Brewing in the Tropics...am I limited?

Forgive me.... I am EXTREMELY NEW to home brewing did my FIRST batch with a kit last night. I did a 5 gal. batch of American Light last night as it looked like the simplest of the kits that I currently have. This morning the primary fermenter was bubbling at about 1-2 bubbles per second so I assume it's going well. I also have a kit for a Porter and a kit for Amber which I will try next week.

I live in the tropics where it averages 82-84F all year. I’ve looked, but I could not find any specific threads regarding brewing in warmer tropical weather.

My question…. Am I limited to the types of beers I can brew without refrigeration or cooler temperatures? Are there any concerns I should be aware of brewing in such warm weather?


Haggendas

Yes ther are concerns. You need to figure out how to keep your fermenter cool. Search swamp cooler. It is basically a tub of water that you put your fermenter in and then put some frozen bottles of water in ther to keep the temps down.

Most ale yeasts like the temp to be in the 60's. Too hot and the produce off flavors and fusel alcohols.

The only yeast that I can think of that likes it that hot is 3724. Belgian Saison. Even most Belgian yeasts need to be kept cooler for the first few days of fermentation.

Thanks BG. I'll move the fermenter into a cooler when I get home and fill with cold/ice water.

I am curious, if I do ferment in 82-84 F would it be possible to prevent the off flavoring and fusels by bottling and refrigerating the beer sooner rather than letting it ferment completely in the secondary?


Haggendas

haggendas said:

I am curious, if I do ferment in 82-84 F would it be possible to prevent the off flavoring and fusels by bottling and refrigerating the beer sooner rather than letting it ferment completely in the secondary?


Haggendas

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First off, welcome to your new addiction:fro:

Essentially you want to pitch your yeast whilst your wort is at a temperature of somewhere between 70 to 80f. The lower the better. Then you really need to get the temperature of the brew down into the low to mid 60s before the yeast really gets into its stride and keep it there as constant as possible for the next few days of initial, vigorous, fermentation. This stage is critical if you want to avoid getting lots of off flavours and smells, fusels, phenols, weird esters. Fermentation is an exothermic process so heat is one of the by products. This is where things will be difficult for you because living in a tropical climate your ambient temps and humidity are high so keeping your brew at a constant, say for example, 60 degrees is going to be a challenge. Swamp cooler, swapping out bottles of frozen water, towel draped over fermenter wicking up water and a fan blowing over that set-up will lower temps for a while, but how low and for how long that will be effective I can't say. Personally, I gave up brewing from early June to end of September here in Osaka due to the problems of keeping the brew cool and I know you're a similar, if not slightly higher, heat/humidity in palau, all year round. If leaving an air conditioner on all day/night is a possibility that would make things easier for you with the swamp cooler method. If not, a dedicated fridge/fermentation chamber would definitely give you a good shot at producing some really great beer.

After the first stage of fermentation has finished winding down and the krauzen drops it's OK to let the brew warm up, gradually, to about 70f or slightly higher. You're not going to get much, if any, in the way of off flavours developing in the second or third week in the fermenter BUT you are going to allow the yeast to do a really good clean up job of certain flavours/aromas/by-products so, unless you are adding fruit/oaking/bulk aging etc. you don't need to transfer to secondary and, indeed, it is thought by many that a three week primary is better for many and varied reasons.

Other have success at reducing temp by wrapping a towel or large cloth around the fermenter and making this wet with part of it in a bowl of water then turn a fan on it. The evaporation draws cool water into the fabric helping to cool the beer.

I brew in Hawaii and I recommend biting the bullet and buying a chest freezer if you have the room/money....its so much easier than dealing with a swamp a cooler set up. If you don't the room our money than the cooler is your best bet

I use the "Son of Fermentation Chiller" (plans online) which is a box made from foam insulation. It uses frozen bottles of water and a computer fan with thermostat to maintain fermentation temps. You should have no problem maintaining ale temps with it.

Thank you everyone for all your educational feedback! I appreciate it a lot!

Well, here's a quick question based on my observation. Prior to posting my question yesterday the it was bubbling pretty fast, but after I got home from work yesterday to place it in a cooler I notice that it had stopped bubbling through the airlock. I did not do anyting to it as I needed guidance.

1) Should I toss it out and consider it a loss? or
2) Put it on ice and see what happens?

Thanks and I will definitely save up for a spare fridge.

HD

You may as well see your current brew through to completion so you can learn various lessons from the end result. Plus, it'll give you the chance to practice other processes necessary for ending up with your beer, packaged, conditioned and ready to drink.

The batch you're doing right now might not be all that great due to possible off flavours/aromas/fusels/phenols/esters BUTit'll still be beer. Your first homebrew made by your efforts, so it's a special creation. You never know, it might even turn out really good!! That's just how it goes.

Check out the stickies, especially this one

If you're going to go with a fridge to help keep fermentation temps low and constant you might want to look into getting a Johnson controller:rockin:

Ogri said:

You may as well see your current brew through to completion so you can learn various lessons from the end result. Plus, it'll give you the chance to practice other processes necessary for ending up with your beer, packaged, conditioned and ready to drink.

The batch you're doing right now might not be all that great due to possible off flavours/aromas/fusels/phenols/esters BUTit'll still be beer. Your first homebrew made by your efforts, so it's a special creation. You never know, it might even turn out really good!! That's just how it goes.

Check out the stickies, especially this one

If you're going to go with a fridge to help keep fermentation temps low and constant you might want to look into getting a Johnson controller:rockin:

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll definitely see it through. Yes, it is my FIRST BATCH EVER and I do consider it kinda special...even if it doesn't turn out

Thanks everyone!

Haggendas

This might be of interest to you.

If that yeast is able to do what one of the posters mentioned it might be really helpful in your fermenting conditions and climate as an alternative method to, or until you manage to get hold of, a fridge. Maybe a good idea to see if you can get some more info on it.

Ogri said:

This might be of interest to you.

If that yeast is able to do what one of the posters mentioned it might be really helpful in your fermenting conditions and climate as an alternative method to, or until you manage to get hold of, a fridge. Maybe a good idea to see if you can get some more info on it.

Click to expand...

I'll definitely look into this as it might be worth my time considering my location.

Update: So I decided to let the ferment continue in the warm weather. The primary bubbled for about 24 hours and completely stopped after that. I though it would lasted more than 24 hours, but the temperature may have something to do with that. I waited 7 days (lastnight) and I opened it just to see. There appeared to be the foam ring on the side of the primary, but I was suprised to see that there was still foam sitting on top. Is that normal?

I will be moving the beer into the secondary fermenter tonight.

By the way, it smelled wonderful!!! I didn't taste or touch and I hope I didn't risk any form of infection by opening and looking at it.

I will continue to update.

HD

Fermentations are very different from one to the next. Sometimes the krauzen/foam sinks quickly, sometimes it stays around for longer. From my limited experience I've seen that generally at 7 days from brewing there will still be signs of krauzen although a good percentage of it will have dropped and you're likely seeing that now. The ring around the fermenter, just above the beer surface level, is dried krauzen, hop residue, proteins and other particulates.

Good to hear it's smelling promising Wait another week, or so, and take a sample to establish FG then have a taste of the sample and see what you reckon. It still won't be quite like it will be after 3 weeks bottle conditioning and a few days to a week chilling in the fridge but it'll give you an idea of what it might turn into eventually.

Ok I'm a bit worried and confused.

While transferring beer to the secondary fermentor I got a gravity reading just to see where it was at. Well, I was suprised to see that it was at 0% alcohol according the the hydrometer. While in the primary fermentor, it initially bubbled for a little over 24 hrs. When I opened it 7 days later, there was a solid ring on the fermentor with a good amout of krauzen/foam still present. I thought this was a good sign up until the gravity reading.

I decided to transfer the beer into the secondary just to see things through. Well, lo and behold...it started bubbling again...?!?!

I am aware that the warm temperature may have killed the yeast from fermenting through, but why was the foam so thick and why is it bubbling again? Could I be reading the hydrometer wrong?

HD

haggendas said:

Ok I'm a bit worried and confused.

While transferring beer to the secondary fermentor I got a gravity reading just to see where it was at. Well, I was suprised to see that it was at 0% alcohol according the the hydrometer. While in the primary fermentor, it initially bubbled for a little over 24 hrs. When I opened it 7 days later, there was a solid ring on the fermentor with a good amout of krauzen/foam still present. I thought this was a good sign up until the gravity reading.

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It sounds like your ferment went well. The hydrometer does not measure actual alcohol, but potential alcohol. So, if you have a starting gravity of 1.050, you have a beer that would be just under 7% abv IF it were to ferment out completely (to 1.000). You really need to have your starting gravity and finishing gravity to accurately measure alcohol.

Also, if your hydrometer is reading 1.000 (0%potential abv) that is a little scary.

haggendas said:

I decided to transfer the beer into the secondary just to see things through. Well, lo and behold...it started bubbling again...?!?!

Click to expand...

The bubbling could just be carbon dioxide escaping the liquid after you transferred it.

haggendas said:

I am aware that the warm temperature may have killed the yeast from fermenting through, but why was the foam so thick and why is it bubbling again? Could I be reading the hydrometer wrong?

HD

Click to expand...

See above.

I think I understand.

I believe that the 1.000 (0%) reading I did 7 days later means my batch has fermented out completely...correct?

My big mistake is that because of my excitement with my first batch and all, I completely forgot to take an starting gravity. Without the starting gravity to compare it to my final gravity, I really won't know how much Abv there is...correct?

I hope that's what's actually going. I'll let it sit in the secondary until bottling and I'm praying for a good outcome.

LOL...I really just want good beer.

The first link is to the John Palmer web site. If you haven't already read through it'd definitely be enlightening and helpful. Some of the info is a little dated but, nevertheless, it's a great resource when starting out homebrewing.

The scale you were reading that shows alcohol = 0% is the scale that tells you what your potential Alcohol By Volume (ABV) will be IF all of the available sugars in the wort at the beginning were to completely ferment and you got 100% attenuation. The fact that you are reading 0% suggests that your high fermentation temps helped your yeast to chomp through all of the sugars, or it produced enough alcohol(lighter than water) to offset the remaining sugars, and your beer is now at a Specific Gravity (SG) of 1.000. If it doesn't get any lower then this will be your Final Gravity (FG). When you started the brew you should have measured the Original Gravity (OG), so that you could use this number with your FG and quite accurately calculate your Alcohol By Volume %ge (ABV).

One formula for calculating that is;

(OG - FG) * 137.

Say your OG was 1.062 and your FG was 1.016 that would give you;

1.062 - 1.016 * 137 = 6.302

so, about 6.3% ABV. Then, when you add a little more sugar to prime for carbonation you're giving the yeast nutrients to consume so they convert that into CO2 and alcohol. The CO2 pressure builds and has nowhere to escape so gets absorbed back into solution and the alcohol produced will boost your ABV a couple, or so points. Your end product would be a beer with around, say, 6.5% ABV.


This particular page is on hydrometer readings,

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

Here's a video on how to use your hydrometer,

Damn I type slow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you list the ingredients and weights/volumes you used for this batch's recipe it might be possible to calculate your OG.

BTW. Did you taste the sample??

Thanks Ogri and Berebrando!

That helps A LOT.... I'll remember to take the OG and the FG on the next batch. I'll definitely read the links provided and finish the current homebrewing book I've started. I did taste a sample and it actually tasted OK...an American Light kit. I guess I'll wait until Sunday and start bottling.

Bottling question. I have a LOT of 700 ml bottles (23 oz) wine bottles that are merely screw-ons. The caps can be screwed on tight then crimped. I also have beer bottles and a bottle capper. I wanna use the 700 ml bottles first because I have an excess of these bottles. I do know to give a head space when filling the bottles because of the added primer and addition CO2 that will carbonate the beer.
Anything else I should be concerned with when bottling with screw-on caps? Suggestions?

HD

HD, welcome to brewing from the tropics on the other side of the planet!

I've lived and brewed in the tropics for about 6 years now. Good news: you can in fact brew great beer in the tropics. Temp control is an issue, but I have brewed some very good beers at high ferm temps. However, fermenting at higher temps you are much more likely to get off-flavors. Setting up some way to control your temps is important. I use a chest freezer with an external thermostat.

Congratulations, if your first brew tastes OK now then it will probably be fine. Most off-flavors develop during primary fermentation (and this is when temp control is most critical)

You don't want to use wine bottles, other than Champagne or sparkling wine bottles, because they won't be up to task of dealing with the buildup of pressure when carbonating. The screwtops probably wouldn't hold a seal either. If the screwtops could hold a seal you might get a few exploding and sending shattered glass all over.

You'd be better off getting some PET bottles, some soda pop leaves a really strong flavour that is hard to get rid of but plain soda water doesn't, and bottling your first brew in those. They're good for observation of how the carbonation process is coming along because you can give them a squeeze and see how pressurized they are at various stages throughout the process.

Even if you manage to get enough 330ml, 500ml, 750ml glass beer bottles to package the whole batch it's still a good idea to do a few in PET so you know when they are carbonated.

Remember though, just because they are carbonated doesn't necessarily mean they have reached prime condition for drinking.

Good to hear that the brew doesn't taste too bad, especially since it's an American light that would make any off flavours obvious as there's nowhere for them to hide. Maybe try going for a nice malty, hoppy IPA once you find a way to get your fermentation temps low and consistent.

Like one of the above posters I too am from Hawai`i. Living on the hot west side of O`ahu. I began using the bucket w/water and ice to keep temperatures down, but changing the ice twice a day burned me out. I broke down and bought a 7.1 cu. ft. freezer. It can hold two 5 gallon buckets but I do small 1.75 gallon batches and it can hold at least 4 of them. I've never looked back after buying the freezer. Oh yea, the Johnson Temperature controller is a must. Good brewing down south.

A key advantage of the freezer/controller approach, over cool water bath, is that you have more stable temp control. Not only are cooler ferm temps important, but stability is important too.

Curtis2010 said:

A key advantage of the freezer/controller approach, over cool water bath, is that you have more stable temp control. Not only are cooler ferm temps important, but stability is important too.

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And you don't have to be home to change the ice.