The warmer months pose their own challenges to the brewing process. The obstacles of warmer water from the tap and water use restrictions imposed by local authorities has lead many brewers to add to their brewing arsenal of gadgets and techniques. Hopefully one of the following suggestions will fit into your brewery or lead you to your own innovations.

NOTE OF CAUTION: When considering any benefit vs. risk with these techniques use your best judgment and do what your comfortable with.

I ran across this suggestion from a not so worried brewer:

A possible improvement for the previous idea is to use frozen containers of bottled water in your primary bucket. Using a sanitized cutting device, liberate your ice from its container and simply siphon your hot wort in with the ice. After a short wait you should have obtained a desirable pitching temperature.

For those of you just totally appalled at using a bag of ice or water from unknown and possibly dubious origins you might consider freezing a couple of gallons of pre-boiled water in sanitized sealed containers of your choosing. Place them in your bucket and add wort as before.

One method that has been used over the years is to simply soak your primary in an ice water bath. The biggest draw back with this method is the extended length of time it takes to cool.

I found that most of the extract brewers not using a chiller used ice in some fashion or another that a full boil brewer would not be able duplicate. Consider cutting back to partial boils if you use full boils. I did hear a couple of rumors that some of our lofty all grain brethren actually resort to extract brewing in the heat of the summer. The trouble with that was getting them to admit to it. This makes sense considering that an extract brew can be in the primary with in a couple of hours compared to an all grain brew session that can take all day. If your brewing out of doors in ninety and hundred degree heat it makes even more sense.

For those using chillers that need to limit the number of gallons used or circumvent inadequately warm tap water temps I came across some promising ideas.

Use a large cooler with ice water in it, use gravity or a pump to run the water through an immersion chiller submersed in your wort then return the warm water to the ice bath to cycle through again. One of my fellow Star City Brewers Guild members, Andy Lynch, is saving the condensation from his AC to use for this purpose and has reported wort cooled to under 80 deg F in fifteen minutes.

Use a pre chiller. Place an immersion chiller in an ice bath to cool the water before it gets to the immersion chiller used to cool the wort. This can be done straight from the tap or a pump can be used to create a closed system recirculating the water.

If you don't want to go the cost of or trouble of a second ciller consider using a cheap thin garden hose coiled up in a cooler with an ice bath. This idea came to me on a snowy brew day in January when I had to trudge around the corner of the house to hook up the hose for the chiller. You won't achieve the cooling rates you would get using a copper pre-chiller but just about every brewer will have a cooler and garden hose.

If using the pre-chiller concept a thermal layer will develop around the copper tubing or garden hose which will hamper your heat transfer rates, so be sure to stir the ice bath periodically. This is also true for your chiller in the wort. To increase your efficiency there gently stir the wort.

For the tinkerer, if you have a dedicated beer fridge with a separate freezer compartment perhaps you could run the cooling lines through it.

And just for those drought striken residents of the brewing world that just don't want to use ice in any way, form or fashion you can save the run off from the chiller for future sanitizing solution, doing dishes or laundry, taking a bath, watering the lawn, garden or household plants or even flushing the toilet. In other words, put the water cooling your wort to work a second time. Let it do double duty.

Many of us use gallons of sanitizing solution each brew session. Consider using bleach as you sanitizer of choice. When your through, save it and give it a booster of bleach the next time around.

By using water from AC condensation, bottled water and ice you can totally eliminate the need to use your household water all together for $10-15.

All of these ideas can help you obtain pitching temperatures faster and/or cut back on the amount of water required by each brew session. Use your imagination and ingenuity to come up with something that works for your brewery.

HBA Recommendations these recipe kits for a nice cool summer brew:
Click on the name to order now!

Honey Wheat Ale: American wheat beer devoid of banana & clove flavors associated with German counterparts due to omission of German wheat yeast. Addition of honey in boil provides beer with light sweet crisp flavor that makes a great brew for hot summer days.

Willamette Valley Golden Ale: A Golden ale with a clean crisp hoppy bite. Light to medium bodied with a nice white head. The origin of the hops used in the recipe are what gives it its name.

Bismarck Munich Helles: Named after the great German battleship because of how easily it goes down. Golden in color with a medium body, it employs the use of Tettnanger hops to bitter, flavor and finish this smooth mellow German lager.

Additional Resources:
Never Fear That Summer is Here Are you deprived of your handcrafted brew in the Fall because you're afraid it's too hot to ferment in the summer? I have brewed year-round for years.

Recommended Reading: Complete Handbook of Homebrewing by Miller
Long considered one of the essential texts on the basics of homebrewing. Miller provides an in-depth discussion of every step, from malts to mashing, haze to hops, sugars to sparging. - Miller	Click Here to order now