How do you control fermentation temps?

I use water in a igloo cube cooler with an ice pack. Thinking of getting a small chest freezer.

For the moment I leave the fermenter next to the AC vent. My beer fridge ended up being my food fridge and havent gotten around to replacing it.

I use an extra fridge with temp controller. Fits 2, 6.8 gallon buckets.
Cheers
Jay

I built an insulated box around an old dorm fridge, it will hold 2-4 fermentors or corny kegs. Haven't tried to get to lager temps over the summer, not sure it could do it. Then I use a 2 stage Love controller with a heat wrap inside the chamber, I can hold a carboy to within .5 degree if I wanted too.

swamp cooler (which i hate by the way) but moving to a small chest freezer after my stand is built

Chest freezer.
It will change your life. My beers went from Meh to :rockin:

I have a large Sterilite storage box. It holds 2 carboys. about 5 inches of water in the bottom and the jugs from my LME and 2 last about 18 hours before I switch them out. I am able to keep within a few degrees. Chest freezer with a Johnson controller are next on the list then AG.

depends what I want to achieve I use an old upright refrigerator if I want to do Ales in the lower 60's I use a chest freezer for lager's in the 35-55 range I also use the chest freezer for Keg storage. Believe it or not I have very good results with the wet t-shirt trick if I only need to drop down 2-3 degrees or so and finally I have a brew belt from northern brewer to raise temps. All the above are controled either with Love controls or Johnson A-419 controls.

The problem I have with a chest freezer is that if my beer rises above the temperature I set on my controller, the freezer will kick on until the beer goes back down below the temperature, but then afterwards the walls are still cold and continue to bring the beer down several more degrees.

This isn't a problem if you keep the probe outside the beer. The problem is, I need to keep the probe inside a thermowell because I need to know the actual temperature of the beer since I sometimes need to warm it. This is only really necessary for Belgian strong ales, which I've been making a lot lately. I keep the beer cool to start, and then warm up the freezer space with a pot of hot water until I hit desired temps. If the beer suddenly cools several degrees, it can knock the yeast out.

That's why I prefer my old system of a wall AC unit and foam insulation chamber. It kicks on, hits the desired temp, and then stops.

Right now swamp cooler. Soon an old fridge with a temp controller. I have no problem maintaining a constant temp + or - 1F with the cooler.

I have been using an igloo + water + ice bottles for a long, long time. Like at least two years, probably more. I keep talking about building a fermentation cabinet, and in fact I think my wife wants me to, but I have struggled with designing one that works logistically and fits in the space it needs to go.

Also I have never had a problem hitting my target fermentation temps using my current setup. I do have to swap out bottles a couple of times per day, but it's not really a big deal since I check on it anyway to make sure things are going as expected.

Chest freezer and a temperature controller. I keep the probe outside the fermenting beer and have an insulated digital thermometer probe taped to the carboy. I'm beyond happy with this setup. I can start with the freezer set to the desired pitch temp, then ~8 hours later I can make an adjustment or two to dial the fermenting beer in to the exact temp I want. As fermentation slows down after a few days, I can start upping the temp on the controller a few degrees per day. So easy, and a world of difference in my ales!

I use a fermentation chamber made from recycled PC packaging foam (made some kids that work for me break it down to little pieces "so it would fit in the bin!") To this I have connected a insulated hose to the freezer of the beer fridge and a fan with a temp controller is used to pull cool air out of the freezer. I'm still getting a thermowell step up (gotta find a tig welder) so I have adjusted the temps to switch off get cooler at the start of fermentation and then allow it to be warmer at the end of fermentation when the temp difference between the middle of wort and the thermometer outside the wort is less. As I'm using a microprocessor and temp probe that I made I have that luxury of twisting the program to suit my brew.

Clem

I have an upright freezer now, mostly for lagers, but I also use it for ales in the summer. In the winter, I put my ales in a rubbermaid about half-way filled with water, and use a 2-stage temperature controller to run a fishtank heater and a fan. I can keep it at 68º - where I ferment all my ales - no problem with that setup in the winter.

I thought of a great idea, tried it out and wanted to share:

Aquarium Fermentation

Supplies
15-20 gallon container ~ $6
Adjustable fish tank heater ~$23
10-20 gallon fish tank circulation pump ~ $10

As I already had 2/3 of these items, it was a fairly cheap setup. My basement is too cold (58F) for ales, so I made this setup and it holds the carboy at a constant 70F on the dot! Just fill the tub up about 3/4 the way, and when you put in the carboy with the wort, it will displace the water to near the top. I took apart the pump because I didn't need the filter and all the other junk that comes with it. Just need it to help circulate the water.

This works amazingly well, and I would highly recommend it if in need of a heating supply. It's about the same price as those junk heater pads, and works 10x better.

bigbeergeek said:

Chest freezer and a temperature controller. I keep the probe outside the fermenting beer and have an insulated digital thermometer probe taped to the carboy. I'm beyond happy with this setup. I can start with the freezer set to the desired pitch temp, then ~8 hours later I can make an adjustment or two to dial the fermenting beer in to the exact temp I want. As fermentation slows down after a few days, I can start upping the temp on the controller a few degrees per day. So easy, and a world of difference in my ales!

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+1.

I absolutely love my freezers with STC-1000 controllers. One is now a keezer. The other (upright) is in the basement as a fermentation chamber.

Jaybird said:

I use an extra fridge with temp controller. Fits 2, 6.8 gallon buckets.
Cheers
Jay

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+1 works great, I tape the probe to the bucket then tape a piece of the air bag packing material amazon uses over the probe. Temp on controller agrees very well with the acquarium thermometer strip on the bucket.

I ferment in my basement. The floor is at 58deg and I use a fermwrap with a STC-1000 to keep my temps within +/-1 deg. The floor provides the cooling aspect and the wrap and controller keep it where it's set to.

i have a true commercial refridge and a ranco 2 stage controller i use a hydrofarm 45 watt seedling heat pad (cost $38 at walmart) to warm things up so far so good

Ferm chamber. Dorm fridge keeps it cold. Mini ceramic heater keeps it warm.

Dual stage Ranco, 2 brew belts, & a refrigerator in a basement "clean room"

I found a wine fridge at a thrift store for $12 (they thought it was broken because it iced up on the back wall=]) that will hold one bucket or carboy and I added an A419 Johnson controller. I also use the Hydrofarm seedling heat mats (the smaller ones that cost around $20 work fine for me) and the $35 Hydrofarm controller with thermocouple sensor and digital controls works great for ale temps and was WAAAY cheaper than a Johnson or Ranco. I really want a dual stage controller, though keeping the fridge on and the temp controller connected to the heat mat works perfectly. Once the most active part of fermentation is over I move the carboy out of the fridge and keep the heat mat on until active fermentation is over. I just rotate my two heat mats and one fridge to different brews in different stages of fermentation. Ideally I would have a chest freezer or fridge as a dedicated ferm chamber, but right now I don't have the space or scratch. I also use a big plastic tub and frozen bottles of water if I do multiple brews or a 10 gal batch. Gotta say it is MUCH easier to control temps since moving from Texas to Colorado!

dogwolf said:

i have a true commercial refridge and a ranco 2 stage controller i use a hydrofarm 45 watt seedling heat pad (cost $38 at walmart) to warm things up so far so good

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Sorry for the resurrection! But did you find the seedling pad sufficient? Was it better taped and wrapped around the bottle or did you sit your fermenter directly on the mat?

Thank you!

Chest freezer with a digital temperature controller. Best brewing investment that I've ever made.

Darwin18 said:

Chest freezer with a digital temperature controller. Best brewing investment that I've ever made.

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Would you post a photo of that? I'd love get an idea.

I've heard that leaving standing water out in the open basically provides a breeding ground for mosquitos and other little flying SOBs. Is that a risk with a swamp cooler, or do the low temperatures prevent that?

SquidPope said:

I've heard that leaving standing water out in the open basically provides a breeding ground for mosquitos and other little flying SOBs. Is that a risk with a swamp cooler, or do the low temperatures prevent that?

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Swamp coolers generally are closed structures:



while I guess some mosquito might make it into the chamber (God knows I find enough random bugs in enclosed light fixtures each year), generally this is usually found by the unwinterized or unused cooler. Any eggs from that mosquito would probably be sucked into the pump, deposited uptop the filter, and dehydrated by the next day's sun. I fear mold more than the mosq...

:rockin:

I put my 6.5 gallon ferm bucket in a mini fridge with a temp controller.

cannman said:

Would you post a photo of that? I'd love get an idea.

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This is what I do as well. It's pretty straightforward. Buy a chest freezer, use an aftermarket controller, and put the beer in it. Pics are below. The white box is an eva-dry. Keeps the moisture level down when it's running. The bottle with the red cap is cheap vodka for the airlock. The black wire the temp probe from the controller. I just drilled a hole in the wall and ran the wire through. The device with the numbers on it is the temp controller. They are about $20 and super easy to wire in. You basically bypass the factory controls and it cycles the compressor according to the temp the probe reads.

SquidPope said:

I've heard that leaving standing water out in the open basically provides a breeding ground for mosquitos and other little flying SOBs. Is that a risk with a swamp cooler, or do the low temperatures prevent that?

Click to expand...

No I would use something in the water to keep it sanitary. A bit of bleach or use star-san for the water.

eric19312 said:

+1 works great, I tape the probe to the bucket then tape a piece of the air bag packing material amazon uses over the probe. Temp on controller agrees very well with the acquarium thermometer strip on the bucket.

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What kind of tape do you use? I tried a few types of tapes but they come off because of the dampness around bucket.

urg8rb8 said:

What kind of tape do you use? I tried a few types of tapes but they come off because of the dampness around bucket.

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I use blue painter's tape. I also use an eva-dry to keep the moisture level down.

Works like a champ!

Cheers,
--
Don

idylldon said:

Works like a champ!

Cheers,
--
Don

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Would you mind describing what we're looking at and how it works?

LovesIPA said:

Would you mind describing what we're looking at and how it works?

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It's a 20-gallon jacketed fermenter (I bought the vessel and added the jacket myself) coupled to an AC powered glycol chilling unit I built (like many others on here). I have the glycol set to 25F with a 6-degree differential and the fermenter set to whatever is needed for the yeast strain with a 1-degree differential. There's a small submersible pump in the glycol tank that runs when the AC kicks on to circulate the glycol around the evaporator. When the fermenter thermostat kicks on, a larger submersible pump sends the glycol to the jacket on the fermenter.

The fermenter and chiller are connected with quick disconnects because I also use this chiller with my 32-gallon Speidel fermenter when I double batch.

I can easily do lager fermentation temps at any time of the year. Even with a high ambient temperature, the AC unit doesn't run very often.

Cheers,
--
Don

Very interesting. I will follow-up in your thread I just found.

Love it

I have a $25 chest freezer that I bought off Craigslist. I also have a $19 STC-1000 temp controller.

The STC-1000 is plugged into a GFCI outlet in my basement. The chest freezer is plugged into the 'cool' plug of the STC-1000. A heating pad is wrapped around one side of the bucket and is plugged into the 'heat' plug of the STC-1000. On the opposite side of the bucket I have the STC-1000 temp probe against the side of the bucket. The probe is under 1" of cloth to isolate it from outside air. The heating pad and the cloth/probe are held on with 2 bungee cords wrapped around the bucket.

I also have a jar of crystal kitty litter in the bottom of the freezer to absorb humidity.

I love this set up and the temps of the wort are dead on as measured with an IR thermometer. I also painted the outside of the chest freezer with chalkboard paint (outside was pretty beat looking). My intention was to write the contents on it. Turns out my kids just like to draw stuff on it with driveway chalk.

I can now make lagers in the summer and hefes in the winter.