Jamil & Brewing Around the World

[BrewerMikey]

I hear so many stories and brewing Tips about Homebrew in other parts of the world. Last year Jamil was invited to visit Brewers in S. Korea and Japan and i was fascinated to hear about his trip the the people/breweries he met. Would be cool if the Brewing Network did a show to talk about how homebrewers around the world deal with the same issues.

I ran into a Youtube Channel from a guy in China and Taiwan who ships Malts and Hops all over Asia and his family has a HomeBrew business. They had a bunch of videos showing them brewing in Asia and how they deal with the hot temperatures during the summer. In one video they are using a fish pump to recirculate Ice Water thru a immersion wort chiller and he was able to get the Wort from Boiling to 68F in 15 minutes even though it was 100F outside.
https://youtu.be/WTrKJMlPviA
Has anyone else had to brew in high temperature above 100F and had trouble and what did you do to beat the Heat when chilling your wort?

 

[FatDragon]

I use the fish pump and ice water method and it's a good one. Unfortunately, I have a small IC and an even smaller pump so it's more like 110-68 in 15 minutes for me (the first hundred degrees comes off easily running tap water through the IC regardless of outside/groundwater temperature).

My biggest difficulty with the heat is keeping my fermenting beer at reasonable temperatures. I made the mistake of buying a wine fridge for my fermentation chamber and the compressor doesn't stand a chance against summer temperatures in a non-climate-controlled home.

Once I get my VPN working again, I'll have to take a gander at that youtube channel.

 

[BrewerMikey]

Yeah the pumps work great. I found the parent company is PBCraft.com they seem to have several offices and in Xiamen too. How hot is the summer where you are? I wonder if Jamil is traveling to Asia this year?

 

[Quaker]

I used the pump method while in Shanghai as well. I'd start with the tap water and would get it to about 100F quickly. The highest temp I had coming in was about 80. But I'd then switch to a cooler (my mash tun) full of ice and the aquarium pump. I think the pump was only 60 rmb or so at a local market. I passed it on to another American homebrewer when I left. My immersion chiller was plenty large. I normally would chill to 62 while stirring to create a whirlpool and aerate the wort. Then pitch my yeast directly in the kettle. I had a snug fitting lid. If kept in an air conditioned room, it usually would stay below 70 for the first 24 hours even on summer days. I used yeast starters for a rapid start, so by the time it got warm again, the growth phase was past and off flavors avoided. But I also hedged my bets by mostly doing beers with Belgian yeasts in the summer.

Before that I was in Changzhou with no chiller or pump. There I used the bathtub filled with frozen water bottles to chill my wort and also to stabilize the ferm temp. But that summer I took a break from brewing for a month or two when it was hottest.