When I posted in a FB group a while back about brewing a saison, someone said to keep it in my garage (which I don't have). Can I do that on my balcony if it is in a bucket, provided heat does not go over extremes?
Yes. It's going to be tricky in Texas. If you do this make sure you throw a blanket over the whole thing. You don't want any light getting in there. This might do best if you get it into a Tupperware of water. It will help stabilize the temperature over the course of the day. My biggest concern would be the temperature swings from midday to midnight. Do you have a sunny window sill?
It really depend on your yeast and just how far you want to push the envelope. I don't know where you are in Texas, but it's still way too hot here in Austin for me to want to ferment anything outside.Too high a temp and you may end up with fusel alcohols. The other issue is that it's a good idea to keep the temperature fluctuations to a minimum if possible. You may try the 'swamp cooler' method. I used that for the first half dozen or so batches when I started brewing.
After I thought about this a bit more and I think my balcony may get a bit too much sun and if I did do this. I think I would need to wait till late October when I start to see 80's for highs. The frustrating thing of this is that my balcony does not get enough direct sun to grow veggies! But, that is a great idea for making a swamp cooler to stabilize the temp fluctuations and filter light @inchrisin I'm in Huntsville @ChuckHardslab . Latitude wise we are at the same place. Temp wise we are the same, but it is a touch more humid here I would imagine since Austin borders the hill country and Huntsville is on the border of the East piney woods and coastal region. Using a siason yeast will definitely take mid 80's temps. I was told it would take up to 90 in a garage, so.... who knows. Making a small batch to see what happens would be a nice experiment.
The last Saison I did was fermented in my office under a workbench with no temp control at all. I keep my office at about 76-78 degrees ambient and the beer turned out just fine. Do you have an indoor closet you could use? Just make sure you use a blow off tube or at least keep it in a big basin in case it overflows the airlock.
Ya sure I could do that. But I was curious about brewing outside. If anyone else had, what they've done. Pitfalls to avoid. Etc. Etc. On a side note: I had read recently that it is common to use saison yeast to make cider. And I was going to do just that at ambient temps in my apt. At a yet to be determined time. Probably in a couple-ish weeks or so. If I have time. Renfaire is in a month! Woot woot!
Hey corb, im from Panama City, Panama. Here the temp is around 80F and thats why i decided to make a saison, using the wyeast 3724. Its been 4 and a half weeks since i brew this one and i just left it next to the window where the sun hits harder during the day. After 5 week i will bottle, dont know if the beer will be done, i see some bubbling from time to time but i just decide to be patient and just wait and see. Ill update on monday which is a day after bottling and ill let you know about my experience by just leaving the tank outside.
Setting aside the high temperature issue, the fluctuation between daytime and nighttime temps might also be a problem
