment the beer. Control the temp of the beer for the first 3-4 days and keep it on the lower end of recommended yeast temp. After that drape a wet towel on it with a fan blowing in it's direction, but don't worry if the temp rises. I've had beer temps reach up to 78 degrees without any discernible off flavors (the rise was after 5 days of active fermentation). The higher temps will just help the beer fully attenuate. Now I haven't exceeded that temp, but the insulated glass carboy will keep the beer's temp from reaching ambient temps. I used this method when I lived on the third floor of an apartment, during one of our 90 degree heat waves. The end result is great beer.

Do you have a friend with a basement?

Go Red Sox,
cds

You can also put your fermentor in a container with water and add ice bottles to keep it cool... here's a picture... home brew temperature control

I use the swamp cooler technique too. Works fantastic, and is cheap. I used to live in a house with bad AC, so I had to rely on ice bottles. Get some gallon jugs and use them. I would have 1 in the cooler with the fermenter and the other in the freezer. You can rotate them out once a day and will probably be just fine.

Do you have to take constant temperature readings with the ice bottle method? Is there a chance you'll make it too cold?

My concern, since I'm so new, is I would be paranoid about opening the fermenter to check the temperature so often.

Put a sticky thermometer on the outside of the fermenter. They only cost $1-2. The brewing ones work great, but you can get ones for an aquarium that work about as well. Just make sure you get one that will read temps down to about 60 at least. The nice thing with these thermometers is you can easily check the temp without risking infection.

Yes its possible to get it too cold, but that will just give you a s-l-o-w start to the fermentation. Colder than optimal fermentation temps are better than too hot. To fix that, remove the ice from the cooler. You can take the fermenter out too, but you don't want rapid/dramatic temperature swings. After sitting out for a couple hours, the wort should be warmed up a bit and be fine to put back in the water.