Is it too hot to brew?

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jmhooten

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Hi - my house sits around 85 degrees during the day - I started my first batch today but after 4 hours the wort is still at 95 degrees... anyway, I've put the wort outside since it gets around 60 here at night so I should be able to add yeast in the morning - but is the 85 degree avg. temp going to kill the beer?

Josiah
:drunk:
 
jmhooten said:
Hi - my house sits around 85 degrees during the day - I started my first batch today but after 4 hours the wort is still at 95 degrees... anyway, I've put the wort outside since it gets around 60 here at night so I should be able to add yeast in the morning - but is the 85 degree avg. temp going to kill the beer?
Click to expand...

It won't kill the yeast, but things will happen VERY violently. You stand a very good chance of getting some unespected flavors in your beer fermenting up in the mid 80s.

-walker
 
It probably won't kill it, but it might come out tasting a bit funky at those temps.

Can't you get ahold of a bucket big enough to accomodate your fermenter? Drop it down in some water, and keep some ice floating in it. That'll help quite a bit.
 
SwAMi75 said:
It probably won't kill it, but it might come out tasting a bit funky at those temps.

Can't you get ahold of a bucket big enough to accomodate your fermenter? Drop it down in some water, and keep some ice floating in it. That'll help quite a bit.
Click to expand...

If not, I've found it also helps to keep a wet towel wrapped around the fermenter.
 
Letting the wort sit at 95F overnight (even though it is cooling) will almost always result in infections. Bacteria love that temperature range.

85F is too hot to brew without cooling the fermenter, you'll get snap ferments and all kinds of weird esters. Most ale yeasts have high mutation rates at that temperature, so you'll never know what you'll end up with.

I have an Igloo Ice Cube cooler. This is large enough to put a 7 gallon fermenter in surrounded by water. The fermenter sticks out of the cooler, but the level of the wort is below the lip. If necessary, I drap a towel over the fermenter with the ends in the water.

If you can't/won't spend the money to chill the wort quickly and keep the fermenter below 75F, you'll just have to drink store-bought until the fall.
 
My wife and I have AC, which helps obviously very much. Here's what you do... get a rubbermaid container big enough for your fermentor and a little bit of room. Fill it with water partially. The only reason I hessitate with ice is that the temperature variations could be big... dont want that. Wrap a towl around fermentor and make sure its touching the water. A fan pointed at it will also help greatly.

You know what... you need to make yourself one of these...
http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/FermentationChiller.html
 
Personally, I think one of the most important pieces of brewing equipment is a basement :).

Keeps my fermenters right around 65 degrees.:ban:
 
I'd love to have a basement, but it would be a swimming pool eight months of the year.
 
alemonkey said:
Personally, I think one of the most important pieces of brewing equipment is a basement :).
Click to expand...

For me, it's the only place to store the beer I bottle. 55 deg all winter.

I just wish I had a root cellar to lager in!
 
Yeah, my sister and her husband live on the old family farm and have a huge root cellar. I would love to have that for lagering. I've tried to get my dad interested in brewing, but so far all he does is make schnapps and limoncello. It doesn't help that he's a confirmed Coors Light drinker.:cross:
 
Just a thought...After perusing www.whitelabs.com it seems that there are yeast strains that could do better at higher temperatures. Their Belgian Ale yeast, for instance, has an optimum temperature range of 68-78 Degrees F. If your house is around 85 that is only an eight degree difference.

Also, if you are interested in making wine, some of the wine yeasts had optimum fermenting temperature of 90 degrees!

Cheers, and good luck

Primary: Bleach and water
Secondary: Old Man Oatmeal Stout
Bottled: Honey Real Ale

Drinking: Molson Ice (I know, I know, American Lager) Stone IPA, and some Kolsch that I can't pronounce.
 
Bear in mind that a lot of belgian beers are supposed to have the funky flavors that come from fermenting at higher temps.
 
You might also consider Safale56 or Nottingham. They are both very clean fermenting & I can say from receint experience, Nottingham doesn't make nasty esters at 81F.
 
I just used Safale56. Lag time was VERY short. The brew is now sitting in a rubbermaid partially filled with water. Between that and the AC, I'd say its kept in the safe zone. I'm going to bottle it this weekend (hoping) and I'll be able to say more about the strain then:)
 
To brew in summer I half-fill the bath with cold tap water and sit the fermenter in there. That keeps the temperature reasonable. You will get fluctuations of about 4-5 deg F as it warms up during the day and cools at night, but this is far less than the temp. swings you would get otherwise, and the average temp. will be much lower - certainly low enough to brew ales.

I've tried the wet towel thing, but that didn't seem to help at all. Maybe it would work with a fan as well though...
 
alemonkey said:
Personally, I think one of the most important pieces of brewing equipment is a basement :).

Keeps my fermenters right around 65 degrees.:ban:
Click to expand...


The basement is the only place cool enough to keep my beer at the moment but just barely.
The odd thing about my basement is that it's pretty warm considering it's under ground. In the winter, fall and spring it's cool to cold but once summer hits it doesn't get below 75.

Tommy
 
Mine stays extra cool because the heating/cooling ducts for it come right off the furnace. I actually keep them barely cracked and it still stays cool.
 
What yeast strain did you use? There are a few that can deal with higher temps.
A few summers ago one of the brewing mags had an article about hot weather brewing. The writer said there is a brewery in the far east that uses WLP008 in the 80s all the time with good results.
 
i'm brewing a batch as we speak and it's sitting in the sink with a 5 lb bag of ice around it..with some water added...iv'e found that it cools it very quick...why not spend $2 to cool it.it works for me...and your gonna have to keep it cool...
 
Do you reckon extra hops might help stabilise an ale at high temperatures? Here in Japan we have a pretty constant 33 degrees C ( 92 F) or so day and night and I have been making OK stouts. I have just started an IPA with loads of hops which I hope will see it through any further up swings in temperatures. Last year when we were hitting 35 + C (95 F) I gave up for a month but I am loath to do so this year.
I hate air conditioning so reckon the bath will have to be the way to go. The only problem being that over here we take baths every day so it will involve emptyin the bath again and again.
By the way, the Black rock companies kits say that 28 C (82.4 F) is their max.
 
kennyg101 said:
Do you reckon extra hops might help stabilise an ale at high temperatures?
Click to expand...
I don't think extra hops would have any effect on yeast performance and different temps. A lower, constant temperature is still better, generally speaking, in terms of desired fermentation characteristics of most yeasts.

In terms of Belgian yeasts (which I've been planning on trying in my house this summer as temps warm up), there is an excellent article in BYO this month about fermenting with Belgian yeasts. One point that I took from it is that while Belgian yeasts do ferment okay quite high (and some Belgian breweries just go with the seasons), it's still quite easy for a homebrewer to 'lose control' of his/her fermentation if the temperature gets too high. Even breweries fermenting in the upper 80's in the summer have methods of keeping the reins on the fermentation.
 
What do you mean by losing control of fermentation? Monster krausen/exploding primaries??

Other than temperature, how would one control the fermentation after the wort hits the primary. You cant simply ask the yeast to slow down or stop. As long as the wort is healthy, the ABV isnt too high, and there is fermentable sugar present ,the yeast will do whatever the hell they want!

Im actually glad I read this thread. I'm going to be brewing both my belgium and wheat ale tonight and was going to put both in water. I think i'll let the belgium ferment at room temp... around 81-82°F. White labs does say the best temp is 67-74 though.... hrmm...
 
sirsloop said:
Im actually glad I read this thread. I'm going to be brewing both my belgium and wheat ale tonight and was going to put both in water. I think i'll let the belgium ferment at room temp... around 81-82°F. White labs does say the best temp is 67-74 though.... hrmm...
Click to expand...

You should read the Belgian Trilogy:

Brew Like A Monk
Wild Brews
and
Farmhouse Ales

There is SO much info on brewing those wonderful Belgian beers to "style"...
It lists where both White Labs and Wyeast got each yeast strain and gives a more real world (i.e. Belgian) look at the temperatures used and what flavors they can produce under those circumstances

oh and the Candi Syrup they talk about in BLAM is this one:

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=6788

A MUST HAVE for getting that proper flavor in Dubbels and Belgian Dark Strong beers IMO

:mug:
later,
mikey
 
my batch has been fermenting for almost 2 days now. but our apartment seems to be 80F or higher from the afternoon to evening. is it too late to start cooling with any of your methods in this thread?
 
I have the plans for that chiller and am waiting to get the foam before I start constructing it. I live in Hawaii and my house has no AC. I'm able to keep my fermenters between 65 - 75 by using a cabinet in my house that is just big enough to fit both fermenters in (5g bucket, 6.5g carboy). I have the bottom lined with a garbage bag and a towel, for partial insulation and to catch any accidents and condensation or leaks from water bottles). I rotate out a frozen 2 litter of water about every day and dont peek in there too often, just to check the temp and glance at the airlock. This has worked really well for me. I'd imagine you could build a 3x3x3.5 box for your basement or garage to do exactly the same thing. That's about how big my cabinet is. I guess my house was built for brewing ;)
 
I just started building the fermentation chiller and have about $15 invested in it. All I need to buy yet is the thermostat - I got the fan and power supply cheap at www.allelectronics.com and I already had the foam on hand (I'm a model airplane geek too, and pink insulation foam is great for carving planes out of).

Now, I just need to get my lazy butt to Home Despot and pick up an el cheapo thermostat.
 
Just started building mine too! I would say it has cost about$75. I will have to see if it is worth it, just too hot right now to brew, 95F:(
 

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