What styles can I brew warm(ish)?

[Calypso]

I don't have a good way to keep fermenting beer cool. I can keep one coolER in a water bath in my shower, but that is inconvenient. So what styles of beer can I leave to ferment and let get as warm as they want? (ambient temp is 70F year round).

 

[Joewalla88]

Last time I was worried about it getting to warm I just wrapped the fermentor in a wet towel and aimed a fan at it. I would just re-wet the towel when it dried out and it worked great.

 

[wanders]

Weizens and many Belgian styles should be alright at that temp.

 

[CanAusBrewer]

If you use a large (65l) tub and rotate frozen water bottles you can keep your beer at a regularly consistent cooler temperature in a warmer climate. I live in Australia and have to deal with the fact that I don't have A/C at my place. If you put a t-shirt over the fermentor as well this works even better to regulate temperature. Otherwise if you have to brew warm you could brew a saison.

 

[Hopinista]

Weizens and many Belgian styles should be alright at that temp.

This. A lot of Belgian beer styles are okay (and some even preferred) to ferment at higher temps. Some people even ferment saisons up to the low 80's.

You don't want to start high though, make sure to try to keep it at normal ale temps for the first couple days, then it's okay to let it rise up in temp.

 

[Calichusetts]

Plenty! There are several beer styles that like 70s and higher. Also, consider taking a peak at the range of liquid yeasts:

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew/listings

There are plenty of yeasts that do fine in the 70s. I would still stick to the ones that have a high end range of 73 or higher because at 70 ambient, your beer will certainly be at least a few degrees higher.

 

[Calypso]

If you use a large (65l) tub and rotate frozen water bottles you can keep your beer at a regularly consistent cooler temperature in a warmer climate. I live in Australia and have to deal with the fact that I don't have A/C at my place. If you put a t-shirt over the fermentor as well this works even better to regulate temperature. Otherwise if you have to brew warm you could brew a saison.

I'm not home much except on the weekends, so I can't really babysit my fermentation. Just keeping the fermenters in a tub of water seems to cool them down by 2-4 degrees, but I won't be able to keep ice packs in there to bring it down more than that.

I think I'll try a saison next, since I really like the style and I can let it do what it wants!

 

[MrHadack]

Some people even ferment saisons up to the low 80's.

Truth! Last summer I fermented a Saison on the back deck in the middle of summer. Temperatures ran up into the low 90s during the day. It turned out really well.

 

[Hopinista]

Truth! Last summer I fermented a Saison on the back deck in the middle of summer. Temperatures ran up into the low 90s during the day. It turned out really well.

Haha it's great! I fermented a saison with 3711 and it got up near 90 and it was awesome!

 

[Exportjo]

Vintage beers...barleywines, imperial stout, etc. Ferment warm...throw in a keg for a year sitting on yeast....


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[Calder]

I brew American ales at 70 F.

I use Pacman as it is tolerant of higher temps.

I keep the fermenter in a large tub filled with about 10 gallons of water. The water is a great heat sink and prevents the fermentation temperature from running away. The fermenter is not going to get more than a degree or 2 above the water temp, even at the height of activity. I don't use any cooling, I just make sure i am in the temp range for the yeast.

 

[charliehorse]

I've had fantastic luck fermenting ales at whatever temperature the ambient room temperature is. I use a lot of US-04, US-05 and Danstar Nottingham and I've never had any kind of funkiness what so ever. I even won a competition with an IPA, using US-05 fermented at about 75 degrees.

Temperature is more critical with lager yeast.