I moved to south Florida over three years ago and haven’t tried to brew since moving. Unlike Indiana, I don’t have a nice cool basement for fermentation. We keep the house between 74 and 76 degrees. Do you know of any yeasts that are effective at this temperature? Will I be forced to buy refrigerating units to ferment? If yes, what is recommended?
I live in so cal and use the swamp cooler method to keep temps down. I let my house get into the 80’s and can keep fermentation temp in the mid 60’s. Do a search for swap cooler, you probably have everything you need all ready.
I live in South Carolina so I can understand the heat debacle. I used a swamp
cooler for a few months before I got tired of exchanging ice packs every few hrs. Instead I bought a dorm fridge for $50 on Craigslist and wired a temp controller to it. Overall cost was $75 but it works like a champ. I can ferment ales, lagers, and can even crash cool beers. Worthwhile investment if you have the $$$.
as mentioned, you can do a swamp cooler - i used this method for years effectively, but to be honest a converted chest freezer is you best bet.
I have 2 fridges for fermenting currently.
But i don’t shovel any damned snow.
Keep in mind that a swamp cooler works way better in a dry climate like SoCal especially compared to Florida. I had one in Lake Havasu city that kept my manufactured home in the 70s when it was 100 out, except in the monsoon season when the humidity went way up, july and august usually.
True - I actually kept my carboys/buckets nearly fully submerged. Kept a more constant temp too.
you can source what you need for a ferment chamber pretty inexpensively. Look on craigslist weekly for a 7cubic’ chest freezer. Poke around on HBT for a build and places to source parts for a single-stage temp controller. I have a friend that got a chest freezer for free, and built his temp controller for around $20.
The less handy you are and less connected you are to people with extra chest freezers, the more this price will go up, but having a way to dial in temps will make your beer light years better. Especially if you are working with those ambient temps.
I live in Fresno and its pretty hot here. I bought a fridge and put in in the garage with a STC-1000 controller. I did think about building a fermentation chamber though.
You can always brew a saison which will do ok at warm temps.
