Planning first brew.. Beer style tips?

[metanoia]

Fermentation is the single most important factor in how your wort develops into beer. If you are genuinely concerned about the temperature of the fermenter being too high and have the cash, you can typically pick up a chest freezer off Craigslist for under $100, throw in a temp control unit from eBay for $20, and have an easier to control environment for fermentation. On the cheaper end, you can also rig up a swamp cooler for about $10 and a few minutes spent swapping out frozen water bottles every day.

 

[YeastMode]

Take a look at this thread regarding a cooler bag and think about whether this may help you control temps:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wow-cool-brewing-insulated-fermentation-bag-482461/

I know it's way too big for a 1 gallon batch, but you can for several in there and you can use it should you move to 5 gallons. I started like you making 1 gallon batches and it was fun. The downside is all the work bottling for 8-10 beers. After 7 batches, I had the process down and moved to bigger batches.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Swamp cooler temp control will do you well at the temperatures you're talking about. My ambient temp is only a touch lower than yours (high 60s to low 70s depending on the season and day), and I can brew a mean Kolsch with a swamp cooler (fermented at 58 and then "lagered" at 40). It's a LOT of work to keep temps that low, but it can be done. But if you want to ferment a beer in the 66-68 range (which will work well for many ales) a couple soda bottles of ice a couple times a day and you'll be in fantastic shape.

Saison and Kolsch are both refreshing, both on the light body end of the spectrum, and both usually have a bit of hop character. I'd say that's where the similarities end. Kolsch is usually paler than Saison (depends on the example, they can be about the same, but most Saisons are a little darker), and a Kolsch is clean with little to no esters, where a Saison really has more esters than any other style. A traditional Saison is definitely a session beer, but most modern ones are quite strong.

I love a good Saison, but you need to be careful with the yeast. Some Saison yeasts are notoriously problematic and love to stall out on you (which also happen to be, in my opinion, the best strains). If you can get Wyeast 3711 French Saison, go with that one for your first. It's a workhouse, very low maintenance compared to other strains, will reliably get the beer to the right level of dryness, and still provides a nice character, it's just not as in your face and complex as other possibilities.

 

[Man-O-Leisure]

Thanks for the replies guys, really helpful!

Unfortunately i am currently in a small apartment and unable to even think of getting another fridge at all to make a chamber, and here in Brazil (no craigslist) a second hand crappy fridge would set me back about $500.. Contrary to belief, nothing in Brasil is cheap (Apart from commercial beer )

The swamp cooler idea seems cool, just worried that if i am not around to change the ice bottles that i will cause a problem with the beer.. I would LOVE to make a Kolsch first.. No one replied to my main question, Wikipedia says that Saison yeast work perfectly fine above 25 degrees celcius, this true? Thats why i imagined that to be the style for me to try.. Plus i want to make a reasonbly lite version, say around 5% ABV, nothing too high.

 

[Man-O-Leisure]

Take a look at this thread regarding a cooler bag and think about whether this may help you control temps:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wow-cool-brewing-insulated-fermentation-bag-482461/

I know it's way too big for a 1 gallon batch, but you can for several in there and you can use it should you move to 5 gallons. I started like you making 1 gallon batches and it was fun. The downside is all the work bottling for 8-10 beers. After 7 batches, I had the process down and moved to bigger batches.

Thanks for that, ill take a look at it for sure. Still in the process or looking for the equipment to buy and use, so i may in the end bite the bullet and go for a 5gallon setup anyways, incase i decide to go bigger that the 1gallon inicial test batches that i want to do... I am actually thinking of maybe doing a 5gallon batch and them splitting the wort into a few small fermenters to test different yeasts or flavours. dry hopping maybe.

 

[rodwha]

This one certainly can:

https://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=60

Their French saison yeast only goes up to 25*C. And that's beer temp not water or air temp.

 

[Qhrumphf]

This one certainly can:

https://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=60

Their French saison yeast only goes up to 25*C. And that's beer temp not water or air temp.

That's a good strain. I use it for my Saisons. But it's notoriously problematic. If the ambient is 77C then in a swamp cooler with no ice is perfect for 3711, and even ambient would be fine. I wouldn't take it as high as others but its fine here.