fermentation at higher temps?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bluehouse

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
345
Reaction score
4
is there anything I can brew now in S Texas without a ferm chamber? I have no more room in ferm chamber, it is 91 degrees outside for 1/2 the time is there anything I can brew here, even in the house we are doing good to keep the temp down to 76%, can't afford to run the ac lower than this. So any advice about high temp fermentation?
 
If you can get it cooler to pitch, I would try a saison. It'll dry out nicely and it'll take 90 degree heat. Just pitch below 70 and let it free rise.
 
I second the saison. My best saison I've brewed got up to 95 on accident, and it turned out great.
 
I'm a TX brewer as well, and this will be my first brewing summer. I'm using the tub in my spare bathroom as my storage area, so I'm assuming I'll have to move to the swamp cooler method here in another month or so.

+1 on the can't-afford-to-AC-it-below-76!!!
 
I'm in Southern Louisiana; it isn't much better over here.

I've tried the swamp cooler but hated having to constantly change the frozen bottles and it loaded my house with humidity from having all that water sitting in a tub. I stopped because I hated coming in from outside and feeling like I stepped from the swamp into the Amazon jungle. If you have a spare bathroom where you could close it off and run the vent fan periodically, then I'd give it ago.

Since you can't have a fermentation chamber (I don't have one either), then you're only choice is to do what I did... Start loving those Belgian beers! They ferment at higher temps, which is perfect for our situation. Plus, they have a good variety of styles out there, not everything is thick and heavy like Chimay. Without temp control, you'll also be able to become a season brewer. When the weather gets cold out, then you can get started on other beers you can't brew here during the summer. Keeps your homebrew selection interesting.
 
i'm going to be running into the same situation soon too. Vegas gets into triple digit heat in the summer, and we keep our house in the low 80's.
 
i'm going to be running into the same situation soon too. Vegas gets into triple digit heat in the summer, and we keep our house in the low 80's.

wow, low 80s!! I don't know if I could handle that, I keep my place around 72. We have lots of humidity though. Even with Dehumidifier running around the clock and the A/C on, I'll see a humidity inside peak around 60 to 65%. Low is around 50% and I only see that in early morning. Once we're awake and moving around, taking showers, cooking, opening doors, it'll jump up.
 
I use a large cooler and sit my ferm bucket in it, then fill it right to the 5 Gallon line with water. Then just drop a couple frozen water bottles in a twice a day and I can keep steady temps. It's super easy to get 60F for ales, in fact I just finished doing my first lager in it this week. Was able to keep it comfortably @ 50F for two weeks. Just added 2-20oz ice bottles 3 times a day. that's it.

the beauty of a cooler is that it only loses heat around the surface of the water, needs no fan, no excess humidity, not to mention the water surrounding the entire bucket moves heat away from the fermenter super efficently.
 
wow, low 80s!! I don't know if I could handle that, I keep my place around 72. We have lots of humidity though. Even with Dehumidifier running around the clock and the A/C on, I'll see a humidity inside peak around 60 to 65%. Low is around 50% and I only see that in early morning. Once we're awake and moving around, taking showers, cooking, opening doors, it'll jump up.

its actually pretty comfortable.

our humidity levels are usually single digit at that time...gotta love the desert.
 
I've started putting my carboy into a big-@$$ cooler someone gave me. It drops right in, but I can't close the lid. However, if I stand the cooler on its side, I think can squeeze in a 5-gallon carboy and still shut the lid. A couple of ice packs in there with it and I think I could keep it downright chilly indefinitely, just change out the ice packs every day or so. So maybe just do 4 gallon batches in a smaller carboy (or use those Fermcap (sp?) drops) and out the vessel into a big cooler.

Or, you can just do Saisons and funky belgians, as is recommended above.
 
Back
Top