All-
Are there any beers that can be fermented at warmer temperatures? During the summer, my basement gets up to about 68F. It’s Much cooler in the winter of course ( that is when we usually brew.) Suggestions (ie types of beer that ferment better in warmer temperatures?)
Thank you,
Duane
If you use a simple water bath (e.g. a big tub that you chuck ice into periodically (or frozen water bottles) you should be fine for ales in a basement at 68°F!
But having said that - if you can start cooler (say 64°F or so), most Belgian styles will do pretty well and then of course there’s Kveik which people ferment HOT like 90°F. I usually get a strong phenol note from them but for a while it was all the damn rage.
68 F is fine for everything. If you want to ferment a few degrees cooler, set your fermentation vessel into a tub with a couple inches of water at the bottom and drape a wet T-shirt over the fermenter, allowing the water to wick up and thus cool the fermenter via evaporation. Anyway, I have been fermenting “lagers” at 68F using S-189 yeast and others and have been very pleased with the results. For ales, 68F is fine for pretty much any ale style. No worries.
Agree with the above.
But I think the bigger concern is that at “peak” fermentation, the temperature of the beer/wort is going to get higher than 68°F, and how much higher will depend on yeast/gravity/volume etc. Once your beer temp gets into the mid/upper 70’s, that’s when flavors can get wonky. Those first few days of active fermentation can make or break the beer.
Choose your yeast wisely and look for those that have recommended upper ranges in the 70’s. Pitch as close to the bottom of the yeast’s temp range as you can get it and do your best to keep fermentation cool like the above comments suggest. Once fermentation calms down, the beer will fall back to 68° and you’ll be fine.
All that said, Saisons are a wonderful summer beer, and most Saison yeasts do just fine crawling into the 70’s.
Good luck.
You already have good advice. I will say that I’ve fermented some beers in my garage in the summer using Kveik yeast. A local brewery has traveled to Norway with Lars Gorshal and has fallen down that rabbit hole. He brought a raw ale to the Club’s summer picnic that was 5 days old, as Kveik ferments very fast. The pitch temp was 105⁰F! The beer was rustic, but drinkable.
Do you cold lager those beers that were fermented at 68F?
If kegging, yes. If bottling, no… I keep most bottles in my basement which varies between 50-65 F in winter vs. summer, only putting a handful of bottles in the refrigerator at any given time, just enough for me and friends to drink and enjoy. Even stored at 65 F, they are still lagering for a very long time in many cases, since I currently have about 10 cases of beer and cider in my basement, I just don’t drink it fast enough so it can sit for more than a year or two sometimes. It’s true lagering, regardless of exact temperatures… lagering with respect to the actual meaning of the word “to store” or “storing” or “in storage”. So… yes and no. But as long as they’re not super fresh brewed within the last couple of weeks, they are all clear as crystal.
It’s important to distinguish between the actual beer temp vs. ambient air temp when discussing fermentation temp. For the first few days of active fermentation, the beer will be 5-10 degrees warmer than the ambient air.
All the recommended temps published by the yeast suppliers are beer temp, not ambient air temp. If your fermenter is in a basement or temp-controlled chamber (which is most homebrewers) where the ambient air temp is 68, then the beer itself will reach well into the mid- to upper 70s. This is way too warm for most ale strains. The wet t-shirt trick can lower it a couple of degrees, but only at the air-fermenter interface. There is still lots of heat being generated deeper within the liquid volume.
This is all assuming a typical 5ish gallon volume. Smaller volumes will of course get rid of the heat generated from fermentation more efficiently and be able to maintain a temp closer to ambient.