What are you brewing in QLD

[jongylary]

Hey Guys,
i'm fairly new to brewing, i live in QLD- i have kind of resided to the fact it might be too hot to do any brews until april -_-

i just wanted to know what people are brewing this time of year in this heat? i don't have any cooling system set up other than sitting my fermenter in a 60 lt plastic container with water and frozen bottles of water.

well either way i have a few days off before i pull a long stretch over the xmas mad month and would like to put something in the fermenter.
is there a type of beer i should be aiming at better equipped to handle this heat? (i have only been using K&K beers so far - would like to try something using a extract - trying to slowly improve the outcome)
What sort of yeast should i use?

Well drink up - live life and enjoy
happy Brewing
Jongylary

 

[QldKev]

Up here fermenting fridges make life easy.

Have a search for saison on here. This is one of them. They love hot weather.

 

[indica86]

I bought an old chest freezer for $50. Turn it on twice a day for 1/2 and hour and my fermenters sit @ 18°. Add the temp controller I purchased from e-bay for $16 = a lot less annoyance than the plastic bottle scenario.

 

[jongylary]

thanks guys- unfortunatley i cannot justify extra costs to the wife
but i will be doing some reason on the saison you mention above QLDKEV
thats for the info

 

[superstock]

thanks guys- unfortunatley i cannot justify extra costs to the wife
but i will be doing some reason on the saison you mention above QLDKEV
thats for the info

Tell her that the cost of freezing bottles of water will be more than a cheap s/h fridge and a chinese/ebay controller.

 

[earle]

I picked up a upright freezer on ebay for $10.50. Bigger then a bar freezer but not full size. I had a spare controller but a timer is a cheap option some people use.

 

[Glot]

Pop along to your local appliance retailer. If they have a ware house, head for that. Some used to sell fridges they had taken away from a customer's house. $10 or $15 each. Might work. Might not. If you don't head for the nicest looking one then it was prob working and they just upgraded. Just tell them what you want it for and don't much them around. They have their work to do. Also, stay away from weekends etc because they will be pretty busy. If you don't want to wait for an STC1000 from China, then a cheap time clock for $10.

 

[jongylary]

thanks for the cooling tips.
so whats in everyones fermenters at the moment - what do you rush to brew in these conditions?

 

[bradsbrew]

thanks for the cooling tips.
so whats in everyones fermenters at the moment - what do you rush to brew in these conditions?

I have an English bitter and a cider cold crashing. Wife seems to forget about the three fridges running in the beer room whilst there is cider on tap. B) Trick to that was giving her one that wasn't temp controlled during fermentation and then giving her one that was. No I did not brew a whole batch of cider without temp control, I may have tampered with ( left out in the heat) a couple of bottles. h34r:

Cheers

 

[superstock]

I have an English bitter and a cider cold crashing. Wife seems to forget about the three fridges running in the beer room whilst there is cider on tap. B) Trick to that was giving her one that wasn't temp controlled during fermentation and then giving her one that was. No I did not brew a whole batch of cider without temp control, I may have tampered with ( left out in the heat) a couple of bottles. h34r:

Cheers

I hope for your sake and a lot of others who are married, that your wives don't read this forum!!

 

[Liam_snorkel]

If you like saisons (or havent tasted one but are curious) get a packet of danstar belle saison yeast. It loves the heat and tastes great. Would probs work pretty well with the coopers pale ale tin.

 

[jongylary]

can i get this yeast from most LHBS???

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Depends if they stock danstar yeast or not, but you could get it delivered from one of the site sponsors pretty easily. Or you could get some hops from hop dealz aus and have the yeast slipped into the package.

Edit: just found someone selling it on Ebay, picked up 3 packets for $15.10 delivered.

 

[altpferd]

Son and I are brewing a Morgan's Queenslander lager at the moment. No extras other than sugar in case there's a heatwave. The weather's been unusually cool for this time of year so should be ok. Did a Cooper's lager last time and it turned out fine. I don't have any cooling apparatus, just a shed in the shade of some trees and we leave the door open during the day to nab breezes.
We won't get any top notch brews this way but it keeps us in beer.

 

[pvan340]

Coopers dark ale in the keg, coopers Mexican in bottles conditioning, and a toucan of coopers dark ale/larger (leftovers) in the fermenter at the moment with us-05 yeast, dry hopping with 50 g of fuggles. It's a bit of an experiment! I leave the fermenter in the downstairs bathroom, sits at about 22 - 24 degrees, not ideal, but safe with ales. I've got a fermentation fridge, just need to set up a controller, get another fv, and I'll start experimenting with some different styles.

 

[Dread82]

Coopers dark ale in the keg, coopers Mexican in bottles conditioning, and a toucan of coopers dark ale/larger (leftovers) in the fermenter at the moment with us-05 yeast, dry hopping with 50 g of fuggles. It's a bit of an experiment! I leave the fermenter in the downstairs bathroom, sits at about 22 - 24 degrees, not ideal, but safe with ales. I've got a fermentation fridge, just need to set up a controller, get another fv, and I'll start experimenting with some different styles.

I adjusted the thermostat on my second fridge saved me buying a second controller works fine, ill see if I can find the page again

 

[mje1980]

Off topic but I spent some time as a kid in jimboomba and beaudesert. Grandparents lived in both places for a while. I remember going to the pub with my grandfather. Remember it coz everytime we went I got a fire engine while he put bets on haha. Nice part of the world, both places.

Carry on

 

[Bax]

thanks guys- unfortunatley i cannot justify extra costs to the wife
but i will be doing some reason on the saison you mention above QLDKEV
thats for the info

You don't need a second fridge for all the food/ alcohol around the christmas period? That's what my second fridge is the other few months of the year when we have a big bbq or something and need that additional room for storing. The rest of the time it's set on 18ish degrees brewing away.

I'm in central QLD so it gets quite nasty around here as well. Fridge and temp controller is the best thing I've done.

 

[Dread82]

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/guide-set-internal-chest-freezer-thermostat-32f-eliminate-external-control-249612/

 

[Bribie G]

For my first year of brewing in a hot garage on Bribie Island I got a dead fridge from a neighbour and swapped over a couple of 2Litre frozen soft drink bottles of ice daily, kept the temperature less than 20 degrees. You'd need some freezer space of course to supply the bottles. As suggested above you could get a dead one from Retravision or whoever, could even deliver for just the delivery fee as many of them use local couriers anyway. Last time I got something delivered the store said "just negotiate a cash deal with the driver, he's independent".