"Correct" Fermentation Temps

It is not just me that is concerned about the increase of wild yeast during the summer months. Alternative Beverage (online homebrew vendor) states: “While brewing during the summer months allows for the greatest exposure to wild yeasts and bacterial infections…”

I mentioned in my prior post that there are strategies which can be adopted to mitigate the aspects of increased wild yeast but the fact remains that during the summer there is more wild yeast in the ambient air.

“I also think it's a little hasty to blame wild yeast for an over-carbonation problem,…” Dr. Tobias Fischborn of Lallemand (Danstar) kindly performed an analysis of the English Ale that I mentioned in my prior post. The good news was that there was very low bacterial count in that beer but unfortunately the wild yeast count was not low.

Feel free to homebrew during the summer. That is your choice.

Cheers!

 

Yeah, with belgian strains you should be just fine there.

 

Heh, that reminds me of an old joke illustrating the importance of only asking questions you know the answer to. A lawyer is cross-examining the police officer who pulled over his client for drunk driving. The lawyer says, "How long have you been a police officer?"

"6 months."

"And how many times have you pulled someone over for drunk driving?"

"Twice."

(should have stopped there, but...)

"Then what experience do you have that could possibly qualify you to assess my client's level of drunkenness?" (Lawyer is smirking at this point.)

"My 17 years as a bartender."

The lab evidence is pretty compelling. That said, I think this kind of thing is very rare and most people don't let it stop them from brewing in the summer. Certainly it's not something that even enters my mind. Possibly NYC has less wild yeast than more bucolic settings might have, although again, it's not something I've ever seen anyone mention on these forums.

 

“…it's not something I've ever seen anyone mention on these forums.” Well, you read it today.

It is entirely your choice whether you want to pay heed on this topic in your personal homebrewing. I would suggest that statements like “Lightning deaths are also much more common in the summer” are inappropriate for this particular discussion topic.

Cheers!

 

I think that analogy was dead on.

 

You would.

 

My pun aside, minderbender's alalogy was about perfect. Does the mention of lightning deaths offend your sensibilities?

 

Are you saying that you had an infection and that Lallemand cultured the yeast from your actual beer and confirmed it?

 

I brew outside, year round. Your window open doesn't help, nor harm anything. We aren't brewing in sterile rooms. Don't read into the super small stuff. Just brew beer and be as clean and sanitary as you can, and you will almost always make good beer with sound practice and recipes.

Beyond that, I can't even count how many breweries I've been to that have open garage door type openings to their brew houses to get some air in there. They aren't using some high end HEPA filters to filter the air going into the brewhouse to keep their shorts dry, I assure you. They don't seem to be worried about wild airborne yeast, and they are packaging beer that could/would be sitting on shelves for any period of time. Not like us, who will have that batch gone sooner, rather than later.