Summer Beer

I live in a cabin in Northern Arizona at 7000 ft without air-condition (not needed). We have a wide temperature range outside in the summer from the high 40s at night and it can reach 90 for a short time in the afternoon. I am going to setup a recording thermometer today to see how stable the inside temp is. My questions are about making beer in the summer with the warmer temperatures and the wide range. We have some very good water for beer here and made some great beer this winter. Can I make the same beer this summer? How stable of temperature do I have to have and is there a beer that will do better at the higher temp.

All beers prefer a stable temperature environment to one that fluctuates a lot.

Several belgian styles do better at somewhat higher temps than most other beers: saison especially. But the belgian yeast strains especially do not like temp swings too far below their ideal range.

Perhaps you need to dig a cave?

Build a heavily insulated fermentation cabinet. This will "average" the temperatures. By heavily, I mean R-20 or so, which would be 4 inches of foam or 6 inches of fiberglass. I used one in Oakland, CA for years with great success. I haven't had time to make one here, but I keep my fermenter inside an insulated room and wrap it with moving quilts.

Another possibility: I recently came into possession of two chest freezers, one large and one small.

You can get thermostatic controllers (like from Johnson Controls) to keep any fridge or freezer at a relatively constant temperature. You can even get controllers to trigger both a cooling and heating device, which might be what would be needed in your environment. (The heating device could simply be a light bulb.)

I will probably do something like this with at least one of these freezers.

I think you were being sarcastic when you said dig a cave, but it got me thinking. A friend of mine has a place in New Mexico with a spring cooled basement. Stays a constant 58 deg year round. Sounds to cold to me and could only get up there every other weekend to work the beer, but will this open any new options for brewing?

Man you got Fat Tire out there....no need to brew your own beer! Haha just kidding. My sister's in laws live in Scottsdale (when I visited they were living in Anthem). But yea...one of the reasons I started brewing was to try and make my own Fat Tire because I miss it and my bro in law doesnt drink beer so doesnt understand and wont lug any out here for me. What a jerk

I have some Fat Tire in the Ice Box. The problem is I'm running low on the Home Brew. After HB anything else is like drinking pond water.

Your friend's 58 degree basement would be good for lagers.

A water bath would do alot to ease the temperature swings due to the high heat capacity of water. Not sure exactly how much it would, but a simple test with a 40 gallon or so rubbermaid container filled about half full would give you exact data on how the temperature varies in a water bath. If kept in a shaded place it should stay much closer to the average air temp and the more mass of water you can use the better.

Levers101 said:

A water bath would do alot to ease the temperature swings due to the high heat capacity of water. Not sure exactly how much it would, but a simple test with a 40 gallon or so rubbermaid container filled about half full would give you exact data on how the temperature varies in a water bath. If kept in a shaded place it should stay much closer to the average air temp and the more mass of water you can use the better.

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^ what he said. every morning put in a fozen water bottle or two. it will keep the temps where you want them.