Summer Brewing

[ajdougall]

Hi all,

A quick question for all those great brewing minds out there. At present my brew room fluctuates between 22 and 26 degrees. What would be a good beer to brew at these temperatures?


Cheers

Doogs

 

[booyablack]

You'll definitely be wanting to brew ales and not lagers. A lot of people on this forum will tell you that those temperatures are just too high but you CAN brew at these temps they just might not be quite as nice as when brewed cooler. They will DEFINITELY be drinkable though.

Here are some hints that I've picked up:

1 - A lot of brewers who can't ferment in a fridge or freezer like to use an esky, cooler bag or tub to keep their fermenter in and every day they put frozen water bottles in around the fermenter to keep it cool.

2 - Some people put a wet towel around the fermenter and then have a fan blowing on it to drop the temp.

3 - I find the above two methods a bit too high maintenance and so I just make sure that I have the wort at a good temp(~20C) (by adding ice to the wort) when I pitch the yeast. I usually try to brew at night so that I can leave the fermenter sitting on the cool concrete floor of my garage. Then in the morning when I wake up I know that the wort is the coolest that it's going to get so I wrap it in an insulating blanket and forget about it until racking or bottling time.

 

[under]

Hmmm. Ice in the wort. Not a good idea mate. Your opening up a can of worms for infection.

The esky method works a treat. And I find its pretty easy to get a good constant ferment temp doing so.

I just use old 2L juice bottles filled with water, freeze about six of them up and rotate them. Normally dont require more that two per day so you have plenty of time to freeze the first two before you use the last two. I can ferment at 16-20 just by changing the bottles. I also just have a glass thermometer sitting in the water to get an idea of the water temp.

A good idea if you go that way is to add a bit of either napisan/starsan/idophor to the water, so that the water dosent go stagnant/green from sitting there over a extended time. I usually change the water every 1/2 dozen brews or when it starts to look a little dodgy.

 

[Pennywise]

I've found US-05 is a quite forgiving yeast at those temps. You'll be able to get the temp a bit lower by using the methods above. Personally, I sit the fermenter in the bath (no water in it) sit 2 x 1.5 litre frozen water bottles next to it and wrap it up with a couple of old bath towels. For me this keeps the temp at a very constant 18, even when I pitched at 26 the other day.

 

[booyablack]

Hmmm. Ice in the wort. Not a good idea mate. Your opening up a can of worms for infection.

Really? I've read elsewhere on this forum where it's been recommended. The main rule of thumb is to use ice made from boiled water and NEVER use bought ice.

I've followed these rules and haven't had any infections yet, but that's not to say that it's necessarily good practice I suppose. Thanks for the feedback all the same.

 

[jbirbeck]

Saisons...ferment them warm. Wy 3724 and 3711.

 

[Pennywise]

Really? I've read elsewhere on this forum where it's been recommended. The main rule of thumb is to use ice made from boiled water and NEVER use bought ice.

I've followed these rules and haven't had any infections yet, but that's not to say that it's necessarily good practice I suppose. Thanks for the feedback all the same.

You need food grade ice, I think a few people on here use the stuff you get from the servo, if your doing it youself just make sure the container you freeze in is sanitised & sealed

 

[drtomc]

Saisons...ferment them warm. Wy 3724 and 3711.

+1 for Saison.

When I was doing Kits&Bits, a popular combo that worked at this temperature range was a Wheat kit + dry wheat malt extract + hops + T-58. Not exactly to any style in particular, but an aromatic Belgian inspired wheat beer.

T.

 

[WarmBeer]

Brew a Saison.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...&recipe=217

They thrive on the higher temperatures, so your 22-26 degrees should be perfect.

 

[phinnsfotos]

Certainly can brew a lager at those temps, just make a Steam Beer. Quite different to a cold fermented lager but a lager none the less. Try to get your hands on a bottle of Anchor Steam if you want to try it.

Cheers,
Finn.

 

[drtomc]

Brew a Saison.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...&recipe=217

They thrive on the higher temperatures, so your 22-26 degrees should be perfect.

I BIAB, but how would you go about getting the required attenuation with extracts/kit base, or would you have to resort to sugars?

T.

 

[reviled]

I BIAB, but how would you go about getting the required attenuation with extracts/kit base, or would you have to resort to sugars?

T.

The saison strains are pretty attenuative, but id still be inclined to add some sugaz even with AG saisons, not that you need to, but it helps!

Im fermenting a saison at the mo that has 5% sugaz, and it got down to 1004 B)

+1 for a Saison, or as mentioned above US-05 is very forgiving in warmer weather!

 

[drtomc]

The saison strains are pretty attenuative, but id still be inclined to add some sugaz even with AG saisons, not that you need to, but it helps!

Depends on your target abv, I guess. I mashed low (63C), and have had not trouble getting from OG 1.052 to 1.005. Higher OG or higher desired abv, then you're right.

Just doing a quick calc on the online brewcraft calculator, using dry extract and dex, to get a FG of 1.010 from a OG of 1.055 requied 30% dex. On the other hand, given that most of the interest comes from the yeast, it just might work. I'm not going to try it though.

T.

 

[ajdougall]

Thanks for all these replies.

I like the idea of brewing a Saison, anything with a french name would impress my South Melbourne residing in-laws.

Thanks for the recipe too, however I am not up to all-grain brewing yet. Does anyone have a kit based Saison recipe?

Cheers

Doogs

 

[Bribie G]

A neutral 'lager' yeast that can handle higher temperatures is Mauribrew Lager Yeast, sold as Morgans Lager Yeast from home brew outlets that sell Morgans. Not the greatest yeast but it should handle low to mid 20s no problems, without giving you the fruity esters that ale yeasts are noted for.

 

[Brewer_010]

Hmmm. Ice in the wort. Not a good idea mate. Your opening up a can of worms for infection.

I don't reckon; I use ice to chill my wort (and dilute at the same time) every time I brew and don't get infections because I'm as clean as I can be.

If you have dodgy sanitising practices I'd agree with you, but if you treat the ice the same as your brew it will be fine. Boil the water first if you're really paranoid.

 

[kelbygreen]

I have cleaned and sanitised a 600ml PET soft drink bottle and filled with cooled boiled water. Didnt get a infection, The bottle is throw away as you need to cut it open to get the ice out. But the ice in enclosed so if cleaned and sanitised properly I cant see the harm. Could be wrong and if so I hope some one proves me wrong as I only done 3 brews so dont know really

 

[drtomc]

Thanks for the recipe too, however I am not up to all-grain brewing yet. Does anyone have a kit based Saison recipe?

I've only done AG Saison, but if I was going to attempt it with a kit, I'd start with a wheat kit + half a kilo of malt + half a kilo of dex. And definitely use the Wyeast Saison yeast. or a similar Saison yeast. I don't think any of the dry yeasts will get you within a country mile. Mostly with kits, I'd avoid the dex and add malt only, rebalancing things by adding hops if necessary, but in this case you want all the attenuation you can get, and the dry malt won't be sufficiently fermentable, I would expect.

T.

 

[King Brown]

I've only done AG Saison, but if I was going to attempt it with a kit, I'd start with a wheat kit + half a kilo of malt + half a kilo of dex. And definitely use the Wyeast Saison yeast. or a similar Saison yeast. I don't think any of the dry yeasts will get you within a country mile. Mostly with kits, I'd avoid the dex and add malt only, rebalancing things by adding hops if necessary, but in this case you want all the attenuation you can get, and the dry malt won't be sufficiently fermentable, I would expect.

T.

This sounds good, perhaps with some dry hopping using a european hop variety (DuPont uses Styrian Goldings in combination with East Kent Goldings according to Farmhouse Ales by Phil Markowski)

Try for a relatively strong beer (over 5%abv), and try to get as low a finishing gravity as you can (adding dex you should be fine.)

 

[Rodolphe01]

i've used servo and supermarket ice (same brand anyway) more times than I can count without problems. Sometimes I fill a couple big plastic containers (they range between 1-3 litres) with boiled water, bung the lid on and freeze (the boiling water sanitises the container). I dump the ice in the fermenter and pour over my wort, chills it nicely. The bought ice is faster though because of the increased surface area.

Only infection i've had is aceto in secondary, probably from sloppy racking.

Don't fear the ice.

Also, dumping the fermenter in an esky full of water and swapping frozen water bottles morning and afternoon is a method I can vouch for, I even managed to ferment a lager with this method during a Brisbane summer.