edler (07/24/82)
A couple of weeks ago, I asked for ideas about how to deal with brewing beer in an apartment where the temperature may be greater than 75 degrees for extended periods during the summer. I received several responses, ranging from doing my fermentation in a computer room (!) to cooling the fermenter with wet towels and a fan. I also wrote to a company called William's Brewing with whose beer kits I have had quite good results (their speciality is brewing without additional sugar, or "all-malt"). Here is an excerpt from the letter I got in response: "Beer brewed at temperatures over 80 degrees F will have a rougher taste than beer brewed at cooler temperatures. It won't be terrible though; I've brewed many batches in my apartment in Oakland when the temperature was between 80 and 85 degrees during the day, and 65 to 70 degrees at night and produced good beer. Our Pale Ale, Stout, and Steam Beer kits are the best suited to high temperatures, as their strong flavors help mask any off flavors produced by the overheated yeast. I certainly can't guarantee the beer will be good, but you have a good chance of brewing some decent beer, providing the temp. doesn't rise much above 85 degrees F. "To cool your fermenter, you can place it in a bucket of water about 4 inches deep and fasten wet towels to the fermenter. Evaporation of water from the wick-like towels will cool the fermenter 2 to 10 degrees, depending on humidity (the drier the ambient air, the cooler) and airflow... "Well, I hope this is of some help. Good luck with the beer. Regards, Bill Moore William's Brewing." --------------------------------------------- Well, I think that is fairly useful information. I didn't hear from anyone else with the same problem, but I will probably try a batch in the next week or so, anyway. Jan Edler ..!cmcl2!edler (nyu) ..!pyuxll!jse (btl piscataway)