High fermentation temp by design.

[jjward101]

I dont have a means currently to handle temp control when it hits high summer temps here in Philly, and I was wondering....can I ferment a good beer in the mid 70's ? Im wanting to shy away from spending money on a small fridge since I am custom building a compartmentalized, refrigerated bar in the garage/mancave and I dont want to let the pipeline run dry in the process.

 

[BargainFittings]

Generally a very neutral yeast will be your best bet. You will experience more esters and some higher alcohol notes.

A nice way to moderate your temps is the wet towel method and a fan - keep fermenter in a container with water, cover with a t-shirt or towel that dips in the water and blow a fan at it.

Or put your fermenter in a square cooler (ICE cube brand) and use some frozen ice jugs / bottles to temper the fermentation for at least the first 3 days or so of the more active portion of the ferment.

Both of the methods can help you keep beer flowing without investing in a fridge.

 

[azscoob]

Another option is to brew lots of Saison recipes in the hot months.

 

[Swib]

As I am sure you know it really depends on what you're brewing. You could aim for recipes that are designed for a warmer fermentation to try and get good results. Have you tried a swamp cooler? That may be something to look into, cheap and capable of lowering your fermentation temps into more reasonable ranges.

 

[beersteiner2345]

I have been employing water in the bath tub, with 1 gallon jug of ice (change it every 6-7 hours), and towels draped over the fermenter. I wet the towels when I change the ice blocks and have a fan aimed right at them. Keeping my thermometer on the carboy reading about 62 degrees, and my house is easily 75 degrees.

Hope that helps, but I am just a noob too, so that that with a grain of salt.

 

[bcervin]

X2 on the saison. Just made a batch last weekend. Plus this is one of my favorite styles anyway

 

[BargainFittings]

I'm a total nut for saison and I would vote for that if its a style you enjoy.

They do well with elevated fermentation temps. They do require some patience to ferment out completely.

 

[MalFet]

I've never understood why saisons get recommended to people without good temperature control. For a beer like this that needs a full 90%-95% apparent attenuation to be in style, precise temperature control has always been critical for me. Certainly, this yeast likes warmer temps than most, but in my experience both of the saison yeasts on the market will sputter out in the 1.010-1.015 range if allowed to free rise and fall. YMMV of course, but saison would be one of the last styles I would recommend without good temp control.

That said, if anyone has experience brewing good saisons unregulated, I'd be curious to hear how you keep the yeast going.

 

[BargainFittings]

Malfet,

The one thing that I notice is that every time I repitch onto a yeast cake, I had very little issues when allowing it to ferment at room temperatures. I've done a series of these over year in the past and that was my experience. I do controlled fermentation with these now but I had a good luck with the repitching.

I experimented with both White Labs - WLP565 and Wyeast 3724 and found that I prefer the WLP565 overall.

Wayne.

 

[bcervin]

I've used the wyeast saison and French saison strains. I noticed the saison got stuck and took a while to finish out but the French saison took off and finished about as quickly as any other beer without temp control. Just my thoughts. Both were fermented at around 70-74.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

just to mention something that hasn't been said... don't forget that fermentation will increase your temps above ambient room temp. So, if you're already at 75F in the room, you might see 80F+ for the ferm temp.

I'd consider swamp cooler or your bath tub. cheap, easy and pretty good. at leat until your man-cave solution is complete

 

[MalFet]

I've used the wyeast saison and French saison strains. I noticed the saison got stuck and took a while to finish out but the French saison took off and finished about as quickly as any other beer without temp control. Just my thoughts. Both were fermented at around 70-74.

What kinds of FGs did you have?

 

[Wakadaka]

i think the OP was asking what type of beers could be fermented that warm. I know saisons, and maybe some wheat beers as well, but are there any another good suggestions?

or more specifically what yeasts are going to be good in the low 70s?

anybody have a good link on how to brew saisons? I've never brewed one or even had one, but I am curious about making one in these warmer months

 

[MalFet]

i think the OP was asking what type of beers could be fermented that warm.

Yep. Is that not what being talked about here?

I know saisons, and maybe some wheat beers as well, but are there any another good suggestions?

or more specifically what yeasts are going to be good in the low 70s?

A lot of the English styles will do alright in the low 70s, so long as you mean 70s fermentation temperature and not 70s ambient temperature. I don't know of anything that does particularly well during active fermentation at that temp.

anybody have a good link on how to brew saisons? I've never brewed one or even had one, but I am curious about making one in these warmer months

The Jamil Show episode on Saisons is good.

 

[bcervin]

I let both get down to 1.006. Saison yeast took a long time. French saison much faster

 

[unionrdr]

Here's one I made a thread about that only 39 people looked at,with no replies. It a beer brewed in the summer months in Germany called Dampfbier (pronounced "dummpffbeer"). It's an all barley malt brew that's brewed at about 75F with weisebier yeast! Wheat for beer making was/is expensive to a poor German,so this was a sort of poor man's hefeweitzen.
It's said to have bubble gum flavors in the background from the higher brew temp. I was going to try using The cooper's OS lager kit with their brewing sugar like my 1st brew,since that looks to be pretty close. But,instead of the cooper's ale yeast,I'm going to use wyeast 3638 Bavarian wheat activator pack. They couldn't afford the expensive,near-by Haulertau hops either. So I'm using German Traditional hops,since it sounds to be a bit more "common". You can see it/read more under "beer styles" at germanbeerinstitute.com. Can't get more summer traditional poor man's beer than that...