Warm climate yeast solutions

[Sober]

Howdy. I live in northern Japan, which is cool 9 months out of the year. The summer doesn't get terribly hot, usually peaking around 90°, but I'm on a military base with no air conditioning. My house is currently 83°, and the two brews I've done so far (cider, irish stout) have come out much weaker than the recipes predict (by as much as .015 gravity points), though they taste good.

Suggestions? I have no lhbs, and shipping can be crazy expensive, so I don't know that a cooler construction project is the solution. Maybe I get some of these wine yeasts from White Labs and only brew cider in the summer? Should I not be scared that the yeasts that go up to 90° are only listed as suitable for wine? Should I brew cider as normal with those yeasts?

I'll probably do a few batches with the 740 and 760 just to try them out. If they work well up to 90°, I might sneak some with me if I get sent to Afghanistan :]

 

[1Mainebrew]

Belgian Ardennes by Wyeast (3522) is recommended up to 85*. Try your hand at some Belgian brews.

 

[beersteiner2345]

I would recommend a Belgian Saison made with Wyeast's Belgian Saison yeast...

It is good to go up to, and slightly over, 90 degrees. Actually it seems to prefer it above 80!

 

[HexKrak]

Typically brewing at warmer temperatures than the yeast suggests won't cause the beer to stall out or be weaker, but they'll throw more fruity esters, and fusel alcohols (solvent flavors). I've only made one beer, so far, that had these undesirable characteristics (nottingham fermented in the low 80's for 1/2 the day for a full fermentation cycle), and I made sure to get my ferm chamber set up after that.

If the fermentation is finishing at a higher gravity than expected I'd look at your mashing process. Typically mashing in the low 150's for 60 minutes will yield highly fermentable wort, but some malts require different processes. If you're using extracts, you might consider trying another brand. When I started brewing my LHBS carried Bries extracts and it would always ferment about 3-5 points higher than the recipe expected, which isn't bad, but I've heard some end up much higher.

Also many recipe calculators consider just about all fermentables to be 100% fermentable, which isn't the case. Grains like crystal malt have little to no fermentability, so they'll throw off the estimated F.G, and even malts that convert into highly fermentable sugars almost always leave some residuals behind.

 

[beergolf]

Agree with some of the other posts. Look into making some Belgians or Saisons. Those yeast can tolerate higher temps.

I love those beers anyway so I do a lot of them in the summer. I like to get the wort to a low temp ( even lower than recommended) and then just let the temp rise as it wants to.

 

[headbanger]

Typically brewing at warmer temperatures than the yeast suggests won't cause the beer to stall out or be weaker, but they'll throw more fruity esters, and fusel alcohols (solvent flavors).

Depends largely on the yeast, but generally a good rule of thumb.

 

[Sober]

Great replies, folks. I'll try those, as well as the wine yeasts, 'cause why not?

Hit 90° by 8am today. Didn't get much higher, but man is it hard to go to sleep with three box fans pointed at your half-naked body.