Phew, what a scorcher!

[Tippler]

Well, despite all my efforts to lay in a sufficient supply of summer beers, I find that they are running short, and not too clever for being too warm anyway. So, what can we do in these temperatures? What wisdom can you offer for continuing to brew (and particularly chill) in a heat wave?

[mark4newman]

Hi

Sorry, if this is obvious but have spare fridges......and to cool the wort recirculate ice water, when you have taken the majority of the heat out of the wort.

If you haven't got a fridge, I hear that a wet towel over the fermenter with a fan pointed at it can help with the cooling.....

[Bribie]

If you have enough freezer capacity to freeze some 2L pop bottles, then you can put a couple of frozen bottles on either side of the FV, wrap in towels then wrap the whole thing in a duvet. I brewed this way for a while till I got a temperature controlled fridge sorted out. I was living in part of Queensland where anything under 20 degrees would send people scurrying for their jumper and balaclava

edit: initially you may need to swap out the bottles twice a day but when the brew stops generating its own heat you should be right just swapping in the morning.

Most off flavours, fusel oils etc are produced in the first few days, so if you can struggle through then the brew should be good. I don't know about the UK but here you can buy ultra cheap acrylic duvets for your equivalent of seven quid, perfect for the job.

[bigdave]

By chill do you mean chill the wort in the boiler before transferring to the FV? I've found that my IC isn't that effective at the moment either! You could freeze some plastic bottles of water, sanitise them and drop em into the boiler? Alternatively you could brew short by 4-5ltrs and top up with ice?

[Rookie]

Some yeasts do way better in warm conditions than others. What brand and style do you usually use? An e-mail to the manufacturer asking them which strain they would suggest may be called for.

[Tippler]

Thanks for the suggestions. In fact, I do have a brew fridge to ferment in, but I am finding that I could do with another so that one keeps a fermenter at about 20° and another can chill to help it clear. The last couple of brews I have done anyway have not cleared properly because of the heat.

My main concern is chilling the wort in the boiler when the tap water temperature is 22°! I am in the middle of upgrading to a 50 litre set up and I dont think I have a cat in hell's chance of chilling it right now.

Based on my present problems, I would say for the future: keep the brew length small, use a yeast which is tolerant of temperature changes, brew dark stuff that doesn't show the bits, and brew a lot more in the winter to bottle for the summer.

[Bribie]

You could just run the hot wort into a sanitised water "cube", seal up and leave till cool enough to pitch. Although many brewers in Australia use plate or immersion chillers, the so called "no chill" is becoming very popular. It's all I ever do. The other advantage is that the wort will keep for months and you can brew then wait till the heatwave is over and you can go back to fermenting at ambient or in your fridge when a space becomes available.

The system works so well that there are microbreweries that actually put out cubes of their wort for you to ferment at home. You will be familiar with the Coopers brand, that was how they started off their home brew kits in the late 1970s before they got into tins.

[Rick_UK]

I brewed last week in the midst of the UK heatwave it was no prob really. I got the wort temp down to about 30 with the IC by evening it was about 25. Pitched yeast - Notty as it is forgiving of higher temps. Then stood the FV in the garage in a bucket of cold water with a t shirt over it wicking the water further up the side of the FV - this has kept the FV about 4'C below ambient, adding a fan would get it down a few more degrees but have not needed this step. I have my aquarium heater set to 21'C and it hasn't gone above this despite the ambient temps getting into the mid 20s.

Rick

[darkonnis]

Use a temp resistant yeast if you're struggling. T-58 is becoming one of my favourites because it just doesn't seem to care what I throw at it.

[TC2642]

I use a trug filled with cold water and I add those blue plastic ice pack things, kept my IPA fermenting around 21-22oC when it was hitting thirty outside.

[SamT]

I can control fermentation temperature, as I have an STC controlled fridge, but chilling the wort with my immersion chiller was a PITA - the groundwater was coming out the tap at 24C, and I wanted to ferment at 18C ... so much for chilling to below pitchng at letting the yeast reaction bring it up to target.