Pressure fermentations at 70F?

[luckybeagle]

Hey all,

I've got a really crummy garage fridge and glass carboys--both of which I'd really like to move away from. I've been considering a fermentation vessel that I can pressurize, and recall reading about lagers fermented at "room temperature" with no Fusels or other off flavors common with warm fermentations and more temperature-sensitive yeasts. It sounds like a nice stainless conical for pressurized fermentation could be the answer to all of my fermentation grievances?!

I'm wondering if my house ambient temperature (69-70F pretty much all the time) would be too hot, even with pressurized fermentation, to brew the styles I brew most: Belgians, Germans, and English Ales (with the occasional Marzen and Kolsch)?

I'm especially curious about warm fermentations with Belgian beers since sooo much of their flavor is derived from yeast and ester/phenol development. Does anyone out there have experience with 69F +/- pressure fermentations, especially with European ales?

 

[ba-brewer]

I dont think you want to do pressure fermentation for english ales as many get character from esters.

Belgian beers could be brewed at your ambient without pressure. I am guessing pressure would not suppress phenolic but really dont know.

If you added a heat wrap to your carboy then you could use Lutra Kveik to do kolsch type beers or pseudo-lager without pressure too.

 

[luckybeagle]

I dont think you want to do pressure fermentation for english ales as many get character from esters.

Belgian beers could be brewed at your ambient without pressure. I am guessing pressure would not suppress phenolic but really dont know.

If you added a heat wrap to your carboy then you could use Lutra Kveik to do kolsch type beers or pseudo-lager without pressure too.

Thanks for the quick reply. I hear you on the British beers, that makes sense. I didn't know pressure fermentation would suppress esters so much. With my high gravity Belgians, I'm concerned about fusels at room temp, so most are pitched at 62-65 and then risen by 1F or so per day.

Not a big fan of Kveik yeasts after some experimenting.

Hmmmm.....

 

[ba-brewer]

I was not thinking bigger beers but that could be a concern. I brew almost exclusively session strength beers.

I am assuming you keg so you can try a beer using a keg then decide if it works for you before committing to a new fermentor.

Using a keg to do a pressure ferment for lagers is in my near future. I have some high pressure lager on order.

I have a fermzilla all rounder that I have spunded to carbonate at the end of fermentation but transferring I had to use CO2 to transfer out of it which I did not like much. It is cheaper than a stainless solution.