Hi, I am entering our warm season (outside temperature 80 to 110 degrees F). We generally keep our house at about 78 degrees which is too warm for brewing ales.

I am looking for tips on how to keep brewing through the summer without using my air conditioner too much.

I have used a wet T-shirt on a 6.5 carboy with a small fan going to help with convection cooling. This has worked fine when the inside temps are in the low 70's, but wondered if there is a better method when it gets warmer.

Any thoughts?

Randy

I have heard of people setting the carboy in a tub of water that they rotated frozen water bottles in and out of. The less "economical" way is to find an old used fridge or freezer and stick a temperature controller (about $45) on it. That's what I used, and it solved a lot of headaches.

78 isn't ideal but I've brewed through worse. It shouldn't kill the yeast, but depending on the strain you might get some funny/bad flavours.

A yeast that can cope with high temps well is that used in Coopers Sparkling Ale and Coopers Pale Ale. These beers are bottle conditioned/primed so you can make a starter out of the yeast in the bottle. However I don't know whether these beers are available outside of Australia. I used this yeast once when fermenting between 77 and 83 degrees F over summer.

However once I sort a few other bits of equipment out I'm going for the temp controller and used fridge, this infact may be an opportune time to ask you Curlyfat whether there is any particular temp controller you recommend?

Joseph.

I use a Ranco ETC. It's all I've ever used, so I can't speak if it's better or worse than others. I like that it's digital, you can set the variance (whether it keeps it within 1 degree, 2 degrees, 3 degrees, whatever you set). I also use it in conjunction with a Thermowell stopper ( http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/fermenting-equipment/fermentation-temperature-control/stopper-thermowell.html), so I know I'm controlling the actual temperature of the beer, not just the air around it.

Great advice. Thanks.

I have been holding off buying another frige since when I buy one, it will be for kegging.....

Randy

I used to use a hole i dug in a shed. I then covered it with some foam and plywood. I put a light hooked to a house thermostat to warm it to about 65. The ground temp here stays at 55 all year. Worked good. But it was a pain when i started 10 and 12 gallon batches in a single fermenter. An old fridge that is well inulated will work just by rotating bottles of ice water. I have an old kegerator that does not work. It gets up to 90 in my shop sometimes and if i put some frozen jugs in it in the morning it stays cool all day.

I live in Florida with limited space for home brewing (i.e. wife).
so I am in the process of converting a mini fridge into a kegerator, and fermenting chamber. I will be able to chill two five gallon kegs, with co2 tank, and for the fun part the fermenting chamber. I am building a box the same size as the fridge and have a closed loop system of glycol in a the kegerator with heat exchanger coils in the fermenting chamber with fans. The lower temp of the glycol will chill the heat exchangers and the fans will pull off cool air from the heat exchangers. In theory it should be able to lower the temp inside the chamber 10 to 15 degrees or more depending on the conditions.

As usual, thanks to everyone for the ideas. If anyone comes up with anything else please share.

I think I will work on manual techniques like adding ice to my convection cooling method and see what happens. I don't want to invest in a used refridgerator right now, but there is no harm in trying to brew something tasteful in a warm climate.....

Randy

If you can find the insulation on the cheap, you can always do the Son of Fermentation Chiller:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb226sT6qEc

Dave, thanks for the youtube link. I had not thought about building a makeshift chiller for my fermenter. It gives me some great ideas.

Randy