Fermenting in warm climates

I live on the Ms Gulf Coast and since we don't have basements due to the water table being about 8 inches and normal room temps betwen 72-75 degrees F, am I going to have any problems down the road ? Right now I'm just trying to get a better handle on my technique and methodology and am not as worried about the minutae. But eventually I wanna be able to make some uber quality stuff. Now we don't have orchards down here much either so maybe I will never be able to make as awesome a batch as the Yankees out there! but I don't want to end up beating my head against a temperature wall i can't really help.


P.S.- I tried to do a search on this and only found some recommended temps and nothing really definitive about an unavoidable temp in the mid 70's (everyone seems to like 60-65 degrees I've noticed hence my question)

I do it the cheap way by placing my carboy into a plastic tub of water, wrapping it with a wet towel, and using a small fan to blow air onto it. Keeps the temps right at 67-degrees, assuming the ambient room temp is somewhere in the low 70's.

You can also find an old fridge on craigslist and turn it into a fermentation chamber.

I'll probably build a fermentation chamber some day... but right now the tub-O-water technique is working just fine for my ales.

In SC, I used an old fridge with a Johnson analog thermostat controller on it. It worked well enough to do ales and lagers but not at the same time. The other alternative is to use a 15 gallon plastic basin from Walmart or Target. They cost about $5.00 and you drop the fermenter in the basin and fill up to the level inside the carboy with water. Toss in a few frozen water bottles and you have yourself a fermenter that can keep your brew at 65 - 68 deg F. Swap out the bottles every couple of days with freshly frozen ones. If your using a glass carboy, cover it with a dark colored t-shirt to block out the light. Let the shirt drop into the water around the carboy and it will cool the carboy by evaporation....

Hmmmm.... the very tiny closet space I have for my fermenter doesn't leave much room for a water bath..... Will the temp difference really hurt the end product that bad?

Chest Freezer. Johnson A19 temp controller. Craigs List. The yanks are getting hot weather now too.

I'm about 300 miles north-northeast of you and it's plenty hot here too. I haven't had a lot of problems with cider and warm temps. It seems to do OK as long as I try to avoid having an active fermentation during a really hot spell. Cider seems to be a little more tolerant of heat than beer, for instance. All of the above ideas are good; I've tried a wet towel over a carboy as well as the ice bottles and water around it. If you don't have room for that I'd still go for it; chances are it'll be fine. If it doesn't seem right hide it somewhere and forget about it for a while; aging fixes a lot of things.

The AC works fine and it isn't getting above 73 or so in the tiny closet its sitting in. The first batch turned out okay (a bit too dry maybe.... but I prolly didn't age it long enough).

Guess I may be stuck with my present method til I get a bigger place. Hopefully soon!
Thanx all!

Fermenting at those temperatures will create by-products from the yeast (you've probably seen people talking about the fusel alcohols, but also dependant on yeast strain). You will need to age it for a lot longer than normal to get them to break down.

I didn't notice anything untowards in my first batch........

Do you have anything to compare it to?

The 10 gallon round beverage cooler is a uniquely useful device in homebrewing.
Fermenting. Throw some frozen water bottles in a water bath under the fermenter:

Or use a pump and a temp controller to make a Water Fermentation Chiller:

Other uses include mashing:

Serving:

944play said:

Serving:

Click to expand...

I've seen some kegerators and jockey boxes on this site, but that one deserves a prize of some sort!

No kidding that last picture is great!!!