Can't ferment below 78-82 degrees... help?

[yoshio]

I've been doing a lot of research lately and was looking forward to attempting my first home brew; however, I've hit a road block.

I live in a second story apartment, in Florida, and after tracking the average temp in here using a digital thermometer, it has been consistently 78-82 range. I can't afford to crank my AC any lower, so that's about as cold as it gets for the next 4-5 months.

So should I even bother trying to brew at home or is it a waste of time?

 

[Special Hops]

Set your carboy in the bathtub or a big rubbermaid tub filled with water. Soak towel or T-shirt and put over carboy so that it is in contact with water. Have a fan blow air across this. this will cool it down a good 5-10 degrees. You can add ice to the water to bring the temp down even more.

 

[SporkD2]

There are many ways to do this using frozen water bottles and water. Basically put the fermenter into really cold water and it will be fine. Your not the only person that brews from FL

There are many ways to do this, more searches will broaden your understanding. I am sorry I am not offering you better advice but us people with basements kinda have it easy

 

[Arneba28]

Saison to the rescue!!!!!!. bucket with water and some ice maybe. Then just let it age a little one the warm side, ok, alot on the warm side. On the bright side. It will be very flavorful. So do a belgian something that will love the odd esters that you get from temps that high. Just check to see what taste is accented when you pick a yeast. I did a dubbel and didnt check the prominent flavor profile, yeah it was almost unbearably peppery because it was a little warm.

 

[Revvy]

Wrong-O!!!

Yes you can brew....All you need to do is rig up a temp control chamber. There's several ways to do it including using on old fridge....I don'thave the space so I have to go Ghetto!..

I do this;

I just take a rubbermade bin, stick an aquarium thermometer on the side, then fill it with a few inches of water (which I add some iodophor to), cover the fermenters with a t-shirt to wick up the water, and freeze some various sized pop and water bottles with water. You can go swamp cooler and add a fan blowing on it.

Last night I had my fermenters below 60!

 

[niquejim]

I've brewed 25 gallons in the last week and I'm way south in Florida. If there's a will, there's a way

 

[TheFlatline]

A note if you go the swamp cooler method.

Don't get a vornado fan or any really highly efficient fan to blow onto your wet tshirts. I literally dry the water faster than it wicks due to the high volume of air being moved over the bucket. I haven't found a distance yet for my vornado to allow wicking, but I'm thinking it's in the neighborhood of 20 feet away. That thing sends a MASSIVE column of air for a long, long way.