Florida Brewing

[libirm]

Hello All
Moved from New York to Florida- wanted to start brewing again-
Wanted to get your input on a few things-
1- Thinking about shifting to electric- maybe a grain father?
2- Concerned about fermenting temps- In NY- had a basement that stayed 60-70 degrees
How do folks in South Florida deal with the heat and the correct fermenting temps?
3- Any other tips for brewing in South Florida?
Thanks for the help!
Rock Steady!

 

[firerat]

Hello All
Moved from New York to Florida- wanted to start brewing again-
Wanted to get your input on a few things-
1- Thinking about shifting to electric- maybe a grain father?
2- Concerned about fermenting temps- In NY- had a basement that stayed 60-70 degrees
How do folks in South Florida deal with the heat and the correct fermenting temps?
3- Any other tips for brewing in South Florida?
Thanks for the help!
Rock Steady!

Hey there from a native South Floridian.

1- I don't personally have any experience with the Grainfather but I do use a Mash & Boil and while it has it's limitations, it's not a terrible rig.

2- Freezer / fridge and a temperature controller. It's a must down here.

3- Look into to no chill brewing or be ready to buy a LOT of ice because trying to get your wort to pitching temps down here using immersion chillers or counter flow chillers is near impossible with our ground water in the summer.

Welcome to Hedes. BTW, stock up on beer and ice because we are going to have a fun ride the Labor Day weekend with Dorian the Explorian.

 

[brownni5]

Or you could brew everything with Kveik yeast strains - well adapted to fermenting at 100 deg F. At least many of them are. Too many to list now available!

 

[Alex4mula]

Another Mash & Boil user. For the price I think it is super convenient. Not to say that I got it on sale for $70 less

 

[FunkedOut]

Get a chest freezer and a temp controller.
Get a 7 cubic ft so you can ferment two brews at once to make the whole thing worthwhile.

The water near the coast lines sucks. Way too many minerals leach into the supply.
Use RO or distilled water and minerals.

Worst case, if you don’t want to dive into minerals and mash pH management yet, split 50/50 with distilled and spring.

If you’re dead set on using tap water, use campden tablets to get rid of the chloramine.




As far as chilling goes, I never tried no chill, but seems too unpredictable on the bitterness side. And you’ll never get the late hops effect.

I’ve done the ice water through the chiller and had great success.
As of late, to make life easier, I chill with the hose down to 90*F or so.
Then put it in the fermenter and chill the rest of the way in the chest freezer.
No difference in beer quality.

 

[jekeane]

Grainfather is fine it’s terribly slow to boil so if you access to 220 I would look at one of the 220 all in ones.

You will need temperature control here you can get away with a swamp cooler if you are fermenting inside.

Water varies widely here and in general it’s not great. Publix has water machines where ro is available at .35 a gallon.

The homebrew clubs in Florida are pretty active so I would try and find one nearby.

 

[RCope]

Welcome to Florida! The wife bought a chest freezer a few years ago to theoretically run with a generator during hurricane power outages...repurposed into a fermentation chamber (just added a temp controller). No experience with all-in-one electric systems...waiting to see what Ss Brewtech will come up with. I BIAB with propane and use a ladder to set up a pulley/drain system...breaks down easily and no need to buy anything new. Remember, outdoors is great 6 months of the year. Really enjoyable to relax with a homebrew while brewing when the heat index is less than 105 ;-).

A bag of ice and a 5 gallon bucket with a pond pump works wonders with an immersion chiller (I, too, use ground water to get to around 90-100 deg first). Finish off in the freezer before pitching if necessary. I buy liquid yeast only during the 2 or 3 months when the temp is great and overbuild my starters. Yeast "farming" is fun. But dry yeast makes great beer, too. RO water from Publix.

Dorian may hit closer to Stuart so hunker down! Firerat and I are neighbors (I live in Plantation)...need to invite him over for a beer if I could figure out who he is

 

[jcav]

Welcome! I moved from New York to Florida in 1978! Anyway, I have a large upright freezer that I put my conical fermentor in to ferment my beers. I have a 3 vessel e-herms and I have to use ground water to drop from boiling to about 90 degrees. Then I use two bags of ice to get it down to pitching temps. I also have two counter flow chillers hooked up in tandem and this works great for my needs. I brew on my back lanai and if you don't use ice you can always use the freezer to get the wort down to pitching temps and then pitch the yeast. I like to pitch as fast as I can so I use lots of ice. Good luck in your brewing endeavors!

John

 

[libirm]

Grainfather is fine it’s terribly slow to boil so if you access to 220 I would look at one of the 220 all in ones.

You will need temperature control here you can get away with a swamp cooler if you are fermenting inside.

Water varies widely here and in general it’s not great. Publix has water machines where ro is available at .35 a gallon.

The homebrew clubs in Florida are pretty active so I would try and find one nearby.

I googled home brew but have not found one close tp zip code 34997- I really prefer to suppport local- I keep I eye out for the closes one

 

[mullet6577]

This doesn't seem to be too far from Stuart

https://www.tcbrewmasters.org/

 

[jcav]

^
Looks like a very nice homebrew club!

John