Fermenting In Florida Question

[StateRoad84]

Hey all, total noob, first time brewer here.

I have searched for info on temperature while fermenting. My concern is that living in Florida the temperature in my house during the summer can reach 77 degrees with the a/c working hard. At night the temp is set at 69 degrees. Of course I am worried about off flavors developing during the ferm an condition phases.

I was thinking how to combat this problem and was wondering how this would work. I have an old 5 gallon stone crock sitting as a decoration in my living room. I will be brewing 1 gallon batches, so my fermentor should fit inside the crock with space between the sides of the crock and the fermentor. If I could put a water bath in the crock and control the temp with a little ice or cold packs the crock should be able to keep the temp fairly constant with some monitoring. Any thoughts?

 

[Sailingeric]

That may work. If you do decide to go with bigger batches, which I am sure you will, I would look at Home Depot or on craiglist for fridge or small chest freezer and get an STC-1000 or something similar for temp control. I got a small chest freezer for about $125 at HD and use a temp controller and it does a great job in the summer.

 

[BrewSRQ]

I'm also from Florida and that's how I started out. Swamp coolers don't work so well with the high humidity, so I started using one of those party tubs filled with some water to set my carboy in. Kept a rotation of plastic 1L bottles frozen to bring down the temps.

That's until I found a minifridge by the dumpster of my college apartment and rigged up a ferm chamber that has been going strong for 3 years.

 

[Owly055]

Choose your yeast according to temp range. I live in Montana, but in summer my temp in the house can get into the 90's......... I don't even own an AC unit. I use my pump house in the summer a lot as a fermentation chamber as it tends to run about 65. I also ferment in the house for some beers. I particularly like to let Belle Saison "run wild". One of my favorite yeasts, but very specific to saisons. It will produce lots of funky flavor at high temps, and fermeted at low temps (mid 50's to mid 60's), it will produce an interesting almost sour tang. Currently I'm experimenting with a Norwegian yeast called Kevik from White Labs, which has a fermentation range from about 50F to 100F without producing undesirable stuff.

The bottom line is that I brew according to season........ In the hot months I use different yeasts and brew different brews than I do in winter. Google up the charts on yeasts and decide what is best for you. A fermentation chamber is a nice thing to have....... I've never had one......... But isn't an absolute necessity.

This summer, I plan on experimenting with evaporative cooling by peridically spraying water on a cloth sleeve over my Fast Ferment. This is the same methodology used in days past with canvas waterbags. The bags were saturated, and water seeped out and evaporated. I remember driving around in Eastern Oregon in mid summer when it was around 100F, and being able to drink the water from a water bag on the grill guard. It wasn't "cold", but it was cool enough to drink.

Here's an interesting system used in Western Australia in the gold rush days called the Coolguardie Safe, used to keep foods fresh in the hot temps:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe



H.W.

 

[StateRoad84]

Thanks for the replies. It makes me feel a little less concerned.

If you do decide to go with bigger batches, which I am sure you will...

My cap will probably be 2.5 gallon. I want to keep it stove top without having to move outside...but who knows

 

[flars]

Look at Kviek yeast. It is a clean fermenting yeast like US-05 but likes very warm temperatures. I think White Labs has a hot ale yeast for warm fermentations also.

 

[Brownalemikie]

Also in Florida...I have enough space in my laundry tub/sink for 2 three gallon carboys. I put about 3 inches water in tub and rotate frozen plastic milk jugs and my temp stays at or around 63-66 degrees. Start off with one frozen jug and move up to 2 if needed.

 

[r4dyce]

My cap will probably be 2.5 gallon. I want to keep it stove top without having to move outside...but who knows

I mostly do 1 gallon batches too, but I recently got a big 6-7 gallon pot , with that I can do 3-4 gallon biab, and although I haven't yet, I could go bigger with extract batches, all on stove top. Not that you need more encouragement, but it's easy enough to stay kitchen based if you wish!

 

[bajaedition]

My first "lagering closet" was a frig I got for 25 bucks at a garage sale with a analog temp controller
my second was a chest freezer I bought from Home Despot and added a digital controler on that.
I next built a metal box and used expanding foam with sheet foam to insulate that and added the guts from a freezer I got at another garage sale. it works best as I have it set up to hold corny kegs that I use for fermenters now. The difference is the shape is set up for the items put in them, the first 2 were always a compromise, however they both worked.
oh the first one broke after 2 years, so much for garage sale friges, and the second one I use for a deep freezer now. the third one is on its second frig system but has held up for years besides that.

 

[Minky]

I've been using a fermentation chamber called "Son of Fermentation Chiller" for about 9 years now and it works great. It's built from 2" foam board and uses jugs of ice and a thermostat for temp control. I built my control from an STC-1000. Plans are featured in other threads. Here's a Youtube video showing one, and I included a link to the original plans. I highly recommend it if you don't want to buy a fridge or freezer.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb226sT6qEc[/ame]

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/images/chiller-plans.pdf

 

[ncbrewer]

Your crock is apparently pretty small. I think you would be better off if you used a laundry tub or something similar so you would have more volume. A tub with more volume holds temperature better.

 

[StateRoad84]

That may work. If you do decide to go with bigger batches, which I am sure you will, I would look at Home Depot or on craiglist for fridge or small chest freezer and get an STC-1000 or something similar for temp control. I got a small chest freezer for about $125 at HD and use a temp controller and it does a great job in the summer.

I have a Kenmore freezer (about 4' tall) in my garage that we haven't used for a long time (it hasn't run in about 2 years, it is basically brand new though). You think I could make it work with an STC-1000? Would be great to have a fall back plan if the crock becomes a problem.

 

[z-bob]

You can also just learn to love the heat, and brew beers that can ferment warm. Two years ago, my homebrew club did a "big brew" wheat beer (50% 2-row, 50% wheat malt, Saaz hops.) It was not a style I was really interested it, but I participated and I took home 5 gallons of wort. This was in mid-summer and it was 80 degrees in my house. I fermented it with T-58 yeast and it was ready to bottle in 2 weeks. Much to my surprise, it one of the best beers I've made (maybe because I didn't mash or boil it?) I may brew it again soon.

Saison is a style you should look into, and someone has already mentioned Kviek.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

I'd be more worried about using Florida water. There's a reason why many Florida brewery contract out their beer brewing to north or South Carolina. I worked for a craft brewer in Greenville SC that contract brewed 6 different Florida breweries beer. Orange Blossom Pilsner being the biggest.

 

[StateRoad84]

I'd be more worried about using Florida water. There's a reason why many Florida brewery contract out their beer brewing to north or South Carolina. I worked for a craft brewer in Greenville SC that contract brewed 6 different Florida breweries beer. Orange Blossom Pilsner being the biggest.

Our water isn't the best here, but then again it isn't the worst in Florida. If worse comes to worse I could go with bottled water. Just starting out here, so let's see how the first few brews turn out.

Go Gators!

 

[shetc]

I live in Pembroke Pines. Plenty of deep freezes on Craigslist. Makes a hell of a difference. BTW, Go Gators!

 

[bajaedition]

I use bottled water, my water here is bad so I use bottled water to avoid off flavors.

about the freezer, yes it will work, just be careful about where you introduce the probe, when I used a freezer I sent the probe in through the area the compressor was and drilled in the wall under there. My buddy had drilled in the upper side of his and hit a refer line, ruined the freezer.

 

[Sailingeric]

Don't drill, just close the door on the probe line

 

[AkTom]

Use your freezer and a STC. You'll love it.

 

[sami1971]

I also brew in Florida and it wasn't until I started using a fridge with a temp controller when I started to get great tasting beer. If your house temp goes to 77F most likely it will be 5F hotter in the closed space where your fermenter is. Fermenting will produce heat so it will hard to get good results without a temperature controlled space. Luckily you would only have to deal with cooling. I actually have the fermenting fridge in the garage.

I also have water softener in the house with a reverse osmosis system so water quality isn't an issue. Our water in Tampa isn't very good as-is for brewing.

STC-1000 or similar is only $10 and easy to install. If you already have a freezer then that's the way to go. If you only brew small batches you could also get a mini-fridge (but then again you already have the freezer idle).

 

[Jim311]

For a long time I just used a square ice chest that fit my fermenter with lots of extra room around it for water. Think about thermal mass here. The more water surrounding the fermenter the longer it will take to raise (and lower) the temperature of the wort. I was able to get by with just swapping out some 12 ounce frozen water bottles twice a day with the ice chest method. It made great beer but the ferm fridge is soooo much easier to use. Alternatively you can brew with yeasts designed for hot temps. I hear good things about the "Hot Head" brand yeast. Or you could brew my least favorite styles, saisons or sours with some more advanced knowledge.

 

[StateRoad84]

I like saisons and want to brew some, especially citrus flavored ones. I was just gonna turn on my freezer to see if it still works when I noticed that the shelves are the evaporator coils, so they are not removable. the bottom shelf looks to be high enough for a 1 gallon jug or a 1 gallon big mouth to fit under. The shelves have a narrow gauge wire that runs front to back on top and under the coil passes which are about two inches apart. I think I can cut the wire in between two of the coil passes so the airlock will stick through.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

Also from FL here as well. For the first couple of brews, I set up a swamp cooler in my pantry using one of those big round plastic tote bins. I found I was able to control the temp pretty well, but it was still a hassle switching out frozen bottles all the time. In addition, it is difficult to get a truly accurate reading for the wort while the yeast are doing their job. Even in winter here when the pantry shows a temp of 65, you have to take into account that the wort is going to be a higher temp due to the yeast activities.

I highly recommend a chest freezer fermentation chamber when you can do it. That hooked up with an Inkbird temperature controller will make a huge difference in your finished product. I found one on CL for $40, and then made a temp controller using an ITC-1000 and a project box. Was a fun little side project on top of brewing beer.

For the temp probe itself (and for future plans for building a kegerator), you can build a wood collar atop the chest freezer. This allows you to drill without worry, and also gives you extra space. There is a ledge in my freezer where the compressor sits. If not for the collar, I'd only be able to fit one carboy/bucket and/or corny keg in there. That extra six inches is huge (insert joke here).

Go Knights!

 

[shetc]

Inkbird ITC-310T, Dual Stage w/6 Programmable Timers (Kegerator or Fermentation Temp Control) – $37.19

 

[StateRoad84]

This is the stone crock I was talking about. It is working very well. Temperature is staying in the range of 69 to 71 with the addition of ice cubes once a day. The towel is an insulator from light and ambient air.

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