Warmer weather approaches...

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NorCalHB

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2010
Messages
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Location
Santa Rosa
So I am sitting in Northern California right now and its 65 deg... yea I know, it must be nice. It is. Anyways, this weather has made me think of something that, as a newbie, I need help answering.

I understand that keeping fermentation tempatures on most beer is usually around 65-70 deg, which is not a problem for me at this time of the season because my house tends to stay right around 68 deg anyways. So, when its summer time and my upstairs condo is 85-100 deg (I dont have AC), how do I keep my beer at a reasonable fermentation tempature?

How do you guys brew in the summer? Any much needed advice is welcome.
 
AC is out of the question...and becasue my bagged 68 Cadillac takes up ALL the room in my garage, a fermentation chamber is also out of the question? Should I pull a Brett Farve and retire during the summer and come back in the fall?
 
You could brew nothing but saisons which are regularly fermented up to 85º sometimes even 90º.
 
keep your fermenter sitting in water (rubbermaid tub) and put ice or frozen water bottles in there to keep the temp where you want it...my guy at the LHBS also has been selling these tiny aquarium pumps and while the fermenter is in the tub hes got a towel wraped around the bucket and a tube with holes punched in it conected to the water pump wraped around the top of the bucket trickling water down the wet towel ....if that makes any sence...but it works great, it was holding the beer 10deg below the ambient temp in the store without using any ice!
 
I feel your pain. I have rounded up some water bottles that I plan on freezing and using the rubbermaid tub + pump + old t-shirt idea that I have found many people here use (look at location, its hot). I keep the house at 84 during the day in the summer so I hope to get to 70ish. I'll take a trial run and see what happens. Oh yea, its 75 out right now, I love the Southwest!
 
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