Brewing at 1 degree?

[Mer-man]

And by that I mean 1 degree above the equator, where it is generally 28-30 degrees C.
I have a (relative) cold room that is 24 C.
I can get Coopers kits locally. Anyone have warm weather experience with Coopers?

 

[Pie_Man]

Welcome to the forum.

Saisons will do alright at that temperature. Ideally, you will want some form of temperature control for fermentation. Search the forum for swamp coolers (low tech) and temperature controlled fermentation chambers.

 

[Mer-man]

Will a saison still be prone to the fruity flavors of high temperature fermentation?

 

[Cyclman]

Saisons naturally have lots of esters, fruity / flowery flavors. A big bucket, some frozen 2L water bottles rotated out 2x a day you'd be surprised how much you can lower your fermentation temps. You could easily do a lager with this technique.

 

[Mer-man]

Ahh, good tip. I will try that!

 

[Mer-man]

My concern there would be contamination. Are you putting the bottles in the wort?

 

[flars]

My concern there would be contamination. Are you putting the bottles in the wort?

The bottles of ice would go into the tub of water that the fermentor is sitting in.
Check out the Photos tab - Yeast and Fermentation for swamp coolers.

 

[Mer-man]

Cool

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

You can also try a Sawmp cooler. Carboy in bucket of water with t-shirt over it to act like a water wick, thus alowing evaporation to cool it down a few degrees.

Also, Mauribrew ale yeast is the must high temperature tolerant yeast I have seen.

 

[Mer-man]

So I am on day 10 in the FV of my second brew.

I am doing a Cooper's Pilsener, 1Kg LDME, 300g dextrose, and 13g bagged Saaz hops added on day 5.

I aerated the heck out of the water. My FV is sitting in a 100L tupperware box half-filled with water that I got down to 18 degrees C. The A/C is blowing on the exposed water and keeping the temp at 18.x.

I am really pleased with how stable the temperature has been and fermentation has been effective. I pitched at 21, then lowered to 18. OG was 1044, and last night (day 9) SG was 1009. Also, I rehydrated the yeast from the 7g packet.

It even tastes like a hoppy lager. Next time I'm doing an IPA recipe (probably a Cooper's, as that's what is available here in Singapore).

Thanks for the help! My takeaway is that this massive heatsink approach works well.