Fermenting and these summer temperatures

[Capper20]

I have a brew fermenting away under my stairs and one in the shed. It is warm in both locations. Probably 24C or so right now. While this is making the ferment very quick, what sort of effect dos it have on the overall taste/quality of the brew? These two are experimental ones so they might be rubbish anyway. Should I look at building myself a large hay box to insulate against the excess summer heat? Any advice/discussion is appreciated.

[Brotherton Lad]

Drape a wet towel over the FV, it will knock 4 or 5 degrees out of it. The next stage is to stand the FV in a couple of pints of water and let the towel wick up the moisture to keep it damp.

[Manx Guy]

Hi there!

Good question and as such has been asked before....
See this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33964

I've personnaly had mixed results with summer brews so I am currently fermenting a kit brew as a 'test' for my own particular setup.

Have a read of the above thread and then see what your own thoughts are... I'm sure soemone can address any other questions you may have!



Cheers!

Guy

[Capper20]

OK, will use search more. Good thread, thanks for that. What I have done is the wet towel with the end of it in a tub of water. I'll see how it is doing in a few hours and take it from there. Evaporation cooling, simples.

[smdjoachim]

Some yeasts are quite happy at higher temps.Nottingham and some of the Belgium strains spring to mind.
As for keeping my fermenter cool i put it in a bigger bucket filled with water and drop in frozen plastic bottles of water .
Leave a thermometer in the water and i can keep the temp to around 18 degrees.

[Capper20]

I'll go and nick the kid next door's paddling pool when it gets dark.

[Manx Guy]

I'll go and nick the kid next door's paddling pool when it gets dark.

Well dont get caught!

No worries! Glad you found the thread useful....

sometimes the simple methods work best, I have a stone floor in the utility room and I found that placing the FV directly on the floor helps keep the FV cool enough <22C even on the hottest days!

Don't forget to protect the fermenting beer from strong sunlight!

Cheers!

Guy

[jeremy]

I put my FVs in a tray of water and direct a desk fan at the surface of the water (making sure it can't fall in, obviously). This keeps it about 4°C below room temperature. The water also smooths out the temperature changes.

To those of you who do this, how do you keep the water from getting mildew or other unpleasant things growing in it? I use Starsan, but have very hard water so it goes cloudy and loses effectiveness quickly. I considered metabisulphite, but don't want SO2 given off in my living area. Bleach would probably smell bad. Any other ideas?

Jeremy

[Capper20]

What about a fish tank aerator?

[196osh]

Use starsan and bottled water.

[196osh]

Use starsan and bottled water.

[az77]

The higher the temp the more esters that can be created, esters basically smell like glue or nail polish.

[Eric]

Fermentation at temperatures higher than recommended will likely result in different (probably unwanted) tastes. Fermentation will be faster which in turn increases the temperature more.
During fermentation the beer is generally well protected with a yeast cap and CO2 blanket. My concerns mainly relate to contamination before and after fermentation. This morning I cleaned and hosed down an FV, leaving it to dry in the garden. When I returned it was covered in dozens of little creepy crawley things and wondered what were there that couldn't be seen by the naked eye.

[Rookie]

I have no problem dealing with the high brewing temperatures, I've been on unemployment since october and have decided that paying the mortgage is more important, so no brewing for now; the brew room can get as hot as it wants.