Fermentation control

Hi, up to this point I have been making ale just leaving my carboy in the basement to ferment. The results have been mostly good. But now I am hoping to move into some lower temps for fermentation. (my basement goes between 65 and 75.)

I was wondering what people used for controlling the wort temp during fermentation at lower temps.

I looked into a small dorm type refrigerator but they lacked the temp setting control or the size for more than a small container. Is there a model that would work?

Thanks!

You need to get a temp controller like this: http://morebeer.com/view_product/16666//Ranco_Digital_Temperature_Controller_-_Wired

Then you can use a chest freezer, dorm fridge, or whatever you want.

if you want something a little more economical you could try using a keg bucket or garbage can filled with water and swap out ice bottles and add a fan if needed.

I pitch cool in the mid sixties and let it free rise to the low to mid seventies until it starts to naturally fall when I turn on the fermwrap to keep it there and ramp a few more degrees. This is for Belgians of course though.

How low are you wanting to keep the fermentation temps? I've found that a bare concrete basement floor can conduct a lot of heat away. Depending on the season you can get down to lagering temps just by setting a glass carboy on a concrete basement floor.

In experiments with a growler full of water I see a 10 degree or more difference between sitting on the basement floor and sitting on a wooden shelf 3 feet directly above.

If you're just looking for more precision, then of course the answer is a fridge of some sort and a temperature controller.

Do you have a budget for this?

To second what folks above have said, buying a pre-made temperature controller and a fridge/freezer/etc will definitely get the job done. You're going to need some kind of an external temperature controller, since very few fridges or freezers are going to have built in settings to maintain anything much higher than 30'sF.

However, if you're a little handy and enjoy tinkering, do some searches on this site for the ebay temperature controller - I built mine for around $50, which is a LOT cheaper than I could find a pre-made 2 stage (heating and cooling) temperature controller. Also, search for threads on fermentation chambers - like mine </shameless plug>. They can be as simple as an extension of a dorm fridge built from rigid styrofoam insulation or small rooms with modified air conditioning units attached. Mine falls somewhere between those two extremes, and is currently happily fermenting away 10 gallons of a bock at 10C (about 50F).

Thanks all for the responses.

To answer a few questions: I dont have a budget for this really. I'd rather not spend 1000 dollars but if I can get something perfect for a few hundred I can drone out the wife's " I can't believe you spent xxx on that" while marveling at it running. If I can get something that does the job adequately for 50, all the better.

The basement floor option is out really. My basement is almost all finished and the only space that remains bare concrete is the small patch where the washer, dryer, heat and hot-water are... Very inconsistent temp there.

As for seasons I live in new England so what the temp will be outside on any given day is anyone's guess. I'd like to be able to brew whatever comes to mind regardless of the out door conditions.

Based on the posts I'm thinking the external temp controller is decent but it leaves me with the continuing issue of space in the refrigerator. I've looked at a few of the larger mini fridges and they all seem to have an internal shape that would make it impossible to hold a carboy. Does anyone have a recommendation regarding the actual fridge. Will it have to be a full sized? Maybe a chest style freezer would work?

Thanks!

Chest freezers definitely work, or check out the link in my post above for another idea involving a dorm fridge and an insulated plywood box.

I've been reading your thread in small pieces. There is a lot of content to get through!

Don't underestimate the so-called "swamp cooler", but use a true cooler and not a rubbermaid tub or something that is uninsulated. I use one of the 60 qt Ice Cube coolers and keep my carboy in a water bath. I can ferment at just about any temperature I want, and it maintains within a few degrees, even lager fermentations. For lager fermentations, once down to temp, I'll swap out a 2 quart bottle of ice every 12 hours in my cool basement and maintain 50 degrees very well. For ales, a half liter bottle (empty water bottle) of ice, sometimes 2, will maintain low to mid 60's. Just did Yoopers Dead Guy and it held 60 quite nicely. If you do this, a couple of pointers: Fill up the cooler/water bath to the height of the wort/beer in the carboy - gives you good thermal mass. Put a few splashes of bleach in the water bath, this gets nasty if you don't. Put some salt in your frozen water bottles, helps with lower freezing temp and they will then slightly sink in the water bath.
You can get one of these coolers for fairly cheap, much cheaper than a dedicated fridge and temp controller, and you have a fairly decent cooler when it's not used for fermenting. If you have a very regular schedule, swapping out bottles isn't that much of a pain.

elleric said:

I've been reading your thread in small pieces. There is a lot of content to get through!

Click to expand...

Gotcha - if you peek around the site, you'll find several shapes and sizes of the same kind of thing as I built. They're pretty cool because you can build them to whatever size you need, but it'd be admittedly a lot easier to just pick up a chest freezer. I happen to like tooling around my workshop, so it was a fun little project for me. But I'll readily admit that, had I taken a little time watching Craigslist, I probably could've come up with a chest freezer for the same, or maybe a little less, money than I spent building my chamber.