Styles/yeasts with minimal Temp control

Saisons, Hefeweizens, Cali Common (for a lager strain)

 

What temps can you control?

 

Almost all yeast and styles benefit from temperature control, and I would strongly suggest that you manage temperature as best you can with whatever means you have at your disposal, even if it's only the good ol' "wet t-shirt trick."

But to answer your question, I would say that the "Chico strain" (WY 1056, WLP001, or SF05) tends to ferment pretty clean over a wide range of temperatures, and it can be used for many American styles. And most saison yeasts thrive at high temperatures, so if you think your temps are likely to skew high that might be another one to try.

I would emphatically not encourage you to use a hefe yeast without temp control, unless you really, really like the taste and aroma of bananas and don't mind cleaning up all the excess krausen that's likely to spew forth from an overheated carboy. And I would also stay away from most English strains, as you're liable to get either under attenuation or obnoxious levels of esters, depending on whether your temp was too low or high. And needless to say, lagers are out of the question if you can't manage temps.

 

Who doesn't like banana bombs?

 

It helps if you make the body heavier with oats and jack up the ABV to like 6.5%

 

I'm glad you said "ok" and not "best." I don't ferment anything without temp control, but if I had to, it would probably be saisons (either major yeast strain). I wouldn't even put other Belgians in that category, because fermentation character (and avoiding fusel-bombs) is pretty important to those styles. Of course that's also important in Saisons, but the "best" temp range for them is debatable and the range of ok temps is very broad.

 

Me, for one. I like to ferment my hefes around 62F, where I get lots of pepper and clove and just a hint of banana. Plus, at that low temp I can sometimes manage to keep the krausen from blowing the top off my carboy the way hefe yeasts like to do.

But, to each his own.