This month’s Fermentation Friday is hosted by the Brew Dudes. They ask a very simple, yet confounding question: How do you beat the heat of summertime brewing?
Brewing in the warmer, often hot, temperatures of the summer months has been an issue with not just homebrewers but all brewers since, I don’t know, the history of brewing (one could argue). The issue with brewing on hot days is temperature control. One of the most obvious issues with brewing on a hot day is cooling down your wort fast enough. Back when I used to use and ice bath, it would take hours and bags and bags of ice to finally cool the wort down enough to be able to pitch your yeast. Brewing in the evenings helped out some but it was still an issue. On the other end of the spectrum and not to much later after cooling, fermenting too hot will wind up with a lot of yeast character you may or may not want in your beer.
Traditionally, the Germans have avoided the issue of brewing in the summer heat by not brewing in the summer heat. They would brew their beers in the fall, winter and spring completely avoiding the summer altogether. The very idea of storing their beers in cool caves, or lagering, during the warm summer months to consume in the fall is well documented. The Belgians on the other hand have decided to just go along with the heat and brew year round. As a result, their beers often have a huge estery profile and tons of yeast character.
As a homebrewer, the cheapest (and arguably most fun) way of beating the heat would be to brew with it. Worded slightly differently, I could brew seasonally. I could brew Belgian-style beers during the summer to take advantage of the warmer fermentation temperatures needed for those styles. Instead of fighting mother nature, I could just roll with her flow.
Of course I can get stubborn as well and just fight it. I managed to pick up a spare fridge my local homebrew store wanted to get rid of. I slapped a temperature control unit to it so I can accurately control what temperature I want my fermentation to be as well. By having a spare fridge with temperature control, I am able to brew lagers during the summer months. When not in use, I simply unplug the machine to save energy.
Truth be told, when faced with the brewing options I do have, I tend to brew seasonally. Even though I may be restricted somewhat to what types of beers I can brew with I feel this is how brewers did things traditionally. Often times we (people in general) try and force the issue too much or bend things to our will. This can cause unnecessary grief and harm when there doesn’t need to be.
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