Brewing in very hot weather?

[minimalizarte]

This summer, as always in Andalucia, it is going to be upwards of 40 C during the day. Now normally I would refrain from brewing until October, but this year is special because I have a blichmann 200 liter boilermaker, a 540 liter refrigerated milk tank (perfect for fermentation), and a lot of free time.

Now, the plan is to brew the beer, ferment it in the cool milk tank at about 20 C, and then do some dry hopping. I have heard that as long as the beer does the majority of the fermentation at the correct temperature, it can be stored at high temperatures without any impact on the flavor.

The question is: can I brew a batch, ferment it at 20C until it has reached the final gravity, and then dry hop the beer in a separate container without any undesirable flavors resulting from storing the beer at high temperatures?

 

[yum beer]

Dry hop in the fermenter before bottling.
It is not ideal to store bottles warm as the yeast can continue to slowly ferment and you end up with thin, overcarbed beers or worse exploding beers.
If you must store this way, get as much yeast out with finings of some kind before bottling and prime low to allow for the heat.
Either way it is less than ideal.

 

[adryargument]

Or store in a keg pressurized with co2. Stops shit growing

 

[minimalizarte]

Good to know, thanks for the information! I will just have to look for a second milk tank.

 

[mr_wibble]

Can you bury your beer while it conditions?
Dig a cellar?
Sit it in the bottom of a well ?
Condition in a water bath? - but not over the caps (they rust).
Get a cheap 2nd-hand fridge?
Borrow space in neighbours fridges?
Borrow space in a cave?

I mostly keg my beer and keep it in an old chest-freezer with a temperature controller.
However when I make a batch of beer, I aim for about 25 litres, so there's a half-dozen or so bottles that are left condition in room temperature.

Now that summer has finished (average here is mid-30s), it's fairly clear that the beer conditioned in room-temperature bottles is not as good as the kegs. Maybe this is due to other factors, including dropping out yeasts, etc. but it's different all the same.

I assume with a 200 litre system you're going to be brewing in larger batches. I'm not sure there's a cheap/easy solution.

But in all honesty, I think the best course of action is to get a large 2nd-hand chest freezer, put a temperature controller on it. It will cost a bit of money though. My chest freezer came out of a shop: it has scratches, dents, is a bit rusted on the bottom, and it stank of fish. But now, with a $20 temp controller, it keeps 220 litres of beer at exactly the right temperature, all through the summer. With a coat of chalkboard paint, it doesn't even look too bad.

 

[joshuahardie]

getting the majority of fermentation done at the correct temp is the priority, but where possible you should condition and store your beer cold

Check out some of the podcasts with Charlie Bamforth where he talks about flavour stability and staling in beer. for eg:
http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/01/31/flavor-stability-in-beer-with-dr-charlie-bamforth-beersmith-podcast-74/

from memory every increase of 10 degrees doubles the aging and halves the shelf stability.
so storing your beer in a fridge at 5c would make the beer last 8 times longer than storing it at 35c

 

[minimalizarte]

@Mr Wibble
I think looking for a second milk tank would just be the easiest solution. I can't imagine how much building a cellar would run. I have tried water conditioning (not fantastic results), and I dont think the neighbors would be too keen on having 480 liters of non-drinkable beer in their cellar.

 

[mr_wibble]

@Mr Wibble
I think looking for a second milk tank would just be the easiest solution. I can't imagine how much building a cellar would run. I have tried water conditioning (not fantastic results), and I dont think the neighbors would be too keen on having 480 liters of non-drinkable beer in their cellar.

How do you keep the milk-tank cool ?

Perhaps the neighbours would be interested in storing 400 litres of undrinkable beer, if it came along with 80 litres of the very drinkable sort

I'm not trying to be flippant, I've had the exact same problem over the last 2 months - I brewed so much during spring, all my cooling capacity was full. I basically couldn't brew more, maybe I need to have some friends over. This problem persists today. IMHO it's not worth brewing for me in summer, unless I can find a ~20C (ideally less) cold location. I live on a hill, and am seriously considering digging a cave/cellar (anyone have experience with this?)

I know a bloke up the valley who bought a concrete water tank (about 10m diameter) and 3/4 buried it into the side of his hill. It had a door cut into the side.
He used it as a wine cellar. I don't have the money for this type of thing.

 

[JDW81]

Saison with wyeast #3724. Loves the heat, and is a super refreshing beer for the hot weather.

JD

 

[minimalizarte]

@Mr Wibble
The milk tank is one of those temperature controlled refrigeration ones. It is like a giant refrigerator that cools down the contents and works perfectly as a fermenter. Gotta love the dairy industry for making em.

@JDW81
Oh god I hate saisons. The whole "funky taste" thing turns me off.

 

[JDW81]

@JDW81
Oh god I hate saisons. The whole "funky taste" thing turns me off.

Each to their own mate. I love the whole funky thing, gives them real character.

 

[minimalizarte]

I don't like most sours, saisons, or anything with "funk" in it just because it reminds me of the batches that went wrong. It just means there is more for you.