warm weather brewing?

[ahaley]

Ive taken a leave of absence from brewing due to enlistment in the Army and my projected duty station is ft bliss Texas.
I havent read too much on the weather yet because it was a rumor that I was going there, well after reading an email telling me I need to fill out these forms and have them with me it looks pretty real.

The questions.
What do you guys recommend if you live in a warm weather environment?
Buy a fridge for brews, swamp cooler, other cooling devices I dont know about yet, or brew when its cooler?

I currently live in california and brewed a few batches here and there. I'm still very new to the scene just started AG, but im a little nervous about getting back into brewing after taking nearly 1.5 year break.. I'm also a little concerned my, now full time, job will force me to neglect my brews. I know I'm thinking of every worst case but honestly I'm nervous to leave my home state and start a life so far away from family. . :x

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

What do you guys recommend if you live in a warm weather environment?
Buy a fridge for brews, swamp cooler, other cooling devices I dont know about yet, or brew when its cooler?

All of the above, based on your temperment and what you want to shell out for.I am up in snow country and based on my consumption rate I prefer to work with the seasons. My cellar is getting into the upper 60s so ales may not be possible too much longer. The weather in Ft. Bliss may not permit you this luxury unless your quarters are severely air conditioned.

Swamp coolers or even a simple tub of cool water kept in the 60s with an occaisional ice addition will let you brew any sort of ale any time you want. You generally just need to keep the fermenter temps in the 60s for the first 4-5 days, then you can let it clean up at higher temperatures. Lagers need 50F temps and will require a refrigerator to do properly.

Keep cool. I did a year in the AF down in Texas years ago and am glad to be up in the Northeast again.

 

[ahaley]

All of the above, based on your temperment and what you want to shell out for.I am up in snow country and based on my consumption rate I prefer to work with the seasons

Thanks for the advice, I figure working with the seasons would be much better for how little my wife and I will drink at first. How was it where you were? Right now I'm in Ft. Eustis virginia and for my weather tolerances Its all sorts of hot and humid! I hate it right now, im not used to any humidity

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Thanks for the advice, I figure working with the seasons would be much better for how little my wife and I will drink at first. How was it where you were? Right now I'm in Ft. Eustis virginia and for my weather tolerances Its all sorts of hot and humid! I hate it right now, im not used to any humidity

In San Antonio near the Gulf Coast you get plenty of heat and humidity. Up in Wichita Falls it tended to be hotter but dry. I expect over in Ft. Bliss by El Paso you'll get hot and dry in the summer, maybe even comfortable and dry during the rest of the year. I think you'll find it a whole lot more tolerable than Virginia but it will be hot this summer.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I don't know if you are a wine drinker, but most wines often need to be a bit warmer than beers to ferment. A lot of people make wine when their houses are too warm to ferment anything else.

 

[Wolfbayne]

I agree with the systems..fridge, swamp cooler, AC house. I am here at Fort Hood and use a fridge system. Have not had any issues. I was at Ft Lee previously and the humidity there was a lot worse I think. Cant speak on Fort Bliss, but being TX its still going to be hot in the summer. You can always look in the local Craigslist and find a cheap fridge plus a temp controller and you'll be fine.

Good luck with your PCS!

Cheers!

 

[GuldTuborg]

I'm of the mind that summer is a fine time to make and drink saisons. Make a big one at the end of the season to age until early next summer. This prevents problems of dry pipelines.

 

[davidg410]

I'm in Fort Worth, TX and also have problems brewing year round due to the heat. I've got a few suggestions for ya:

- Build an $8 swamp cooler. Grab a big plastic storage container, put your carboy in it, fill 3/4 with cool water. Dunk a towel in the water and wrap it around the carboy. I usually swap frozen 1 liter bottles of water in and out twice per day to keep the water temp cool. I also re-dunk the towel each day to keep it wet. I just brewed a wheat with an ambient temp of 76, and carboy temp was 68 during rapid fermentation. *Note - this is placed in a room with a fan on high. If you aren't placing in a room with a fan, you might consider buying a small fan and pointing it the swamp cooler to keep the cool air circulating off the water.

- Brew with higher temp yeasts. Wheat, Saison, Farmhouse Ales, Belgians. These are all your friends in the summer.

- When we get to August and it's Devil's taint hot for weeks at a time... you can brew the Rye Saison recipe from BYO. It calls for fermentation at 85 degrees. http://byo.com/component/k2/item/2822-saison-a-beer-for-all-seasons

 

[cluckk]

I live in San Antonio and the heat is really a determining factor in much of my brewing. Even in winter when others are trying to keep their fermentation temps up, I am still trying to keep mine down. When you have to mow your grass in December you know heat is going to be a problem.

I do most of my special, and heavy brews in the winter when I only need to keep the heat down a few degrees. For one short two week to one month period I can actually ferment in my garage with no temperature control. In Summer, I switch to brewing Saisons and Ales that do well with US-05 because I find that I don't need to keep it as low as some of the other ale yeasts. For that reason, I like to make clean lawnmower beers in early summer. However, In another month or month and a half (first of July or so) it will get just too hot to be able to brew outside even in the early morning (I use one or two fryer burners, depending on the batch, and it makes my garage a sauna even in winter). Since I won't do large batches inside, I usually drop off until late September. However, I am working on putting together a small batch system so I can brew in the house during the hottest times.

The biggest problem is going to be fermentation temperature control! Some switch to wine for the summer--I am thinking about trying that this year.

BTW, I use the cheap swamp cooler and it works pretty well. I just have to brew at times when I only need a few degrees change. You may find in Bliss, as I do here that it just won't pull it down more than a few degrees. Texas has more than one climate zone. You will be very dry there. Dallas and Forth Worth are dripping-off-your-sack muggy.

 

[MNDan]

3711 at 80F makes a hell of a good Saison. Otherwise, I recommend finding a fridge for cheap on Craigslist and hook up a thermostat to it. Fermentation temperature control is one of the most important parts of brewing IMHO, so do it up right...

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

A slight variation of the swamp cooler that might work better in the dry heat would be to put your carboy in a shallow tub (like a kiddie swimming pool or a dishwasher catch basin). Get a small submersible pump (like for outdoor koi ponds), wrap the carboy in a towel or a T-shirt, and set up the pump so it pulls water out of the tub and keeps the towel or t-shirt wet. Set this up with a box fan blowing directly on the towel on full blast.

In theory you can cool the fermenter down to the local wet bulb temperature which might be pretty damned chilly if the air is as dry as it normally is in El Paso. For example, using today's weather in El Paso (about 90F and a humidity of 15%) wet bulb is about 60 F.

You just have to add make-up water to the tub occaisionally so that the pump doesn't run dry. You can set this up in a garage - you want to exchange the air with the outdoors or else all that evaporated water will just condense in your house.

 

[cluckk]

My version is a large deep tub that can hold two carboys (because I do a lot of parti-gyle batches). I put the two carboys inside and fill with water just below the level of the beer. I then rotate out frozen water jugs between them. The number of jugs and the frequency with which I change them determines the cooling power. With this, in the winter, I can often pull the temperature down into the low 60's. Placed in the garage in December I managed mid-50's with a Scotch Ale. However, in the summer it is hard to pull it down below the mid 70's (even in my air conditioned house).

 

[Rhumbline]

Good advice on the swamp coolers and choosing your brew based on the climate. I'm down in the swampland of coastal Florida and those suggestions have worked well for me.

Wyeast 3724 is quite happy fermenting well into the 90's it has become a regular player here and I love the results.

Good luck.

 

[Demus]

You'd think fridges cost thousands of dollars by this post. Craig's list, $50 to $100, done. Brew what you want year round, anywhere...

 

[Travestian]

All the advice given above is great. I'd recommend the fridge and temp controller.

You could also give a call to Austin Homebrew Supply and see what they recommend too. I'm not affiliated with them, but I am originally from Austin and I know what the heat is like. If anyone is going to have advice perfect for the seasons, they will.

 

[kevinlassen]

In San Antonio near the Gulf Coast you get plenty of heat and humidity. Up in Wichita Falls it tended to be hotter but dry. I expect over in Ft. Bliss by El Paso you'll get hot and dry in the summer, maybe even comfortable and dry during the rest of the year. I think you'll find it a whole lot more tolerable than Virginia but it will be hot this summer.

I'm in Virginia. It's about 95 and 90% humidity.

 

[passedpawn]

Get a chest freezer and a temp controller for it and never worry about ferm temps again. I ferment in my garage, and garages are hot in FL. With a large chest freezer I don't worry.

If you can buy new, get at Lowes. Your military ID will get you 10% off year round. You can also check craigslist. I've bought two freezers 15 cu.ft. there, cheap.

 

[ahaley]

Thank you everyone who added their 2 cents, its grately appreciated, how much does an extra fridge cost for pge? This will honestly be MY first house. Ive used the swamp cooler for one or two brews and it worked pretty well for california "heat". I was doubting how well it would work with humidity and high heat, it sounds like itll work great so I may use that until I can find a fridge or freezer.
Do you guys have a preferance towards fridges or freezers? Would it be worth it to have a freezer since theyre meant to be so cold?

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

You'd think fridges cost thousands of dollars by this post. Craig's list, $50 to $100, done. Brew what you want year round, anywhere...

True, but if you only brew a couple of batches of ale per year and only need temperature control for the first 4-5 days per ferment, having an extra fridge doing nothing but taking up space isn't a great option for some folks.

Even just working with the seasonal temperatures I can still brew more than I can possibly drink. My wife doesn't drink, and so what I brew is mainly for my consumption and for gifting/swapping with friends (and I have several friends who homebrew, so I often get more beer back than I can give away).

I've been brewing every 3 weeks to establish a pipeline, but that is faster than I can drink it (though I do make a good effort to keep up ). I have 6 cases of Centennial Blonde ready to drink and another 5 gallons sitting in primary which I'll probably bottle next week. I also have 2 cases of cider, so I have plenty of hot weather beverages to get me through the summer.

I'm probably going to do a stout next week that will be nice and ready for around December. After that I'll probably be done with ale brewing until the fall as it is getting too warm in my equipment room. I have a 5 gallon batch of apfelwein bulk aging now, I'll probably bottle that in another month or so. Later in the summer I am going to do a Winexpert Merlot kit, so at the end of the summer I'll have something like 60+ bottles of wine of various sorts.

SWMBO will be traveling for a few weeks at the end of the summer, so I can bring my primary into the AC'd kitchen and bang out another ale. Later in the fall I can start using my equipment room again for fermenting ales, and I want to attempt a lager or two over the winter when my equipment room gets down in the 50s.

The end tally: A *lot* of good beer being made, no refrigeration needed.

 

[TexanBrewGater]

Thank you for your military service! I'm in Houston and I don't think there's hardly any other place muggeyer during the summer than the gulf coast. I've got a couple of old fridges in the garage (I know worst place) one with a temperature controller for my fermenter. Not a huge investment if you have the space but allows you to brew any style anytime consistently.

 

[Demus]

True, but if you only brew a couple of batches of ale per year and only need temperature control for the first 4-5 days per ferment, having an extra fridge doing nothing but taking up space isn't a great option for some folks.

Fight it if you want, but there's no better way to improve your beer than temperature control, and there's no better way to control temperature than an extra fridge. Even a dorm room size fridge can fit a bucket or carboy, and set at fermenting temperatures with a controller uses way less electricity than at normal fridge temps. Swamp coolers will never come close...

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Fight it if you want, but there's no better way to improve your beer than temperature control, and there's no better way to control temperature than an extra fridge. Even a dorm room size fridge can fit a bucket or carboy, and set at fermenting temperatures with a controller uses way less electricity than at normal fridge temps. Swamp coolers will never come close...

True again, but there are different ways to control fermentation temperature. If I monitor my equipment room temperatures and ferment in it only when temperatures are suitable, isn't that "temperature control"?

 

[Demus]

True again, but there are different ways to control fermentation temperature. If I monitor my equipment room temperatures and ferment in it only when temperatures are suitable, isn't that "temperature control"?

Most ale yeasts taste best fermented in the mid sixties, so unless your room is about 58 degrees during peak fermentation, I'd say your "control" has room for improvement...

 

[Demus]

True again, but there are different ways to control fermentation temperature. If I monitor my equipment room temperatures and ferment in it only when temperatures are suitable, isn't that "temperature control"?

Most ales taste best fermented in the mid sixties. Unless your house is about 58 during peak fermentation I'd say your "control" has some room for improvement...

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Most ale yeasts taste best fermented in the mid sixties, so unless your room is about 58 degrees during peak fermentation, I'd say your "control" has room for improvement...

It is right about that temperature for most of the spring, and very stable. I'm in Massachusetts. YMMV in Florida. My equipment room gets as low as 50F in the depths of winter but never freezes.

 

[Demus]

It is right about that temperature for most of the spring, and very stable. I'm in Massachusetts. YMMV in Florida. My equipment room gets as low as 50F in the depths of winter but never freezes.

I used to live in Mass too; much better for brewing than Florida! There is still a problem there though. You need stable BEER temperature, not necessarily ROOM temperature. In other words, beer tends to be 6 to 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding air for the first few days of active fermentation, but cools as it winds down. So if you keep it in a room that's cool enough for the initial ferment, it will be too cold as it slows and may stall. If it's the right temp for the slower ferment, it may be too warm initially resulting in off flavors.
I start with my fermenting fridge at about 58, which gets me beer temp of about 65. As soon as it slows I up the fridge temp a few degrees a day to maintain the 65 degree beer temp. Then as it really slows I up the temp a few more degrees to get about 68 degree beer temp. This results in a good clean ferment with excellent attenuation. It would be really hard to get this level of control in any room or swamp cooler setup. With a fridge and controller it's a snap..

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Maybe I should buy this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MORGUE-REFRIGERATOR-/380647365041?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58a059d9b1

 

[Demus]

Definitely!!! LOL!!!!

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I'd bet it be great for lagering. Tagem & Bagem Lager!

 

[Demus]

Gime' a cold one!

 

[ahaley]

True, but if you only brew a couple of batches of ale per year and only need temperature control for the first 4-5 days per ferment, having an extra fridge doing nothing but taking up space isn't a great option for some folks.

Even just working with the seasonal temperatures I can still brew more than I can possibly drink. My wife doesn't drink, and so what I brew is mainly for my consumption and for gifting/swapping with friends (and I have several friends who homebrew, so I often get more beer back than I can give away).

I've been brewing every 3 weeks to establish a pipeline, but that is faster than I can drink it (though I do make a good effort to keep up ). I have 6 cases of Centennial Blonde ready to drink and another 5 gallons sitting in primary which I'll probably bottle next week. I also have 2 cases of cider, so I have plenty of hot weather beverages to get me through the summer.

I'm probably going to do a stout next week that will be nice and ready for around December. After that I'll probably be done with ale brewing until the fall as it is getting too warm in my equipment room. I have a 5 gallon batch of apfelwein bulk aging now, I'll probably bottle that in another month or so. Later in the summer I am going to do a Winexpert Merlot kit, so at the end of the summer I'll have something like 60+ bottles of wine of various sorts.

SWMBO will be traveling for a few weeks at the end of the summer, so I can bring my primary into the AC'd kitchen and bang out another ale. Later in the fall I can start using my equipment room again for fermenting ales, and I want to attempt a lager or two over the winter when my equipment room gets down in the 50s.

The end tally: A *lot* of good beer being made, no refrigeration needed.

Wow thats pretty good! I dont know if ill have time to brew every 3 weeks! I think for now ill be using a swamp cooler or a bath tub with ice for the low temp yeast, all my buddies here want me to brew just for them! Ive been reading a little on mead recently, how do you guys like it? Is it a summer drink or usually a cold winder drink?

 

[ahaley]

Thank you for your military service! I'm in Houston and I don't think there's hardly any other place muggeyer during the summer than the gulf coast. I've got a couple of old fridges in the garage (I know worst place) one with a temperature controller for my fermenter. Not a huge investment if you have the space but allows you to brew any style anytime consistently.

Dont mention it, I've wanted to enlist since I was about 12 and I dont think id last as a civilian!

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Ive been reading a little on mead recently, how do you guys like it? Is it a summer drink or usually a cold winder drink?

Mead is good anytime but that takes a while for it to drop clear so you can bottle. When you start getting into ciders and meads the primary ferment gets much longer and slower relative to beers. Definitely try it though.

Check out EdWort's Apfelwein. It is crazy cheap, easy, pretty temperature insensitive, and oh-so-good warm or cold. Be sure to follow the recipe and let it age as long as you can. Let it sit in primary for 2-3 months, then you can bottle it still like a white wine or bottle carbonate it like beer/cider. It is like a dry hard cider, very wine-like, but with 9% ABV. When aged it is really smooth, almost dangerously so.

 

[ahaley]

Mead is good anytime but that takes a while for it to drop clear so you can bottle. When you start getting into ciders and meads the primary ferment gets much longer and slower relative to beers. Definitely try it though.

Check out EdWort's Apfelwein. It is crazy cheap, easy, pretty temperature insensitive, and oh-so-good warm or cold. Be sure to follow the recipe and let it age as long as you can. Let it sit in primary for 2-3 months, then you can bottle it still like a white wine or bottle carbonate it like beer/cider. It is like a dry hard cider, very wine-like, but with 9% ABV. When aged it is really smooth, almost dangerously so.

Ill tty it thanks! My younger brother has been bugging me to make mead cuz of the game skyrim

 

[firerat]

You'd think fridges cost thousands of dollars by this post. Craig's list, $50 to $100, done. Brew what you want year round, anywhere...

I go my mini fridge off Craiglist for $30 and a hand with moving a couch.

I got my chest freezer for $65.

I've seen listings on Craiglist all the time for people willing to pay you to take their old fridge.