Home Brewers in Florida (or other hot locals)

I'm wanting to start home brewing and thinking about starting with cider, but I have a question. Since I live in west central Florida now, I have no basement. Most of what I read indicates that brewing is best done (or kept in) a temperature range of 60-70 deg F.
My house is normally about 75-76 deg. How are you guys that live in similiar climates (with no basement) maintaining temps on your brewing? Would you use something like a wort cooler, and if so how would you run that for prolonged periods of time for fermenting (can't run water from the tap through it that long)? The only other option I could see would be freezer with a thermostat to keep the correct temps.
I'm looking for the simplest way to do this, and would love to hear what others are doing to address this.

kempshark said:

I'm wanting to start home brewing and thinking about starting with cider, but I have a question. Since I live in west central Florida now, I have no basement. Most of what I read indicates that brewing is best done (or kept in) a temperature range of 60-70 deg F.
My house is normally about 75-76 deg. How are you guys that live in similiar climates (with no basement) maintaining temps on your brewing? Would you use something like a wort cooler, and if so how would you run that for prolonged periods of time for fermenting (can't run water from the tap through it that long)? The only other option I could see would be freezer with a thermostat to keep the correct temps.
I'm looking for the simplest way to do this, and would love to hear what others are doing to address this.

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Welcome, neighbor! (I'm 1000 ft. south of Palm Harbor)

Chest freezer w/thermostats. I have two of them, on in garage and one on patio.

passedpawn said:

Chest freezer w/thermostats. I have two of them, on in garage and one on patio.

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I was thinking about that, but I am kind of limited on space at this time. Maybe I can find a small freezer (that will fit one carboy or maybe two) that I can make room for. Not even sure I can make room for that. I'm looking at getting a freezer just to store my store-bought beer collection!!

kempshark said:

I was thinking about that, but I am kind of limited on space at this time. Maybe I can find a small freezer (that will fit one carboy or maybe two) that I can make room for. Not even sure I can make room for that. I'm looking at getting a freezer just to store my store-bought beer collection!!

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Some people make "swamp coolers" with wet towels and frozen 2L bottles for ice. Search that term and you'll find more. I've never done that so no comments.

Small 5 cu.ft. aren't that big at all but will hold 1 carboy or bucket. You can always find them on craigslist for ~ $50. There are numerous options for temp regulators then, running from a cheap DIY version based on the STC-1000 (search) or the more expensive Ranco and Johnson Controls devices.

West Houston, (Katy Texas), Magic Chef chest freezer with a Johnson controls thermostat. I can keep a fermentation environment pretty much whatever temp I want

I use a small beverage fridge with an STC-1000.

Brewing in Z-hills and when I first started I used mostly US-05 yeast in a dark closet with those same ambient temps. Not ideal but it worked out pretty good with some tasty beers. When I would play with other yeast under those conditions I would get off flavors. Of course Saisons can be fermented pretty high too. The chest freezer with Johnson control is the best method if you can afford the equipment and space. Thats the set up I have now and love it. If you have the space for a freezer that will fit two carboys then I would start out there because you will likely have more than one going at any given time.

If you are just starting out with cider for now try out a gallon jug at ambient with a Champagne Yeast and see how that works out for you. Most of my ciders and meads that I play around with are done this way, room temp in a dark closet and only a gallon at a time (love beer too much to sacrifice my carboys).

Since I'm in Texas, this is a concern for me as well. If I had the funds readily available and the space, I'd go for the temp-controlled freezer/fermentation chamber—but I don't, so swamp-cooling works for me.

Cheap electric thermometer with stainless steel probe, $8 plastic tub from Target (the cheaper ones from Walmart will crack easier), an old t-shirt, eight frozen water bottles (swapped out twice a day, four at a time) and a small clip-on fan. And water, of course.

Basically, the carboy sits in the tub with water up to its shoulder. The t-shirt (or towel or whatever) is pulled over the carboy and allowed to 'wick' the water up continually, and the fan blowing on it helps it to constantly soak up water and condensate, keeping the vessel cool. The ice bottles are floated in the water and swapped out twice a day (morning and night) to keep the water temp down.

Some people tape the thermometer probe to the side of the carboy and cover it with an insulating material, but since the probe on mine is stainless, I just dropped it in alongside my blowoff tube and let it hang right in the center of the beer. To better seal the connection between the wire and the probe, I used heat shrink tubing, though the only thing actually in the beer is the stainless probe. This is allowed to sit in Star San for 15 or 20 minutes before coming into contact with the beer, so no problems there. I was able to keep the temps down in the mid-60s throughout fermentation, only allowing it to spike a couple of times when I was busy and didn't swap out the ice bottles.

I live near Palm Springs and the weather here can get into the 120's in the middle of summer. My house stays in the mid to upper 70's and I use the same method as Hellosluggo, but I don't use a shirt or a fan and I only use 6 bottles changed out twice a day (once before I leave for work and once in the evening). I can maintain fermentation temps in the upper 60's. If I change it out more often (i.e. 3x a day), then I can go down to the low 60's.

It looks like Hellosluggo is using 2 keg tubs with a towel in between them for insulation. If I did this, I can probably maintain temps without having to change out the ice bottles as often. I would do this, but I only have to keg tubs and I often brew 2 batches at a time.

Another mid-western florida here, Land O Lakes. I agree with the tub of water method though I don't bother with the towel or fan. I bought a fairly large trash barrel and filled it up with water to the water line of my fermentation bucket so that it's just slightly shy of neutral buoyancy. Then just cover it. With that much water it takes a lot of heat to shift the temp up and I only have to add water bottles every couple days, if at all on mild (less than 80 degree) weather. I keep the whole setup in the garage.

jestmaty said:

West Houston, (Katy Texas), Magic Chef chest freezer with a Johnson controls thermostat. I can keep a fermentation environment pretty much whatever temp I want

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What size freezer is that? Are those a 5 gal and a 6 gal carboy? That's really the set-up I would like to go with if I can find the space. I'm debating starting out with just brewing one gallon batches to see if I like it enough to continue. That should take up considerably less space and should be a decent introduction into the hobby.

kempshark said:

What size freezer is that? Are those a 5 gal and a 6 gal carboy? That's really the set-up I would like to go with if I can find the space. I'm debating starting out with just brewing one gallon batches to see if I like it enough to continue. That should take up considerably less space and should be a decent introduction into the hobby.

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I have a wine fridge you can borrow to do 1g batches in. It will regulate down to about 55 I think. Borrow it if you want. (PM me). You could probably do bigger batches in there, but it won't hold a carboy.

You can brew decent beer at room temp. You should try that first.

Suncoast here. I use an Igloo Cube, exchanging a 1 liter ice bottle daily. House temperature is 78 and I can run 55'-75' F depending on the amount of ice bottles I use. The downfall is it only fits ONE 6.5 gallon bucket. Great space saver though!

kempshark said:

I was thinking about that, but I am kind of limited on space at this time. Maybe I can find a small freezer (that will fit one carboy or maybe two) that I can make room for. Not even sure I can make room for that. I'm looking at getting a freezer just to store my store-bought beer collection!!

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First off - your post mentioned Florida and 'hot locals'. I was expecting something different.

I live up north, but I use a chest freezer with a thermostat. It's a small 3cu ft model that doesn't take much space. It will hold 1 6-gallon and 1 3-gallon carboy at the same time. I set it up with a collar and added some taps so I can use it as a second kegerator when I'm not fermenting. I also have a small heater to keep it warm in the winter.

The whole setup cost me around $200. I can always revert it to a freezer if needed.

masskrug said:

Suncoast here. I use an Igloo Cube, exchanging a 1 liter ice bottle daily. House temperature is 78 and I can run 55'-75' F depending on the amount of ice bottles I use. The downfall is it only fits ONE 6.5 gallon bucket. Great space saver though!

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This is exactly how I started, I made quite a few beers that way until getting a chest freezer and building a STC-1000.

b-boy said:

First off - your post mentioned Florida and 'hot locals'. I was expecting something different.

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Yeah, I noticed that after I posted it. Seems you can edit the actual info on the post but not the subject!! :smack:

masskrug said:

Suncoast here. I use an Igloo Cube, exchanging a 1 liter ice bottle daily. House temperature is 78 and I can run 55'-75' F depending on the amount of ice bottles I use. The downfall is it only fits ONE 6.5 gallon bucket. Great space saver though!

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Is it tall enough to fit a 5 or 6 gallon glass carboy? I kind of like the idea of the glass carboy (able to see without opening), but I'm not sure if there is much advantage to that over the bucket?

kempshark said:

Yeah, I noticed that after I posted it. Seems you can edit the actual info on the post but not the subject!! :smack:

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That's correct. If, however, you feel a strong desire to change the thread title, click the in the bottom right corner of the first post and report your thread and the change you want and a mod will do it. They're great that way.

A swamp cooler may work fantastically in Texas, but Florida is essentially a very big swamp. The way that a swamp cooler works is by water drawing heat from the fermenter. The water then evaporates and the heat is essentially transferred to the environment. In areas with high relative humidity, such as Florida, the water does not evaporate as much, leaving more heat trapped in the fermenter.

It might work better in the winter, but it's going to be a hot mess in the summer.

You can tell if it's going to work by whether or not sweating cools you down.

ludomonster said:

A swamp cooler may work fantastically in Texas, but Florida is essentially a very big swamp. The way that a swamp cooler works is by water drawing heat from the fermenter. The water then evaporates and the heat is essentially transferred to the environment. In areas with high relative humidity, such as Florida, the water does not evaporate as much, leaving more heat trapped in the fermenter.

It might work better in the winter, but it's going to be a hot mess in the summer.

You can tell if it's going to work by whether or not sweating cools you down.

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This is basically correct. In Florida it is basically a large ice bath, plan on changing a lot of frozen water bottles. Changing bottles before and after work, I was able to maintain 64-70 degrees without a problem, in the summer, in my 100 degree garage.

Assuming one would be using a swamp cooler in an air-conditioned space (i.e., humidity-controlled), a swamp cooler would still work fine no matter where you are. If you're attempting fermentation in summer in a garage or someplace where it's likely 8-10 degrees hotter than it is outside and with no humidity control, then you're right, the swamp cooler isn't going to help at all.

And yeah, I forgot to mention the green blanket between the two plastic tubs in my photo... It was a last-minute thing, no idea if it helped, but I figgered it wouldn't hurt.

Another Floridian here, Clearwater to be exact, and I use a cool brewing bag. I tried the swamp cooler thing and it was way too messy and required a lot of bottle exchanges to keep the temps down. The cool brewing bag, cool-brewing.com was the best investment for me. All you need to do is put the fermenter in he bag with a frozen one gallon jug of water and you can maintain 66-67 degrees F for nearly 24 hours, then just switch out with a new frozen one and you are set. Plus, any blowoffs are contained in the waterproof bag. May be worth a look it was for me.

I brewed some truly horrible stuff in the 80's, when I lived in Tampa. In that era, homebrewing was just beginning to come out of the dark ages.

I live in Ohio now and have a basement, but still need to control temps on hot summer days. I use the "Son of Fermentation Chiller". It's a fermentation chamber made from 2" foam insulation. It's cooled by frozen water bottles and a computer fan controlled by a thermostat. It works VERY well.

I'm not dealing with the sort of temps you are, and don't know what sort of limitations the SOFC may have, but it should be able to maintain ale temps for you with no problem.

Google it.

kempshark said:

Is it tall enough to fit a 5 or 6 gallon glass carboy? I kind of like the idea of the glass carboy (able to see without opening), but I'm not sure if there is much advantage to that over the bucket?

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I don't have a carboy to compare, but I doubt it. I had to cut into the lid to make enough space for the airlock. It barely fits. Do you have a 6.5 gal bucket and a carboy to compare it to? If the carboy is any taller you will have to cut through the lid and seal it up with a towel or something, which I have seen done before.

East Central Florida wannabe brewer here.
The warm humid temps nearly year round and maintaining a cool stable ferment temp for several days is really my only concern before jumping into this brewing thing.. I didn't want to invest in a fridge/freezer yet and open swamp coolers inside the house would be an issue with our pets getting into it and I don't have a large closed off closet or space inside to use. A swamp cooler outside seems like it would not maintain cool enough temps without constant attention.

What model/size Qt Igloo Cube Cooler is this that fits a 6.5 gal bucket and airlock with the lid closed.. Is it the 70Qt ?

This would solve many issues with being able to close it off to light, no worry of blow off mess or smells and even could work on the back patio in the shade on all but the hottest days.

thx

Im in tampa and I just use wyeast farmhouse yeast and a dark closet. Been watching CL for a freezer but the good ones go fast. I havent had a big problem besides being limited on what yeast I can use.

saltwaterwop said:

What model/size Qt Igloo Cube Cooler is this that fits a 6.5 gal bucket and airlock with the lid closed.. Is it the 70Qt ?

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Yes!

http://www.target.com/p/igloo-ice-cube-maxcold-70-qt-roller-cooler/-/A-10281497

Keep in mind, I did have to cut out the inner lid in front to accommodate for the airlock, but all I needed was a utility knife. CAREFUL!

If you're looking to stay inexpensive, I would suggest checking craigslist for minifridges if you're leaning towards something like the 70qt cooler. I'm in Orlando and I've picked up two different small fridges locally for $20 and $45 respectively (living close to UCF probably helps with students getting rid of them at the end of the year). The larger ones can hold a bucket and you can use it like the cooler (unplugged) until you have some more spare money for a temp controller. This way if you end up sticking with the hobby and you start to upgrade, you already have a fridge and can build an extension on it to hold more buckets/carboys and don't have to re-invest the 50 bucks.

I started in a mini-fridge, eventually got the STC-1000 temp controller off ebay for around 25 bucks and have now built a Styrofoam chest that can hold up to four 6.5 gal buckets. Here's a link to that build.

I've only been doing this for just over a year, but it's been my experience that you're going to do a lot of upgrading at first. Anything you can save money on just means more money to spend on new stuff

Thx for the info on temp control options all.

Very Curious after reading about using Farmhouse/Saison yeasts and fermenting at 80-90F with that strain. Will that strain impart typical Saison spicy funk sour flavors to all beer recipe styles you use it with at very warm temps or maybe a bit cooler ?

I'm figuring it would not be at all good taste wise if used in a high gravity beer like a stout or porter. But how does it work out in a Pale Ale, IPA or other lighter style ale, Taste wise ?

j33p4x4 said:

have now built a Styrofoam chest that can hold up to four 6.5 gal buckets. Here's a link to that build.

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Genius design using that table and just the rear cooling portion of the fridge...

Props

kempshark said:

What size freezer is that? Are those a 5 gal and a 6 gal carboy? That's really the set-up I would like to go with if I can find the space. I'm debating starting out with just brewing one gallon batches to see if I like it enough to continue. That should take up considerably less space and should be a decent introduction into the hobby.

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7.5 cubic foot magic chef

2 6.5 gallon plastic carboys. They barely, barely fit side by side. In fact, one of em will pinch a tad when 2 6.5's inside. Much easier with a 6.5 and a 5 gallon secondary.

still.... works GREAT for me!

saltwaterwop said:

Thx for the info on temp control options all.

Very Curious after reading about using Farmhouse/Saison yeasts and fermenting at 80-90F with that strain. Will that strain impart typical Saison spicy funk sour flavors to all beer recipe styles you use it with at very warm temps or maybe a bit cooler ?

I'm figuring it would not be at all good taste wise if used in a high gravity beer like a stout or porter. But how does it work out in a Pale Ale, IPA or other lighter style ale, Taste wise ?

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I don't notice any difference than when I use American ale yeast but then again I only have made ipa's.