Hey Southwest brewers…give me a shout!
I got the new NB catalog today…the “late winter” catalog, and it makes me laugh. You in the North are still brewing dark/winters to drink soon. I am thinking of how to get all my brews in before it gets too hot to brew! I need to get a dark in the fermenter so I can bottle before we turn the A/C on.
Anyone have a favorite recommendation of a dark/Belgian for fall? I need to brew it and bottle it soon…
If I had to brew a dark beer right now for the fall, I would brew either a Caribou Slobber or Midnight Beatdown. Both kits are on NB’s website, and I’ve brewed them both.
Paul
Thanks Paul. The Caribou Slobber is one of our favs!
I decided to go with the Sweet Stout. I tend to make a large number of hoppy or lawnmower-style with the climate here in Phoenix, so branching out to a stout sounds fun. We will see how it ages.
Cheers!
if it makes you feel any better, my basement is too cold to ferment Ale but not cold enough to ferment Lager, so my bedroom closet becomes my fermentation chamber during the winter months.
And yes, a temp controlled fermentation chamber is planned.
I have plans for a Fermoicebox Box. Made outta 2" pink foam board. Requires an ice change (two gallon milk jugs frozen) evry two days with a 30 degree difference between ambiant and target temp. Uses a thermostat and fan to mantain temp. I haven’t built one yet but I will be in the next few months.
Mattweiser, I hear you. “put your kettle out in the snow to cool”, “the 42 degree groundwater will cool with your IC in a matter of minutes”, “basements have nice consistent cool temperatures”.
In San Diego, there is no snow, and our groundwater is warmer than the temp of your basement (which we don’t have). We have optimum beer drinking weather and less than optimum beer making weather.
Best decision I ever made was to find a chest freezer and put a temp control override on it. When it’s 118 outside (and 82 inside), the ferm chamber is still at 68 or 55 or whatever I set it to. Ended up costing 80 bucks total and has made a big difference in the midsummer beers and also given me the ability to lager (which is nice and refreshing for those summer days).
