14 replies to this topic

[weave]

Work is shutdown for July 4 week so I am planning several brew days that week. I am going to brew 10 gallons of cream ale and 10 more of an English bitter. Planning on 1.045 gravities for both. Final grain bills and hop schedules are TBD. I am heading out to LHBS next weekend to get all the fixings. I am torn over which yeast to use. I expect basement to be pushing 70-72 F by then, which is about 10 degrees warmer than I like to ferment at. I am not going to do the swamp cooler thing. I would rather find a yeast that is less inclined to throw esters or phenols at those temps.Outside of 1056, what are my options?

[dagomike]

Usually I find the warmer the ferment, greater the elevation in temp. So, if you're looking at 72 ambient, 80 degrees might happen. Seems like a lot of work for paint stripper. $0.02.

[RommelMagic]

80 degrees might happen. Seems like a lot of work for paint stripper. $0.02.

Or even 82 No, that's not "covering eyes", it's "holding head" the morning after...

[ncbeerbrewer]

I agree with the suggestions above. There are not many beer styles where phenols and esters are acceptable outside of Belgian beers. I would at least do the cooler thing. As has been stated temp control is one of the biggest things to really make great beer. I supposed you could try US-05 but I would still try to maintain some level of temp control. I thought Ken Lenard did something with frozen 2 liters in a tub with the beer in a carboy. I thought he changed them out once a day but I will let him suggest if he reads this posting.

[Stuster]

I agree with the suggestions above. There are not many beer styles where phenols and esters are acceptable outside of Belgian beers.

I can't let this one go by. English beers for a start really require some esters. Bitters are better IMO with a moderate level of esters. Most good British beers have a moderate level of esters, and are more delicious for it. I know American brewing is strongly influenced by German brewers and the quest for clean beers, but even German brewing has wheat beers which require phenols and esters. Personally, I think that's probably a little too hot for English beers, but that 60-62F (which you say you normally ferment at) is too cool. But that's for how I like my bitters. If you are after a really clean style and that suits you, then go for it. What home brewing's about after all. Just providing a different point of view.

[chuck_d]

You could do a Kölsch. I know some produced commercial is fermented in the 75-79*F range. In fact I'm trying to imitate a commercial process using warm fermentation temps in an ice cube cooler to get my finished product of Kölsch quickly.

[DubbelEntendre]

Saison.

[weave]

Well, I am not suprised by all the responses to cool it down or don't bother brewing. I am usually done brewing for the summer by July and it is not an issue.I was sort of hoping for someone to rattle off a yeast strain other than Belgian or wheat style that does well at 70F ambient temps. Apparently not.I guess I may play it by ear. If the basement is still in the mid 60's come week of July 4, I'll go with an English strain and style. If it goes much above that, I'll have to plan on a swamp cooler set up. That will give me more flexibilty in style I guess.Or I could shoot for a Hennepin clone.

[DubbelEntendre]

Well, I am not suprised by all the responses to cool it down or don't bother brewing. I am usually done brewing for the summer by July and it is not an issue.I was sort of hoping for someone to rattle off a yeast strain other than Belgian or wheat style that does well at 70F ambient temps. Apparently not.I guess I may play it by ear. If the basement is still in the mid 60's come week of July 4, I'll go with an English strain and style. If it goes much above that, I'll have to plan on a swamp cooler set up. That will give me more flexibilty in style I guess.Or I could shoot for a Hennepin clone.

Ommeggdan Clone!

[earthtone]

now many people might just fire this one back at me and that's fine, but IMHO and from my own experience brewing without any temp control for about a year now with ambient temps sitting tight around 68 df some yeasts toss out some baaaaaad flavours at this temp but one that I have found works well and I enjoy is Nottingham dry. I get a fruity complexity from naottingham at this temp but nothing that overwhelms what I am going for in the brew itself. I used nottingham in my hoppy red ale with special B and the dark fruitiness of the special B is helped along by a pleasant fruit flavour in the yeast character. If you want to brew at this temp, pick something that fruitiness is desireable in and brew on!I would not recommend S-04 at this temp as it gets a bit spicy IMO. Anyway, outside of belgians and 1056 this would be my go-to for ill-advised uncontrolled fermentation temps in the high 60's to 70's.

[Tripel666]

Nottingham is known to ferment cool, but it also will not throw fusels and esters at warmer temps. I tried an experiment with a simple bitter at 80F. clean, no problems.

[Jimmy James]

Weave, living in San Diego I have plenty of experience fermenting around the low 70s. I agree temp control is ideal, but I made plenty of good beer over the years without it, and still rip off the occasional APA, IPA or ESB without temp control even in the *gasp* summer. I typically use WLP001 or WLP007 for those beers and the worse thing that's happened to me is I have had krausen blow through the airlock as it gets cranked up. I think the biggest risk is that the fermentation takes off too fast and spikes, and then say you leave the window open overnight and it drops a few degrees and then the yeast slow and crash and you take forever to get to your final gravity or finish a little high.

[Gumbo Leviathan]

Why not just do a Belgian? A saison perhaps?My basement temps are sitting around 65 right now, so my next brew day, which will probably be in July, will have to be a Belgian. My lager fridge has a BoPils in it with no more room, so its either a Belgian or swamp-cooling for me...

[weave]

Well, I didn't want a Belgian for my next brew cuz we have a lot of family gatherings in the summer and they like my cream ale and English bitter. Like I said at the top, usually I am done for the season by now. But life got in the way and now I am playing catch up.I usually make my summer brews in April and the basement is around 60 in April. I like to use WY1728 for both these recipes. Makes a nice clean cream ale IMO.Anywho, basement is prolly too warm now for 1728 so I need to look at other options. Sounds like Nottingham or the two Jimmy James mentioned are options. I've never used any of these 3 so I guess I'll be flying blind.And I am considering a Saison this summer. Haven't decided yet. Hennepin is one of my fav patio beers. It wouldn't be too bad having 5 gal of that hanging around.