Outdoor fermenting/conditioning

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suttonjs2

suttonjs2

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Hey all,
I am brand new to the home brew scene. This is my first post. Got a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas thanks to my awesome wife and began fermenting the West Coast Pale Ale that Mr. Beer sells last Sunday. I doubled the HME and yeast but used only one booster. Was going to wait two weeks to bottle but after reading several posts here I've decided to wait three weeks.

Right now I have the fermenting keg in my bedroom closet, but eventually I would like to upgrade to a larger setup using buckets and a carboy. Space in my house is at a premium, so that sort of setup would have to be out in my shed which is not air-conditioned. My question is would the hot Florida weather (often in excess of 90 degrees in the Summer) be a prohibitive fermenting/conditioning environment?

Thanks in advance, and also for the wealth of knowledge this forum has provided this newb!
 
You're going to need to come up with some form of temp control, which at the low end is going to be something like a rubbermade cooler, frozen water bottles, a t-shirt and maybe even a fan...Like this;

fermenting.jpg


Which in Florida is going to require you to swap put your ice bottles every few hours for the first week.

Some modification of an insulated cooler setup again with ice bottles.

All the way to something like a fridge or freezer with temp control in it.

Some folks even rig temp control cabinates off an ac vent with some insulated material.

So it really runs the gamut of solutions.

It really is going to depend on how much money you can throw at the problem, to how much time you want to invest in changing ice bottle.

You can successfully do temp control even in florida with any of the many ways to do it on this website, with come creativity. I've been successful with a swamp cooler in 90 plus high humidity temps in Detroit in August, so it can be done in your situation.

Or you can brew a lot of Belgians which you'll get a lot of funk from the temps.
 
What sort of funk? I am actually interested in brewing some Belgians. Would those be okay in high heat and high humidity?
 
suttonjs2 said:
What sort of funk? I am actually interested in brewing some Belgians. Would those be okay in high heat and high humidity?
Click to expand...

Most Belgian Yeasts like higher temps, even in the 80's or higher. It produces all sorts of flavors such as peppery and other things. I was trying to find a good description of the funks, but I can't.

Read about saisons and such and you'll see.
 
suttonjs2 said:
Thanks very much!
Click to expand...

I was trying to find some of my "research" info that I dug about them when I was comoing up with my recipe...just google saisons and even the wiki article is pretty good.

A couple summers back I didn't turn my air on for three days so my saison could ferment the first 72 hours @ 88. I sat in my bedroom with fans surrounding me. Talk about suffering for your art. :D

Here's my recipe.

Saison Dupont Clone
Brew Type: All Grain Date: 6/19/2009
Style: Saison Brewer: Michael
Batch Size: 5.00 gal Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 6.41 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (5 Gal)
Actual Efficiency: 2.24 %
Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs 4.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 78.26 %
14.7 oz Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.70 %
7.3 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
1.26 oz Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (60 min) Hops 22.9 IBU
0.15 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
0.18 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (4 min) Hops 0.5 IBU
0.83 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min) Misc

1 Pkgs Belgian Saison I Ale (White Labs #WLP565) Yeast-Ale huge starter.

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.061 SG (1.048-1.065 SG)
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.018 SG (1.002-1.012 SG)
Estimated Color: 4.0 SRM (5.0-14.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 24.7 IBU (20.0-35.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 7.6 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.67 % (5.00-7.00 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 0.65 %
Actual Calories: 43 cal/pint


Mash Profile Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge Mash Tun Weight: 7.00 lb
Mash Grain Weight: 9.63 lb Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Sparge Water: 4.81 gal Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 12.03 qt of water at 164.8 F 153.0 F 45 min

Add 1 pound of homemade invert sugar to primary after Krauzen falls down.


I added yeast hulls, and managed to drive it down to an fg of 1.009 iirc
Click to expand...
 

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