Brewing Beer Without an External Heat Source

Would be interested in extracting the heat from the environ-air? If that is acceptable to you, then you certainly can do that: Extract the air which will give you both hot air for boiling and cold air for chilling. Now there...

Of course, I take it that what you eman by "external heat source", is a means of heating without the use of the heat of the surrounding air. If not then well the basis of my suggestion is inapplicable to your situation.

I have seen a guy dig a hole fill it with saw dust, enough to surround a 50 gal plastic barrel about 2 ft. The heat grom the saw dust provied the cooking for his brew.

A GA for the best answer I have seen while reading from the top, short, accurate and covers all bases. Will be hard to beat!

Just a note about the importance of boiling:

Apart from extracting the flavors, boiling also ensures that any wild yeasts or other microorganisms are killed, so that the wort is an 'empty niche' for the proper brewing yeast that you add to it.

Otherwise you could end up with something nasty!

Best of luck.

Hello

I have always used beer kits with excellent results when working overseas.That is a perfect temperature to get things going.Just drop in your yeast and sugar and it takes about 3 or 4 days to work down.Could you not just add yeast and let it ferment on its own.

Good luck

thank you all for your comments, particularly billvelek

all I want is to make beer with minimum energy (heating and cooling) and with minimum risk

1) will try hopped flavor extract mixed in with 5 gallon of water (no boil - from tap)

2) short boil small amount of water add hop for aroma (not sure to trust the extract)

3) mix 1) & 2)

4) cool the mix

5) pitch in the yeast (re-hydrated)

6) will see what happens - hope for no contaminates/wild yeast&bacteria

I just noticed that you said that your environment is 85F to 105F. That is _WAY_ too warm to ferment beer, so untiil you can come up with a way to drop it to at least below 75F, you're beer is likely to contain a lot of fusel alcohols and esters. Esters are not really the problem since your whole approach is likely to produce very substandard beer to begin with; all the esters will do is add a very fruity flavor to your beer. The problem is going to be the fusel alcohols, which usually begin to develope at a noticeable level if you ferment above 75F. Fermenting at 85F is a virtual guarantee that you will have loads of fusels, and approaching 100F it will probably be like turpentine. Seriously, I learned my lesson the hard way by fermenting one year when we were having a bit of trouble with our A.C. and the room was getting up to about 78F. I would develope horrible headaches after drinking just one bottle of beer from that batch -- had to toss it out. Believe me, you can go to any brewing forum and ask any of the experienced brewers, and I'm sure they will tell you that if you're going to be fermenting as hot as you've suggested, then you're just wasting your time and money. Seriously.

The _ideal_ fermentation temp for most ale yeasts is 68F; but I've consistently made pretty good beer at room temps of 72 or 73F; I try to not let it get above that. Be aware that fermentation generates heat, and the more vigorous it is, the more heat will be generated -- and the higher the temp, the more vigorous it will be. So if you ferment at a room temp as low as 85F, you will have a very fast fermentation which could raise the temp perhaps as much as another 3 or 4 degrees. You can help fight all of that by using evaporative cooling; set your fermenter in a tub or pan of cool water and wrap your fermenter with a wet towel that will wick the water from the tub as it evaporates. That should drop the temp a few degrees and perhaps compensate for the heat generated by the fermentation, but I'm warning you that under no circumstances is it going to be worthwhile if you're going to be fermenting in the 80s.

I'll be waiting to hear from the vets from Iraq who made beer in the hot desert in their canteens. ;-)

Cheers.

Bill Velek

I would have to agree with you completely bill, GA.

This approach is a total waist of time and money. I'm not even sure you could get the extract to dissolve without boiling. I think contamination is highly likely, on several levels. Contaminated wort, contamination from the hops, and contamination from unclean bottling.

And yes, those temps. are way to high. There's a very good reason why traditionally beer was brewed in cooler climates, and wine in warmer places.

So, if your unwilling to do it right, why bother?

Make wine instead, you'll have better luck, maybe, cleanliness is important there too.

Proper hygiene has always been important in producing a safe good tasting product when brewing, whether wine or beer is unimportant.

But as you and several others have posted, temperature DOES play an important role in making sure that no "wild" yeasts come into play and produce "bad spirits".

Every year since 1983 I have made Apple Wine here in Germany, its almost part of the "Staple" diet of this region around Frankfurt a.Main. It has more to do with Cider from a British standpoint than true Wine though......( I won the yearly contest in 1988 and am usually placed in the first 5 of around 14 contestants!)

The friends who use a warm cellar to brew produce the worst wine generally......slow but sure seems to do it better, why should beer be any different? Our brewing cellar is under a garage and not heated at all, even when it gets close to -30°C as it did a few weeks ago!

This is an interesting Blog (for a change!), I will follow further.....

Bill...........why don't you post your formulas on a topics blog so it doesn't get lost in traffic?

I've been trying pilsner style brewing that has so far been anything but. My wife says the plants like it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "formulas". And the only reason I posted here -- in 'CR4' -- is because the question was asked here. I already do a lot of posting in forums dedicated specifically to brewing, such as the UseNet group -- rec.crafts.brewing -- and many others. In fact, I formed my own groups about 'brewing equipment' (1,180 members) and 'growing hops' (2,570 members), and I also started a website titled "Learn Science by Brewing Beer", but haven't had the time to finish it. All can be found through my web-portal: www.tinyurl.com/29zr8r

As for brewing pilsners, I've never tried to do one during my 12 years of brewing because of the special refrigeration equipment that is needed for lagers; I presume that you realize that a pilsner is a lager and not an ale. If you don't, then that's probably why your wife is turning your plants into alcoholics.

I'm not designating this post as 'off topic' because I think the original poster could use the resources I've mentioned.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

Hi Bill

...the reason I asked was because this particular lot of Cr4 ers have some interesting ways and means (and contraptions) to get on with getting things done.

I do like the lagers but am at the point where the closest to me must be purchased a fifty mile drive distance.

Otherwise my brews continue to feed the plants (after sitting around for a few months).

Incidentally, I grow my own hops that originally came from the Czech Republic.