High temperature yeast?

I want to start my fall/winter brewing, but my apartment is still very warm - usually >80F, I can cool it down by opening the windows, but it'll still reach above 75 during the day.

Is there any yeast that won't make solvent out of my beer at 75-80F? I had one ferment entirely over 80, and it's absolute garbage... Other one was a hefe fermented around 70 that was OK when I bottled, but then it got worse in the bottles because I relaxed with the temperature when it was conditioning.

By the way, I'm aiming for a standard pale ale (it's not just for myself, so I can't go too wild here)

I don't think any standard yeast used in a pale ale like fermenting that warm. Maybe U5-05?

You best bet for high temperature yeast are the Belgian or saison strains, but I'm not sure that would be the flavor you're looking for in a pale ale.

You could always use a swamp cooler.

Yup, the hefe was swamp cooled while it was on the fermenter, but I feel it still crapped out once I moved it to the bottles and temps rose above 80...

Hm, I looked at Wyeast's and White Labs' Belgian strains... I didn't know they went that warm. I gotta drop by the market and get a couple Saisons/Belgian ales to try. Now I feel like an idiot because I stopped brewing at all during the Summer, while I could have been brewing delicious Belgian beer.

Brewing seasonally can be fun and since I rarely brew the same beer in any year, a natural for me. I only do lagers in the winter, because the brewery will sit at 50F and the garage at 35F. Ales, I ferment in the house or in my old kegger depending on the season.

A Belgian strain isn't going to make a "standard pale ale." You'd be surprised how clean WLP001 or Wyeast1056 can be at those temps. I've used both strains in the upper 70's and they've done just fine. I think you'd be taking a risk above 80, so I'd use some kind of cooling method to be safe.

coopers seems to work at higher temps in my experience

Check out the link in my sig for a cheap/easy fermentation chiller.

If you do this method and pitch a yeast like Nottingham or US-05 around 68*F with ice, you will be just fine. Even if your room is 80*F and you don't add ice, the water bath will keep the fermentation below 75*F with the T-shirt and fan, the evaporation gives you a 6-7*F drop.

Thanks guys

I ended up getting the Wyeast 3522 (Ardennes, rated up to 85), and making a "Belgian-ish" ale.

I pitched at ~85 (no wort chiller... only so much you can do with your sink when you forgot to make ice), it's running at about 78 now, and it's kinda cold for the next week, so I suppose it's going to run at 70-75 at least for the next week

Here's another vote for US-05/1056. It's not ideal, but this is a very clean yeast.