warm brewing temperatures

OK, if this guy brews beer without refrigeration on an island near Australia, what kind of beer do you think it is?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/garden/15alone.html?pagewanted=3

What kind of beers would you suggest for this Florida boy who keeps his house at 78 degrees in the summer?

Belgian styles sometimes use warmer temps, but it's more complicated than it sounds. I did a farmhouse ale at a warmer temp and wasn't thrilled with the result.

You can keep temps down by puttng your fermenter in a cooler with water and frozen water bottles.

Austrailian Sparkling Ale (Coopers is the best known brand) is a light ale fermented with english yeast, at higher temps. Similar to the way that Steam beer is fermented with lager yeast at ale temps. For you, I would go belgian, can't go wrong there.

Belgians are definitely in your range. You would be better off cooling your wort to the mid-60s in a bath, pitch, and then let the water -- and the wort -- rise to the upper 70s.

Even belgians -- with 78 ambient -- can get up to 88. That seems too high for even them.
I have had luck with putting the carboy in a utility sink and surrounding with cold water. Some use iced-water bottles.

But I think that changing the cold water 2x - 3x a day would likely work. You will still have temp swings though so monitor closely.

Before I cheated and bought a small freezer to use as a fermentaion chamber, I made a chamber with some reflectex insulation and used the frozen bottle method. I was always able to keep temps in the mid 60's to 70.
I'll probably go back to that method as that small freezer will soon be a keezer.
I'll have to take a picture and show you. It was pretty low tech and easy to make.

Hows that picture coming?

jalgayer said:

Hows that picture coming?

Click to expand...

Been out of town, but will get one on here once I get back.

I do not put any water in the container. I use 2 to 3 frozen gatorade bottles and I can keep it nice and cool. I also put a small battery operated fan in there to circulate the air. The purpose of the blue bucket is to catch condensation and keep it off my floor.



I used the bottom of the blue bucket to come up with my diameter. As far as height, I compared both a fermenting bucket and a carboy with an air lock to make sure I had enough space. After that, I went to town with a pair of scissors and a hot glue gun.

Brilliant!

BTW, how are your hops doing? Two of mine have leaves on em, two don't, but have white sprouts coming up.

tallybrewer said:

Brilliant!

BTW, how are your hops doing? Two of mine have leaves on em, two don't, but have white sprouts coming up.

Click to expand...

Just have one with leaves sprouting so far. I posted a pic of it in my gallery.
Both of the ones I got, just had the white spouts. I still have one in the fridge. Trying to decide where to plant it.