What do you do about brewing when it gets hot and you live in Texas

[Treshombres]

We live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I guess we are looking at having to stop brewing until fall. I cant see how to keep the fermentaion room, err 3rd bedroom, cold enough during the summer heat here. What do people do in the south during the summer months? Pay out the wazoo for air conditioning to keep the room below 72 degrees? Or stop brewing until October? Looking for ideas. In the mean time, we are brewing our last 2 batches of beer next weekend in hopes it will stay cool enough through May to get it in the bottle.

 

[cyclonetx]

You can brew through the Texas summer heat with an easy-to-build fermentation chiller. I used one last summer in Ft. Worth and was able to keep my primary fermentation between 60 and 65 degrees. The plans are at the following link: http://knoxhomebrewer.com/images/stories/chiller plans.pdf

 

[D_Struct]

Good thing my wife likes it cold in our house...

I can sympathize with the heat issues.

 

[JGB]

Get one of these with a temp controller (I use a Johnson A19). I got this from Craigslist for $120. With this, I can now lager. I also live in the DFW area and with our wild weather I'd be lost without my fermentation chest. Happy Brewing!

 

[152Sumo]

I am going to end up getting a controller for garage refrigerator. It is barely the beginning of spring, and I am already having trouble keeping my IPA below 70 in a water bath with frozen water bottles. Can't wait to buy a controller, set the temp, and walk away.

 

[Treshombres]

Get one of these with a temp controller (I use a Johnson A19). I got this from Craigslist for $120. With this, I can now lager. I also live in the DFW area and with our wild weather I'd be lost without my fermentation chest. Happy Brewing!

What exactly is that? a deep freeze? Or extra large cooler?

 

[godofcheese]

What exactly is that? a deep freeze? Or extra large cooler?

Thats a chest freezer.

 

[jcgifford]

I'm lucky enough to have a basement that hovers around 70 degrees most of the summer, even with the thermostat set at 72+. The thermostat is on the main level, so I sometimes even have to close one or two of the vents downstairs. It's gotten down to around 65 before.

 

[david_42]

Chest freezers are fine, if you have a strong back. I use an old fridge for fermentation and a chest freezer for serving.

And some Belgians yeasts are good to 80-85F. Not too hard on the electrical bill.

 

[Brett3rThanU]

I use a chest freezer with a temperature controller, works perfectly.

 

[gramatton]

Just got a temp controller for the upright freezer in the garage. It's a god send. Currently waiting on delivery of a 2nd to put on the fridge right next to it. With those two we can have 2 carboys in the fridge and 4 in the freezer(once the shelf has been reinforced.)

 

[azscoob]

I ferment in a refrigerator with a temp controller. my big summer issue was maintaining mash temp if I was brewing in the backyard, the sun would cause a rise in temp in the cooler. after great-stuffing the lid its mostly a non-issue now, chilling when your tap water hovers around 98°-103° can be a big problem. I now use a cooler full of ice water and a pump to chill year-round.

 

[steinsato]

Here in New Mexico I don't have any type of air conditioning or swamp cooler. Luckily, one of the local brew pubs is letting us homebrewers brew with them on Saturdays and then we can leave our fermenters in one of their temp controlled rooms as long as we'd like. I'm also thinking of making some kind of swamp cooler type thing with a large rubbermaid bucket, some towels, water, and a fan. We'll see how that works out.

 

[brewagentjay]

It's been in low 80s here and my fermentors are hangging out at 68. So I'll have to play by ear but thinking an old fridge in garage might be my answer.

 

[Minky]

I use the Son of Fermentation Chiller, as cyclonetx mentioned and linked to in post #2. It's made of light weight foam board and uses frozen bottles of water. It can be set to the exact temperature that you want for fermentation, and it doesn't require that you dedicate a refrigerator or freezer to brewing. Highly recommended!!

 

[JGB]

Yes, that is a 14.4 cu/ft Chest Freezer pictured. I bought a temperature controller from the HBHQ on Coit and simply plugged it in and dropped the temperature probe into a bucket of water. It works like a charm.

The chest fridge solution is not for everyone. For some, a standard upright fridge works better. Especially if you have a bad back.

If you're going to brew in TX, think about getting something insulated with a compressor involved.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I recently read an article from a brewer in Fort Worth who brought up the great point of brewing Belgians over the summer. That's what I'm going to do. I am struggling to keep my swamp cooler below 70 already and we're only touching the 80s. With the Belgians, letting the yeast get into the 70s is ok, if not preferred.

 

[iparks81]

Here in AZ I've been using a very small water pump (my LHBS sells them for this exact reason) with a legnth of 1\2" hose with small holes poked in it....wrapping the hose around the top of the fermenter (with the fermenter sitting in a rubbermaid tub with water about half way up) then wrap an old towel around the fermenter so there is a constant trickle of water down the sides of the towel (down the side of the fermenter) ...keeps the beer over 10 deg cooler than room temp. Even more with a small fan blowing on it

http://www.fountaintechpumps.com/indoorpumps.htm#ft70i

Fountain Tech FT-70-I
Uses 5/16" and 1/2" inside diameter tubing.

Item# Watts Max. Head GPH 6" 10" 14" 18" 22" 26"
FT-70-I 2.5 25" 66 60 55 50 40 20 0

66 gallons per hour. Submersible Fountain Pump.
Indoor use only, 2-wire 6' cord. One Year Warranty.
Pump is approximately 1.375" long, 1.375" wide, and 1.25" tall.

 

[reinbrew]

If you put water half way up the fermenter in a wash bucket and wrap your bucket/carboy with a beach towel you will keep the temperature about 10 degrees cooler than the environment. This is called the wick method. Keep the towel wet and you'll keep fermenting cooler. Very helpful out here in Phoenix where basements don't often exist. I still brew ales in the summer but am investing in a chest freezer for this summer.

 

[viking73]

I plan on trying a few siasons once the temp here gets into the mid/high 70's.

 

[Treshombres]

So how does this temp controller work? With a freezer or fridge that is.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Chest freezer for ferments.

Lots of fans on brewday.

Water until the boil is done. Nothing worse than being steam cooked, drunk, and stoopid on brewday.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

So how does this temp controller work? With a freezer or fridge that is.

It is a an inline switch. when a temp poiont is reached via a probe thermister (placed into the freezer) the controller cuts power via SPST/DPDT relays.

You set the appliances thermostat to the coldest setting and let the outboard controller do the work.

controllers come as Single pole meaning heating or cooling only modes and dual Pole meaning both hot and cold functions simutaneaously.

the latter is nice for winter months in climes that get wild fluctuations in ambient temps or for ensuring a temp range is controlled with a greater degeree of accuracy.

 

[remilard]

So how does this temp controller work? With a freezer or fridge that is.

Temp controller plugs into the wall, fridge plugs into the controller. There is a thermometer probe that you can hang in the fridge or preferably tape to the side of the carboy or insert in the carboy via a thermowell. Set the controller to 68 degrees or whatever and put it in cool mode. It will turn the fridge on and off to maintain that temp.

For fermentation get the digital ranco or johnson controller which has a 1 degree differential. The 3 degree differential (total 6 degree swing) in the analog controller is not ideal.

 

[TheMan]

For fermentation get the digital ranco or johnson controller which has a 1 degree differential. The 3 degree differential (total 6 degree swing) in the analog controller is not ideal.

Ditto. I have two freezers, one with Johnson Analog and the other with Ranco Digital. I much prefer the digital for ease of use and better temp control.

 

[DaveMcPhee]

So the Koelsch fermenting at 76 in my bedroom closet (coldest part of the house) ... damn.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

So the Koelsch fermenting at 76 in my bedroom closet (coldest part of the house) ... damn.

Maybe not. what yeast?

 

[DaveMcPhee]

Wyeast Kolsch ale 2565 - http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=144

whoops I saw the 73-77 attenuation and read it as fahrenheit. what have I done

 

[StAnthonyB]

We live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I guess we are looking at having to stop brewing until fall. I cant see how to keep the fermentaion room, err 3rd bedroom, cold enough during the summer heat here. What do people do in the south during the summer months? Pay out the wazoo for air conditioning to keep the room below 72 degrees? Or stop brewing until October? Looking for ideas. In the mean time, we are brewing our last 2 batches of beer next weekend in hopes it will stay cool enough through May to get it in the bottle.

I can't even imagine y'all keeping the spare room cool enough in your sub-tropical winters never mind those oppressive Texas summers!

 

[Fletch78]

You can brew through the Texas summer heat with an easy-to-build fermentation chiller. I used one last summer in Ft. Worth and was able to keep my primary fermentation between 60 and 65 degrees. The plans are at the following link: http://knoxhomebrewer.com/images/stories/chiller plans.pdf

Define "Easy".

Awesome.... but ... I'm just sayin'.

 

[thedidey]

+1 to the tub swamp cooler method. I live in Tucson and we have the house around 75-80 in the summer. I have about 12 frozen 20 oz coke bottles. I put my fermenters in a large tub half filled with water and drape a towel around them. I add about 3 of the coke bottles a day and can maintain 65 degrees with no problem.

 

[CrAzYmOuSe]

Dave, get that Kolsch temp down ASAP. I am surprised with that strain it didn't explode. +1 on the swamp cooler. Here in PHX it is already in the mid-high 70's in my house during the day so I have had to already start doing this. I am looking into a temp controlled freezer for the summer. Hauling water bottles twice a day sucks ass IMO.

 

[Treshombres]

Get one of these with a temp controller (I use a Johnson A19). I got this from Craigslist for $120. With this, I can now lager. I also live in the DFW area and with our wild weather I'd be lost without my fermentation chest. Happy Brewing!

How many square feet is your freezer? wondering what i shoud be looking for as a miniimum to have 3 fermenters at a time?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

How many square feet is your freezer? wondering what i shoud be looking for as a miniimum to have 3 fermenters at a time?

I have a 12 cubic foot and it will only hold two buckets at a time.

Honestly, if you are going to have multiple brews of dissimilar styles you'd do better to get multiple smaller freezers.

when my current freezer tanks that is what I will do.

 

[jgln]

Every time I see the title of this I have to laugh. Once he said "What do you do about brewing when it gets hot" why did he add AND live in Texas? Got 2 problems there?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Every time I see the title of this I have to laugh. Once he said "What do you do about brewing when it gets hot" why did he add AND live in Texas? Got 2 problems there?

Cause Texas is a different kind of hot.

 

[jgln]

Cause Texas is a different kind of hot.

I still think it sounds funny.

 

[Treshombres]

I still think it sounds funny.

Yea, really the only thing bad about living here is the summer that never ends. Gets hot in June and stays that way til September. Course all these Cowboys fans are quite annoying as well. haha

The freezer i was looking at is only 9 cubic feet. they said it had inside dimensions of 29" tall, 18" deep and 30 " wide. so depending on the space taken up by the compressor, it just may work.

 

[ibbones]

I'm gonna brew up a batch tomorrow and the forecast is already going to be 90* with a south wind so that means the humidity will be high. Nothing like stepping outside and breaking a sweat before you even start doing anything.