First batch this weekend!

I am totally new to this whole brewing thing! I bought a nice kit this passed weekend with a glass carboy and so forth. I will be brewing a nice Nut Brown Ale from a kit for my first attempt. My question is though, I know the desired temp for fermentation should be around 68, I live in the northern suburbs of GA where the temps are currently in the low 80's. I don't have a basement, so I would either need to store my carboy in the garage or a closet in the house. But my concern is in either place, won't the temps vary greatly depending on the time of day? We do have the windows open currently with the air off since it has been nice and cool in the evenings. Any help would be great!! I was thinking about getting a 55 gallon drum to store my carboy in for fermentation and place it in the garage, but not sure if the temp would still be very consistent. HELP!!! THANKS

GABrewBoy

Welcome to the boards, GA. Good luck on your first brew.

There's a few options for keeping the carboy cool. One way would be to get a plastic tub large enough to fit the carboy in, fill it with water, and keep a schedule for replacing ice packs in the tub.

Also, Ales are pretty forgiving in MANY aspects and I have brewed several batches recently with the temp being about 77 degrees. They have come out fine, even though the "ideal" temperature was almost 10 degrees lower than this.

The large water bath with ice will work pretty well. Another option is to sit the fermenter in a shallow water bath and wrap it in a large damp towel. Let the towel touch the water in your pan. Blow air on the thing with a fan. The water in the towel will be wicked up and evaoprate (much like when you sweat) and this will cool the fermenter off, too.

I've never done either of these things, but some people live by these methods.

I lucked out recently and now have an old fridge in the garage that I can use for my fermenters (It can hold two of them) and I can keep that baby solid at whatever temp I want.

-walker

Thanks for these great tips!!! I will give these a try. I might just have to invest in a fridge myself, a nice garage fridge that is cheap but still works good......

GABrewBoy

check out craigslist.org to see if someone in your area might be getting rid of an old fridge. You might get lucky and be able to pick on up for a relatively low price.

-walker

Very cool!! Thanks for that website....I totally forgot about Craigslist as a way to get a fridge or junk..... :cross: