I am sure that this is probably a question that has been asked before, but I can't seem to find it, so forgive me if this repetitive. I don't have a fermentation fridge or chamber so I use a cold cellar room that is normally cool but in mid summer it has now heated up to 70-71 F. I don't want to wait for a couple of months until the room cools to the 60 F range, so are there any beers that folks would recommend brewing at these higher temperatures? I am open to most beer styles except for porters. Thanks in advance!
71F is pretty chilly, to me! We keep our house around 73F and I ferment at ambient temperature. I usually brew a medium brown, 7.5% to 8% ABV ale. I get great results with Voss Kviek but lots of regular ale yeasts work well at that temp, too. I used to use US-05 and my fermenter would be right at the high end for that yeast but it came out fine. BE-134 works beautifully and I think it will be my usual summer yeast from now on. WInter, (I am in New Orleans) we let the house get down to about 68F when it will get that cold, and US-05 rocks at 68 to 70 degrees. I have made a couple of heavier beers but I like my current recipe and it is crazy cheap to make.
We are in the process of getting a new-to-us house ready to move into, and a couple months ago I moved my brewing activity to the new brew room. I started a batch about 3 days before Hurricane Ida hit, and knocked out our power for a couple weeks. No generator at the new house yet, either. Lucky me, I had just tossed all the old yeast, and started with fresh yeast for that batch, and it was the Voss. So the first 2-3 days, ferment temp was about 73, then it was in the 80s and 90s. Fermentation actually picked back up a bit after mostly stopping. Kviek yeasts can stand as much heat as you can stand. If it is really gonna be hot in your brew room, consider Hot Head. CRAZY yeast! Gotta leave lots of head space in the fermenter or it will blow like Mt St Helens, especially with a high grav beer at high temps. Probably the most heat tolerant yeast in common use. But Voss Kviek is a dry yeast, which is convenient, and is much better behaved, especially at normal room temperatures and OG of like 1.090 or less. I highly recommend it for a room temp ale or even a garage brewed ale. None of those yeasts have ever given me any weirdness in the finished product. I think I like the BE-134 batches the best. A good, solid, bread-y ale, low sediment but good mouth feel. Honestly my palate is not really refined enough to appreciate the differences between those yeasts to the fullest.
FWIW my recipe for 5gal is pretty simple, BIAB, 10lb Viking pale, 1lb Viking 350 chocolate, a large cannister of Quaker quick oats, and a cannister of Quaker quick grits. Hops was Cascade but now I am using Helga, two closed fistfuls, a bit over an ounce I guess for an hour. I mash in at 152 or so, fire off, pull the bag after an hour and squeeze her dry, wet it with another gallon and a half hot water and squeeze it again, then hop it and boil for an hour. Very cheap to make and it suits my palate just fine. Just be sure to use quick oats and grits, not the regular kind. Those will work but there is an extra step involved.