Should I Make A Swamp Cooler

Hey everyone, Noob here.

On my third batch (Winter Ale with Wyyeast 1728) and the temperature range for the yeast is 55-75. Made the beer yesterday and the airlock is bubbling pretty frequently. The temperature of the room is between 66-70 degrees depending on when my heat activates. The beer seems to be at about 67 or 68 degrees. I have never attempted making a swamp cooler but it seems pretty basic. I didn't know if I should try it or if I should leave this batch go with my current temperature ranges. If I should do it, would putting the fermenter in a large plastic bin, filling it a couple of inches with cold water, and then placing a t shirt over the fermenter and have it hanging into the water be enough? Also, how does mold develop as a result of the cooler? It is fermenting in a storage room in my apartment that is really dark.

Thanks,
N

If you have a Target nearby, go buy one of these for $6.99 and get 4 plastic soda bottles It's an 18 gallon tub. You should definitely try it as controlling your fermentation temps is very important. No molds with this tub, water doesn't stink, etc. In fact my dog prefers gulping from the tub rather than his fresh water I put down every morning. DOH!

Stick your fermenter in the tub and fill with water until the water level in the tub equals the wort level in the fermenter. Put water in all 4 soda bottles and freeze overnight. Put 2 frozen bottles in the tub in the morning, then swap with 2 frozen at night. You can easily keep your temps in the 60-64 range with this cheap & easy method. :

http://www.target.com/dp/B002C0VBB8/ref=sc_qi_img_viewdetails?ie=UTF8&title=view full details

Isn't all that complcated.





I've never had a mold issue in mine, but if you're worry you can just add a few drops of bleach, or even starsan in the water.

Yes, you should use one. Temperature control is of outmost importance. Anythign that can hold a decent amount of water can be used, even something like a clean garbage can or storage bins.

i have the same set up and i can tell you it works like a charm!! its cheap and easy and even when it get really hot you can keep them temp down with this method.

Ok so i got it set up in a plastic bin but how much water should be used?

Well that's really not a precise thing to be concerned about. You don't want too much water to slash around and make a mess if you move it, or if you displace it by the fementers. If you look at my pictures you should be able to see. I used a little less for the time I had the mr beer fermenter in there, and higher when it was just buckets. But really it's not rocket science. If you have t-shirts, they will wick the water up higher. The second pic it looks like I filled it to just below or to that edge that circles around the bin.

Thanks Revvy! I have read a lot from your other threads and have learned a lot!!!

I try to get my water level to the beer line or slightly below it, to avoid having buoyancy in my fermentation vessels. If I have two fermenters with different levels of beer in them, I stop caring, use whatver water level I'm happy about and have a beer.