Homebrewing in the heat

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QuarterCircleBack

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So i just poured my first bottle of homebrew and the results were somewhat underwhelming. I decided to use the Whitehouse honey ale recipe since it seemed like a pretty good recipe for beginners and because 'murica. The smell and color were appealing but the taste was very boozy, almost undrinkable. I'm guessing I fermented way too hot (70-72 ambient, so like 76-80 fermenting temp?) for Windsor yeast which the recipe recommended. Overall though it was a fun and awesome learning experience and after doing some research I want to try my hand at AG.
So my question is, living in the sweaty armpit of America that is Oklahoma, are there any somewhat simple styles that involve more forgiving yeasts in higher temperatures? I read that Saisons and other Belgians do well but I'm not sure what particular yeast strains tend to do well in these hot summers. Since I'm already planning on spending my limited budget on AG equipment, fancy gadgets like Swamp Coolers are out of my reach. If anyone could offer advice or point me to a good thread about this issue I would greatly appreciate it.
Cheers!
 
You can make a swamp cooler out of a rubber maid tub that you fermenting vessle can sit it. Personally, I used a kitty litter box (unused, I swear) and added 4-6in of water. Then rotate frozen water bottles or add ice acasionally (have to scoup out some water when the ice melts to keep from over flowwing) and even add the tshirt trick. I live in houston, its pretty hot out even right now at midnight. I did this until I found a decently priced fridge on craigslist.

As to particular yeast strains? Nottingham is pretty forgiving. But I would still sugest trying to drop the temp a little.
 
It's cheap:

Get a plastic bin from Walmart (knock-off Rubbermaid).
Put your fermentor (carboy or bucket) in it.
Fill the bin 3/4 with water.
Toss in ice packs or gallon zip-locks of frozen water as needed.
If your feeling fancy, do the wet towel with a fan thing on top.

The whole setup will cost you less than $10. It's not perfect, but hey, it's better than fusel-tasting beer.
 
From what I've read, Nottingham does *not* like heat.

Do what I did: brew a Saison. I used 3711 and let it ferment at whatever temp (70F ambient). Came out pretty nice. Bit of banana and white wine character, but tasty and no harsh off-flavors.

EDIT: For the record, I also did a setup like described above, for other styles that don't like the heat.
 
...and here I thought Pensacola was the sweaty arm pit. Temp control is probably the number one thing you can do to improve your beer at this point. I would invest in a used chest freezer or fridge and a temp controller before anything else. Until then a tub half filed with water and frozen water bottles will help like others have already suggested. As far as what you currently brewed, give it some time and hopefully it will mellow out in 3-4 weeks.
 
Forget the AG for now and get this temp control thing down. I ran Notty in the mid 70s once and got a banana beer, your mileage may vary.

Another simple solution is to put your fermenter directly under or over and AC vent in your house.
 
Try a Saison using Mangrove Jack's Belgian strain. Its ideal temp range is 79-90! I have a batch now in the fermenter.


Sent from hell
using Home Brew
 
+1 for the bucket method. Its just that easy. Every so often replace the water bottle after it has thawed. Put a fermometer over the water level to get an idea of the temperature of the beer. Obviously, people go to great lengths and put some serious time and effort (and money) to try and control their temperatures to make higher quality environments for their yeast cultures, but even simple solutions like this vastly improve the quality of your beer.

The other option is to try a saison or Belgian strain that enjoys those higher Temps without producing noticible Fuesal alcohol notes. I just tried Belle Saison from Danstar, and the smell out of the airlock is heavenly. No comment yet on taste, as it is way too early to tell. 3711 is another beast that has a good tolerance for temperature, as is Mangrove Jacks. Omega Labs has Saisonsteins monster, which I wanted to try but my lhbs was out and I didn't want to wait. Definitely going to try it next time as August gets pretty hot and sticky here as well.

I had just the opposite problem with my saison. Even in the dead heat of Illinois summer (not nearly as brutal as Oklahoma, admittedly) my concrete basement floor keeps beer at 62-66 degrees as measured directly with a thermometer, not ambient Temps. I'm trying to maintain the mid 70s in the garage using the bucket method. The thermometer reads 75, and yesterday it was about 90 in the garage. Best of luck!
 
There's a lot of things in the world of brewing that are personal preference, debatable, etc... One thing however, I bet everyone on this forum would agree on, is do not start thinking about all grain until you have some basic brewing equipment and skills... I think that until you are able to do full wort boils, active chilling, yeast starters, and solid fermentation temp control, going all grain will be spinning your wheels in the mud. All grain is going to make your beers worse, not better, unless you get some of these other things down. There is a decent amount of equipment we have to acquire before going AG, if you do it slowly, it doesn't hurt so bad. I'll tell you this right now.... if you spend $250 on AG equipment right now vs spending $250 on a small fridge and a controller, you'll be cheating yourself IMMENSELY. You'll make 50 x better beer brewing extract with active fermentation control than you will even if you MASTERED all grain and let your beer ferment in the mid to high 70s.
 
If I were to do it all over again, I would have gotten solid temperature control (freezer and temp controller) before going AG, before building a CFC (although that would be next on my list).

Dollar for Dollar, you can't beat the increase in quality that comes with temp control.
 
Swamp cooler. Having said that, US-05 can handle a bit higher temps cleanly (wouldn't want to be above 75 IMO). US-05 is a great yeast. 'Murica :D

swampcooler.jpg
 
Could always do some sours during the summer. Those bugs love the heat


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
What were you looking to spend on all-grain equipment?

As was stated before, if i had a limited budget (which I do) I personally would want temperature control over my fermentation before spending money on all-grain equipment. You don't want to limit yourself to a few styles of beer do you?

Honestly, if you spend more than say $70 on a mini-fridge you did it wrong.

Temperature controllers can go anywhere from $20-100 depending on what you want.

Sub $200 to control the arguably most important aspect of making beer, ANY beer.

I know that's not what you were asking and I skewed from the original topic. Just my $.02.
 
Whelp, I guess I'll be investing in temp control for now, thanks for saving my wallet and my next batch of beer! Although jumping right into AG seems so tempting I underestimated the importance of fermentation temp and my first batch clearly reflects that. I'll continue to extract brew for a while to experiment and better prepare myself for Oklahoma's unpredictable weather. Any decent temp controllers for beginners in the $50-150 range? I guess a I could go with a mini-fridge since they're pretty easy to come by in a college town.
 
I'll second the support for US-05, and Belgians. While you're at it, and it's hot out start a one gallon batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead :)
 
I agree with the majority of people here:

If you're going to spend some money on brewing- spend it on getting your process down! If you go to AG before "you're ready" you'll be even more disappointed with my brews (take it from someone who made that mistake.) I did 1 bad extract batch, then went AG, then spent the next 3 years making bad beers before I got good enough at AG to make a decent beer

1. Temp Control
2. Temp Control
3. Temp Control
4. YEAST (we make the wort, the yeast make the beer- keep them happy they'll make you happy)- a big part of making yeast happy is.........TEMP CONTROL!
 
Also- for temp control - you live in a college town- so there's definitely going to be cheap/free fridges on Craigslist-

1. get a cheap fridge ($20)
2. Buy an STC-1000 if you've got a little bit of wiring-know-how- if not, just buy this! http://www.blackboxbrew.com/
(when they're back in stock)

Guarantee you'll improve your beer for the investment of maybe $50- that's the price of 1.5 extract batches you just ruined by not using this stuff
 
Falcon3 said:
Also- for temp control - you live in a college town- so there's definitely going to be cheap/free fridges on Craigslist-

1. get a cheap fridge ($20)
2. Buy an STC-1000 if you've got a little bit of wiring-know-how- if not, just buy this! http://www.blackboxbrew.com/
(when they're back in stock)

Guarantee you'll improve your beer for the investment of maybe $50- that's the price of 1.5 extract batches you just ruined by not using this stuff
Click to expand...

This. No need for anything fancier than an STC-1000, IMO. They cost about $18 on amazon, and you can wire it up for another $10 or so.
 
Since we're on the subject, I figured I'd go ahead and ask here. Is it safe to make a swamp cooler with a glass carboy? As much as I search around I can't really find any answers on this, and I'm not ready to try it unless I'm sure it won't hurt the carboy.
 
mrdail87 said:
Since we're on the subject, I figured I'd go ahead and ask here. Is it safe to make a swamp cooler with a glass carboy? As much as I search around I can't really find any answers on this, and I'm not ready to try it unless I'm sure it won't hurt the carboy.
Click to expand...


I've done it before. I don't know how "safe" it is, but you're already living on the edge by using glass. I keep mine in a milk crate and used leather gloves to lift it out of the swamp cooler.
 
mrdail87 said:
Since we're on the subject, I figured I'd go ahead and ask here. Is it safe to make a swamp cooler with a glass carboy? As much as I search around I can't really find any answers on this, and I'm not ready to try it unless I'm sure it won't hurt the carboy.
Click to expand...

Are you worried about the temperature difference damaging the glass? Because that difference is going to be pretty minor and once the whole mess equalizes it should be a non-issue.

Or are you worried about dropping the carboy? Because that's the real risk, and one you take no matter what you do with a glass carboy.
 
Yeah I was more worried about the temperature difference. I'll probably still play it cautiously if I ever try it. Just set it in there at room temp and add the ice in intervals to avoid temperature shock.

I think I can figure out a way to lift it. My brew already lives in a bathtub, so I'm accustomed to contorting around to lift it.
 
QuarterCircleBack said:
Whelp, I guess I'll be investing in temp control for now, thanks for saving my wallet and my next batch of beer! Although jumping right into AG seems so tempting I underestimated the importance of fermentation temp and my first batch clearly reflects that. I'll continue to extract brew for a while to experiment and better prepare myself for Oklahoma's unpredictable weather. Any decent temp controllers for beginners in the $50-150 range? I guess a I could go with a mini-fridge since they're pretty easy to come by in a college town.
Click to expand...

The other thing to note here is that AG doesn't necessarily make beers that are that much better. Extract nowadays is phenomenal! Great, great beers can be made from extract. I love all grain, but more so because it's more fun for me being more of a process. However, it wouldn't have been so much more fun if I didn't put in my time with extract brewing. AG is fun because I understand the process and I'm ready for that level of brewing. If I jumped in before I was ready, I would have been robotically following directions without the appreciation for the process. Extract makes great brews!
 
QuarterCircleBack said:
Whelp, I guess I'll be investing in temp control for now, thanks for saving my wallet and my next batch of beer! Although jumping right into AG seems so tempting I underestimated the importance of fermentation temp and my first batch clearly reflects that. I'll continue to extract brew for a while to experiment and better prepare myself for Oklahoma's unpredictable weather. Any decent temp controllers for beginners in the $50-150 range? I guess a I could go with a mini-fridge since they're pretty easy to come by in a college town.
Click to expand...

Check out yard sales for a fridge. I've gotten mini-fridges for $10 that worked fine,(didn't always look great). Don't get the cube size, get the next size up. If you rip out the door racks, your bucket will fit just fine. I agree with the other posters that this step is far more important than going all grain right now. If you do decide to do the yard sale thing, keep your eye out for igloo coolers that you can convert into a mush tun when you do go all grain.:mug:
 
Extract with Temperature control will make better beer than the most extravagant AG setup without temperature control.
 
I say if you want to do AG just do it. As many have said the swamp cooler works and it costs $10. If you do your AG and use a swamp cooler for temp control you can make great beer. Not saying you can't with extract but don't let some imaginary learning curve turn you off AG.
 
don't worry about shattering the glass carboy with a swamp cooler setup. It takes a lot more temperature swing than you're going to be able to achieve with a swamp cooler to break the glass. If the glass can be cooled down to 34-35 for cold crashing in a fridge, then it can certainly handle being cooled down to the 60's in a swamp cooler setup. I have heard of carboys breaking when people put boiling water directly in them.

It's good you've made the decision to focus on temp control rather than going AG. When I was reading the OP, I was going to jump in and tell you my opinions, but I see everyone beat me to it, so I'll keep it short. The main things to work on before going AG are temperature control, yeast pitching rates, and aeration. Get those things down and you will make excellent beer with extract, and then think about AG. But going AG to make better beer is counter-productive. Your beer will only get worse if you don't master the other, more important, parts of the process first.

I really recommend a fridge from craigslist and an STC-1000, as mentioned above. A temperature controlled fermentation chamber will be worlds better than a swamp cooler setup, and will allow you to do lagers and cold crashing as well. Now it does take a little effort to wire everything up, but once you have that, its set it and forget it. You don't have to check on it and keep putting more ice bottles in. Plus, its more accurate. Set the desired temp on the digital display, and that's what you get. No trial and error.
 
W0GWT said:
It's cheap:

Get a plastic bin from Walmart (knock-off Rubbermaid).
Put your fermentor (carboy or bucket) in it.
Fill the bin 3/4 with water.
Toss in ice packs or gallon zip-locks of frozen water as needed.
If your feeling fancy, do the wet towel with a fan thing on top.

The whole setup will cost you less than $10. It's not perfect, but hey, it's better than fusel-tasting beer.
Click to expand...

=========================
I would like to ask the forum if anyone is using amber glass carboys as their fermentor. I've been looking for one. But truthfully, do I really need one? I'm wondering why, when so many people talk about ultraviolet light and how it negatively affects beer not protected from these "death rays", why is it there are no amber carboys? Does beer somehow become vulnerable to attack from these death rays after it leaves the carboy and is capped in a bottle? I've been trying to wrap my head around that. I've never noticed beer in clear glass bottles tasting worse somehow than other beer in brown bottles. But that's just me. Could it be that the brown bottle tale is a myth perpetrated by brown bottle blowers in the days of yore? Dunno. Seeking input from more experienced brewers.
 
Eucrid said:
I say if you want to do AG just do it. As many have said the swamp cooler works and it costs $10. If you do your AG and use a swamp cooler for temp control you can make great beer. Not saying you can't with extract but don't let some imaginary learning curve turn you off AG.
Click to expand...

Imaginary learning curve?
 
MikeSpike said:
=========================
I would like to ask the forum if anyone is using amber glass carboys as their fermentor. I've been looking for one. But truthfully, do I really need one? I'm wondering why, when so many people talk about ultraviolet light and how it negatively affects beer not protected from these "death rays", why is it there are no amber carboys? Does beer somehow become vulnerable to attack from these death rays after it leaves the carboy and is capped in a bottle? I've been trying to wrap my head around that. I've never noticed beer in clear glass bottles tasting worse somehow than other beer in brown bottles. But that's just me. Could it be that the brown bottle tale is a myth perpetrated by brown bottle blowers in the days of yore? Dunno. Seeking input from more experienced brewers.
Click to expand...

I'm not all that experienced, but I just put my carboy in a dark spot and/or wrap a jacket around it.

I do work with glass container manufacturers though. I don't think that they care which color you buy. If it's clear, it might come from their plant in Illinois. If it's brown, it might come from Indiana. The some company owns both plants.
 
MikeSpike said:
=========================
I would like to ask the forum if anyone is using amber glass carboys as their fermentor. I've been looking for one. But truthfully, do I really need one? I'm wondering why, when so many people talk about ultraviolet light and how it negatively affects beer not protected from these "death rays", why is it there are no amber carboys? Does beer somehow become vulnerable to attack from these death rays after it leaves the carboy and is capped in a bottle? I've been trying to wrap my head around that. I've never noticed beer in clear glass bottles tasting worse somehow than other beer in brown bottles. But that's just me. Could it be that the brown bottle tale is a myth perpetrated by brown bottle blowers in the days of yore? Dunno. Seeking input from more experienced brewers.
Click to expand...

I personally HAVE tasted beer skunked by light exposure myself.

As far as amber carboys, I think the reason they're all clear is brewers like to see what's going on. If it were amber colored, it would be a lot harder to tell if there's krausen on top or a bacteria pellicle.

Does this mean brewers don't care about light exposure? No. I think most brewers put the carboys in dark places or wrap them in towels/blankets to keep the light out. If you're leaving it out in the sun, you're doing it wrong.
 
MikeSpike said:
=========================
I would like to ask the forum if anyone is using amber glass carboys as their fermentor. I've been looking for one. But truthfully, do I really need one? I'm wondering why, when so many people talk about ultraviolet light and how it negatively affects beer not protected from these "death rays", why is it there are no amber carboys? Does beer somehow become vulnerable to attack from these death rays after it leaves the carboy and is capped in a bottle? I've been trying to wrap my head around that. I've never noticed beer in clear glass bottles tasting worse somehow than other beer in brown bottles. But that's just me. Could it be that the brown bottle tale is a myth perpetrated by brown bottle blowers in the days of yore? Dunno. Seeking input from more experienced brewers.
Click to expand...

I assure you, it's no myth. Beer in clear or green glass can skunk in less than five minutes of direct sunlight. I've done it myself for my beer club.

The problem with brown glass is that it's more expensive. And carboys aren't cheap as it is. Imagine if they were $75. Beer is vulnerable to light as soon as you add hops and boil it. The more hops (isohumulone), the more quickly and drastically it skunks. That's why people wrap carboys in towels or shirts. That's why I store my beer in opaque bins - even brown bottles will allow skunking eventually.
 
First off, do heed the words of the more "experienced," warding you off from AG brewing. Now, do allow me to play devil's advocate.

Is this forum about homebrewing or Home Improvement? (Insert Tim Allen grunt here). Because that's what you're going to be doing for the rest of the summer should you choose the route towards an active fermentation temperature control system. Unless you can find a mini-fridge big enough to fit your chosen fermentation vessel, plus the airlock/blow-off reservoir without any modifications, you will be busy cutting this and that, measuring and cutting pieces of wood, nailing them together to build a fermentation chamber. Meanwhile, your primary and secondary are empty and in 6 weeks's time all you'll have is a cabinet that sucks up electricity and no beer to quench the thirst you've worked up while building it.

I say brew it! Just be realistic and brew styles known for pronounced esters and phenols. Use yeast that can ferment warmer without throwing a lot of off flavors and pitch enough of it in the well-aerated wort. Also, remember that it is only crucial to maintain temp. during the first 72 hours, when most of the esters and phenols are produced. After that, you can let it go to room temp.
 
SubjectB said:
First off, do heed the words of the more "experienced," warding you off from AG brewing. Now, do allow me to play devil's advocate.

Is this forum about homebrewing or Home Improvement? (Insert Tim Allen grunt here). Because that's what you're going to be doing for the rest of the summer should you choose the route towards an active fermentation temperature control system. Unless you can find a mini-fridge big enough to fit your chosen fermentation vessel, plus the airlock/blow-off reservoir without any modifications, you will be busy cutting this and that, measuring and cutting pieces of wood, nailing them together to build a fermentation chamber. Meanwhile, your primary and secondary are empty and in 6 weeks's time all you'll have is a cabinet that sucks up electricity and no beer to quench the thirst you've worked up while building it.

I say brew it! Just be realistic and brew styles known for pronounced esters and phenols. Use yeast that can ferment warmer without throwing a lot of off flavors and pitch enough of it in the well-aerated wort. Also, remember that it is only crucial to maintain temp. during the first 72 hours, when most of the esters and phenols are produced. After that, you can let it go to room temp.
Click to expand...

It literally took me less than 2 hours to turn my fridge into a fermentation chamber.

And I generally suck at fabricating and customizing things.
 
Already found a fridge for $20 and the stc-1000 + parts is already in the mail (free student 2 day shipping!). I should be able to get the fridge assembled and have my next batch in there by the end of the weekend. Looking back I'm glad I made this decision. I'm only down about 50-60 bucks and brewing my next few batches right will allow me to gauge how exactly I should approach AG in the future with equipment and technique. It will also give me time to look for a used cooler that's in decent condition. Plus, having a fermenting chamber will just be a lot easier for me since I will be in class a lot.
Thanks again for the help guys
 
Just out of curiosity, what equipment do you still need to go AG?

If you have a big enough kettle you can always go BIAB.

It's not a whole lot different than a partial-mash really.
 
Everything haha, even a more reliable thermometer. Never heard of BIAB before but I read a thread about it and it seems like a great transitional step to AG, especially for new brewers. I'll probably start by purchasing a larger kettle and BIAB until I locate a 10 gallon cooler to convert to a mash tun.
 

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