Room temperature too hot for brewing

[Mrhopstoopid]

I have watched tons of videos on youtube to familiarize myself with brewing homemade beer. But Im in Phoenix and it gets very hot here in the summer (115 outside) and my house usually stays when I'm not home around 90 degrees. From what I have read and seen on everyones brewing videos they just leave their beer at room temperature in a dark place during the fermentation process. Is there another way of keeping the fermenter at the right temps when my house is so hot? Any tricks I can do, other then keeping my AC at 70?


Kyle <------newby

 

[ghack]

Someone needs to do a sticky of tips for brewing in the southern latitudes....

Best thing is a spare refrigerator with a temperature control.

Draping a wet t-shirt sitting in a pan of water, with a fan blowing on it has been known to keep the temps down. It never did much for me (New Orleans humidity), but you live in a bone dry climate. It might work.

You can set the fermenter in a tub (I used a small clean garbage can) of water and add ice as needed to keep the temps in range. This requires a good bit of ice on hand and a good bit of monitoring.

You could possibly use a window AC unit to cool a room down more than the rest of your house.

That's all I got

 

[BeerBudha]

I live down in Tucson and experience the same problem. To keep my temp down I put my fermentor in a keg tub with water and ice and cover with a towel to help keep out the light. This usually works, my problem is cooling it from boiling down to about 80 quickly I just made a wort chiller but the water out of the tap is so warm it doesn't do much good.

 

[MMW]

Welcome to HBT, and those are pretty much your options.

The only other thing I could mention is the "Son of Fermentation Chiller" but a free/nearly free fridge/freezer on CL is probably the best option.

 

[Hang Glider]

Georgia/South Carolina doesn't get quite as hot - but still too warm. You need to keep your wort in the temperature range for your yeast, designated by the manufacturer.

Easiest is to get a large ice chest, fill with cool water, and set your carboy/bucket in that. Freeze up some bottles ahead of time, and get a rotation going. If you keep the ice chest in the house, and swap out frozen bottles in the morning before work and evening when you return, you'll probably get it to stay pretty consistent. Run a test before brew day, see what you can achieve with a thermometer.

good luck!

 

[j2brew]

I recently went on vacation for a week shortly after brewing a batch (yeah, bad timing). I had been doing the water bucket + ice packs routine, but since I was going to be away, I just filled the bucket up real high, put a t-shirt over it, and then pointed a box fan at it (swamp cooler). When I got home, the water was half-gone, but the temp was right at 68, so I count that as success. Ambient temp was up to 85 (I'm in NC).

In short, you'll be fine with a combination of a big bucket, ice packs, a t-shirt, a fan, and a patient wife/girlfriend/roommate.

Because of that last requirement, I'm building a beer shack out back to put a temp-controlled refrigerator in!

 

[Runyanka]

I live down in Tucson and experience the same problem. To keep my temp down I put my fermentor in a keg tub with water and ice and cover with a towel to help keep out the light. This usually works, my problem is cooling it from boiling down to about 80 quickly I just made a wort chiller but the water out of the tap is so warm it doesn't do much good.

I also experieced the same problem with the hot tap water. I recently build a pre-chiller chiller Basically got 10' of copper, coiled it small, put it in a cooler with ice, and works great. Basically water comes out of the tap hot, goes through the coil in the ice, then ice cold water enters the chiller in the boil kettle. This cools it down very quickly and gives one hell of a cold break.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I took some 1" foam board, cut it to shape, and made a cooler to fit a 6 gallon Better Bottle and two 2 liter soda bottles of frozen water. I can ferment an ale by moving one 2 liter in and out as needed, or ferment a lager by leaving two frozen bottles in the box.

I also made a foam lid for a cube cooler. The lid lets the blowoff or airlock stick out. It works the same as my home made box.

Now, I'm working on a better cooler. I acquired a 4.5cf fridge and removed the door. I'm building a box out of 2" foam board that will be attached and will hold 2 fermenters.

 

[Arkador]

You can set the fermenter in a tub (I used a small clean garbage can) of water and add ice as needed to keep the temps in range. This requires a good bit of ice on hand and a good bit of monitoring.

Rather than burn through ice, having a bunch of 20oz soda bottles filled with water, and rotating them into the freezer works really well..

I use a combo of 2 methods...
I have 6inches of water and a tshirt that wicks up the water. I also throw a 1gal jug of frozen water in every 12 hours. I just started doing that this summer, because i am in Texas now, and it has been 100+ for a couple weeks

 

[PvtSkippy]

I also experieced the same problem with the hot tap water. I recently build a pre-chiller chiller Basically got 10' of copper, coiled it small, put it in a cooler with ice, and works great. Basically water comes out of the tap hot, goes through the coil in the ice, then ice cold water enters the chiller in the boil kettle. This cools it down very quickly and gives one hell of a cold break.

Another alternative would be to get a small submersible pump with a garden hose fitting. I usually try to cool my wort down as much as I can with straight tap water and once I get the wort down to ~110F I'll swap over to a tub filled with ice water and use the pump to circulate ~32F water through the IC. Works a champ and saves water as I pump the return water back into the same tub or into my MLT/cooler to use as clean-up water, depending on where I am on the thermometer.

 

[h4rdluck]

I can't get my bathroom lower than 76-78 degrees and i have brewed 5 batches so far and had no problems...

90 seems a little hot though..

 

[UncleDave]

I use the swamp cooler approach that everyone has already mentioned. I am meticulous about keeping it iced and cool for the first 4-5 days. After that, I still change out the frozen two liter bottles once a day, but I'm less concerned about keeping the temp regulated. This has worked pretty well for me. YMMV.

 

[bdaddy]

spare fridge and temp control would be best, but not feasible for everyone due to size. Also, even if you find a cheap/free one on craigslist you still have to buy the temp controller and most old/cheap fridges on craigslist might not be very energy efficient, so keep that in mind. (Note: my area seems to have an inflated price for used fridges...i never see "free" or "cheap" working fridges on craigslist...everyone is asking $100+ for years old fridges).

I use the "son of fermentation chiller", which gets around the above issues but you have to deal with the ice factor, which can be a pain. It works best if you have 1-2 fermenters in your pipeline...but can be limiting due to it's size.

 

[Minky]

I use the "Son of Fermentation" chiller, and highly recommend it. Check out the plans here:

http://knoxhomebrewer.com/images/stories/chiller plans.pdf

 

[Eigenmusic]

I just brewed my first AG Hefe and it is fermenting in a Lowe's plastic bucket with a blowoff tube. I'm keeping it in my MLT Cooler surrounded by water and kept at a nice 65F-70F (using the occasional ice pack to keep it in check), when the rest of the house is in the lower 90s all day and it is running close to 100F outside (my A/C is terrible and sucks power, so I try not to use it). Here is a pic of my setup:

 

[craven_morhead]

Or you could brew saisons, since they do fine at those temps, and do your other ales in the cooler months.