Beers made at higher fermentation temperatures

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jcfontario

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I am sure that this is probably a question that has been asked before, but I can't seem to find it, so forgive me if this repetitive. I don't have a fermentation fridge or chamber so I use a cold cellar room that is normally cool but in mid summer it has now heated up to 70-71 F. I don't want to wait for a couple of months until the room cools to the 60 F range, so are there any beers that folks would recommend brewing at these higher temperatures? I am open to most beer styles except for porters. Thanks in advance!
 
3068/300/Munich Classic is lovely at 70-72. Make a hefeweizen, or a dunkelweizen, or a weizenbock, or a roggenbier! 1214/Abbaye is nice at that temperature too. Singles/dubbels/tripels are all good.
 
Kveik for something clean, Saison if you don't mind the flavors.

Kveik has been a game changer for me. No longer do I worry about keeping them cool, I hold them at 90 with a bucket of water and an aquarium heater.

I feel, and most of human history would agree, that creating heat is easier than trying to remove it, and this yeast is mostly clean at even the highest temps, with just a bit of orange (that not everyone cares for, I'll admit).

70ish would probably work, too. I'd get Lallemand Voss dry or M12 by Mangrove Jack.
 
Saisons do well with heat...I just tried Omega Labs Jovaru yeast at 85 and it is fantastic!

As said above Kveik yeasts do great in the heat, you just need to find one you like. Personally, I'm out on IO Kveiking but would like to try some others in the future.
 
My fermentation chamber (chest freezer) broke and I've been too busy to get another one, so I've been using the low-tech method:
A square cooler and frozen ice bottles. Change the ice bottles out every 12 hrs or so and you can easily maintain 10-12 degrees F below ambient temps....
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Every year I wait for the summer heat season to brew my Saisons (M29, Belle Saison, BE134) and Strong Belgians (M41). Fermented at 28-30°C range these dry yeasts produce delicious beers. Lot of spicy yeast character and no fusels issues whatsoever.
 
I would offer some advice. But since you don't like porters, I'm afraid I can't do that;)

Actually, I'll say +1 on Kveik yeast. Also, search "swamp-cooler", which also works fairly well. But the mini fridge or wine cooler (off Craigslist can be found for $45-$80) plus an Inkbird temp controller (about $30) and you won't have to be dealing with changing out ice blocks (which is a bigger PITA than it first seems, and still leaves a little more temp fluctuation than you want).
 
At an ambient temp of only 70-71F, you could simply give fermenting under pressure a shot. Provided you have a fermenter that can be used for this. Or something that can be adapted. There are more than a few choices these days (not like a decade ago).
 
Look at the spec sheets from the manufacturer of the yeast you think you want to use. They'll tell you what range of temps they are ideal for. And also they many times suggest what styles of beer they are appropriate for.

And of course as others have said some styles of beer are more appropriate for higher temp fermentation. Don't underestimate how much cooling from evaporation from sitting your carboy or fermenter in a larger vessel of water and keeping a soaked towel over it. It can be a lot in the right conditions.

Hot places still made beer back before Frigidaire came along.
 
Look at the spec sheets from the manufacturer of the yeast you think you want to use. They'll tell you what range of temps they are ideal for. And also they many times suggest what styles of beer they are appropriate for.

And of course as others have said some styles of beer are more appropriate for higher temp fermentation. Don't underestimate how much cooling from evaporation from sitting your carboy or fermenter in a larger vessel of water and keeping a soaked towel over it. It can be a lot in the right conditions.

Hot places still made beer back before Frigidaire came along.

Thanks Hotbeer, I looked at a package of S05 that I have and it says that it works from 53.6 to 77 F, ideally 59 to 71.6 F, so I guess that it is possible, but I wonder about any off flavors produced at the higher ends. The beers that I am hoping to do are either Youper's DFH 60 clone , which I did before at 63 F or BierMuncher's OktoberFast. I have used the carboy in a cooler with ice water before, but my primary bucket is too big for the cooler. If I only need 2 or 3 F cooling, I can always strap some frozen soda bottles against the bucket. But I am intrigued by the Kveik yeast option and may give that a try.
 
Update on this DFH60 clone. My LHBS didn't have Kveik yeast (he said that only a couple of people have asked about it and he hasn't decided if he will stock it), so I went with S05. I was able to chill the wort down to 64 F after the boil and by keeping some frozen soda bottles next to the primary I was able to keep the liquid temperature to 67 F max. After 10 days the OG of 1.066 had dropped to 1.011, so fermentation was succesful. Bottles are now primed and I hope to test one in a couple of weeks.
 
Just use Kveik yeast. That is all I've used all summer long on every style of beer I've made... Belgians, London Brown, and a Stout that is fermenting now.
 
Try one of THESE (click). It's a soft side cooler, zips around the top, and will fit any carboy or bucket. I have one, used it before I got my chest freezer. Gallon milk bottles, filled with water and frozen, swapped out as needed, cool it really well....down to 60 if you need it.
 
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Until very recently I just fermented at room temp regardless of style or yeast.

After joining a homebrew club and trying to compete a little bit I still ferment the same way outside of a few things.

I bought a bag made out of the insulated lunch kit type stuff to brew a Blonde ale in the 50s. I had to keep changing out frozen bottles of water...
Then I started playing with Kveik yeast, I used the same bag, added two heating pads, a temp controller, and a bottle of water, ran the yeast underpitched and at 90 or 95 - Ive done this with great success.

I recently got a all rounder and did the temp conversion to it to be able to lager and such - I should of done this sooner!

I still ferment at room temp mostly. But there is a Kveik strain that you can use to ferment almost any style at this point if you want to run it hot.
 
I am sure that this is probably a question that has been asked before, but I can't seem to find it, so forgive me if this repetitive. I don't have a fermentation fridge or chamber so I use a cold cellar room that is normally cool but in mid summer it has now heated up to 70-71 F. I don't want to wait for a couple of months until the room cools to the 60 F range, so are there any beers that folks would recommend brewing at these higher temperatures? I am open to most beer styles except for porters. Thanks in advance!

71F is pretty chilly, to me! We keep our house around 73F and I ferment at ambient temperature. I usually brew a medium brown, 7.5% to 8% ABV ale. I get great results with Voss Kviek but lots of regular ale yeasts work well at that temp, too. I used to use US-05 and my fermenter would be right at the high end for that yeast but it came out fine. BE-134 works beautifully and I think it will be my usual summer yeast from now on. WInter, (I am in New Orleans) we let the house get down to about 68F when it will get that cold, and US-05 rocks at 68 to 70 degrees. I have made a couple of heavier beers but I like my current recipe and it is crazy cheap to make.

We are in the process of getting a new-to-us house ready to move into, and a couple months ago I moved my brewing activity to the new brew room. I started a batch about 3 days before Hurricane Ida hit, and knocked out our power for a couple weeks. No generator at the new house yet, either. Lucky me, I had just tossed all the old yeast, and started with fresh yeast for that batch, and it was the Voss. So the first 2-3 days, ferment temp was about 73, then it was in the 80s and 90s. Fermentation actually picked back up a bit after mostly stopping. Kviek yeasts can stand as much heat as you can stand. If it is really gonna be hot in your brew room, consider Hot Head. CRAZY yeast! Gotta leave lots of head space in the fermenter or it will blow like Mt St Helens, especially with a high grav beer at high temps. Probably the most heat tolerant yeast in common use. But Voss Kviek is a dry yeast, which is convenient, and is much better behaved, especially at normal room temperatures and OG of like 1.090 or less. I highly recommend it for a room temp ale or even a garage brewed ale. None of those yeasts have ever given me any weirdness in the finished product. I think I like the BE-134 batches the best. A good, solid, bread-y ale, low sediment but good mouth feel. Honestly my palate is not really refined enough to appreciate the differences between those yeasts to the fullest.

FWIW my recipe for 5gal is pretty simple, BIAB, 10lb Viking pale, 1lb Viking 350 chocolate, a large cannister of Quaker quick oats, and a cannister of Quaker quick grits. Hops was Cascade but now I am using Helga, two closed fistfuls, a bit over an ounce I guess for an hour. I mash in at 152 or so, fire off, pull the bag after an hour and squeeze her dry, wet it with another gallon and a half hot water and squeeze it again, then hop it and boil for an hour. Very cheap to make and it suits my palate just fine. Just be sure to use quick oats and grits, not the regular kind. Those will work but there is an extra step involved.
 
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