Cooling fermenters

Hey everybody, I was wondering what would be a good way to keep my fermenters cool. I don't really want to have to try to keep my apartment at 65 degrees all summer, so what would be a more effective way to keep my fermentation buckets cool? Needs to be relatively cheap and small since I am a college student living in an apartment.

I have seen a few plans for making boxes out of Styrofoam and just putting in frozen water bottles to cool. Has anybody tried this and how well does it work. Any other suggestions?

The insulated box you're referring to is widely know as 'Son of Fermentation Chiller'. Here's a link to a PDF file for the build if you're interested.

Here's some HBT reviews of the build.

Swamp Coolers are another option. Here's a good thread on them.

Fid said:

The insulated box you're referring to is widely know as 'Son of Fermentation Chiller'. Here's a link to a PDF file for the build if you're interested.

Here's some HBT reviews of the build.

Swamp Coolers are another option. Here's a good thread on them.

Click to expand...

I was actually looking at something like this http://www.bayareamashers.org/gadgets/Jim's minimalist fermentation chiller.pdf which is a simpler version of the Son of Fermentation Chiller, but the swamp chiller might be even easier/cheaper. Only problem with it is that it can't warm things up in the winter.

You can put it in a shallow bath and wrap a towel around or put a t-shirt over it or both and the evaporation will drop it a few degrees. Through some ice in the bath once and a while doent hurt..
Happy brewing
The dog

There's a vendor starting out with a new fermentation cooler. Looks like a softside sack that I cannot confirm or deny its effectiveness. Its cool-brewing. From what I've seen in the vendor showcase here, it would be a good fit for an apartment dweller. Not sure when they will be available tho.

edit: They just became available.

https://www.cool-brewing.com/

+1 to the swamp cooler

Also I freeze 2 gallon jugs of water so I can use them 1 at a time during peak fermentation

Swamp cooler is perfect for the situation you are in. A large tub and a tee shirt - a fan if you want to get fancy and help get things a little cooler.

Do the "son of" build only if your trying to pick up chicks with your incredible innovative ways to make beer and have some time to dork around and money to buy some materials.

Either way .... Do one or the other and do it fast cause a room temp fermented brew is a terrible thing.

Here's mine:



I made a lid out of foam (it's four layers) and kept the old lid to use the cooler as a cooler when it's not a fermentation chamber. I add a water bath and a couple of frozen water bottles to keep it cool. I exchange the bottles every day, but that's all I have to do. I float a thermometer in the water, to judge temperature.

In the winter, if I have to heat it (rare), I add a $10 aquarium heater to the water bath and leave out the frozen water bottles.

My set up is like Yooper's except that I have a heavy peice of vinyl table cloth with a hole cut in it for the carboy. About as cheap and easy as you can get.


Hey Yooper, I just tried NOT using a water bath and placed the frozen water bottles (2-3) in the bottom of the cooler. Temp via thermometer strip on the carboy was a rock steady targeted 68 degrees. Room temp was 70 at night to 74ish day. I'm not sure this will work in the summer (I live in Texas) but it worked fine on my Hefe and saved me a little work.

Pez.

I also like the swamp cooler as others have stated. I did the simplest version of it, basically a tub with ice water, a wet shirt over the fermenter, and a fan blowing on it.

The only downside I saw was that it futzes with my fermometer. I made sure not to submerge the adhesive thermometer on the side of the bucket, but there was a *ton* of condensation created, and it eventually turned all the temp blocks white, making it impossible to read.

Just a heads up that you might want to use a bucket without the fermometer on it and gauge the water temp instead.

optaka said:

Only problem with it is that it can't warm things up in the winter.

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Oh Ye of Little Faith!

Just buy an aquarium heater for the cooler months.




https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/heating-small-space-172772/#post1999804

Yeah, I like the floating thermometer route, 6$ at the LHBS

Alright, looks like a swamp cooler is the way to go here. Now if only Indiana summers didn't have 99% humidity all the time the swamp cooler would be even more effective as the temperature went up!

How much ice/how many water bottles do you guys have to use to keep these cold? If I can I'll probably go with a tall skinny bucket like mdstrobe has here http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff367/mattstrobel/swamp-cooler-top.jpg to make things more efficient, but I am still wondering how much of my freezer is going to get taken up in just freezing water bottles.

optaka said:

Alright, looks like a swamp cooler is the way to go here. Now if only Indiana summers didn't have 99% humidity all the time the swamp cooler would be even more effective as the temperature went up!

How much ice/how many water bottles do you guys have to use to keep these cold? If I can I'll probably go with a tall skinny bucket like mdstrobe has here http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff367/mattstrobel/swamp-cooler-top.jpg to make things more efficient, but I am still wondering how much of my freezer is going to get taken up in just freezing water bottles.

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It's a valid concern. I usually start out with four of the 20 oz water bottles. They last a three or four hours, maybe a bit more, then I swap them out for two fresh ones, and put the four spent ones back in the freezer. From that point on I only keep two 20 ouncers at a time.

At that rate I keep 6-8 frozen 20 ounce water bottles in the freezer, minus whatever I have in the swamp cooler.

I use a Coleman cooler for this, so it holds the cold longer. Bottom line, you'll have to experiment, and keep an eye on it the first couple days until you get a feel for how often you need to swap bottles out and how many you need to keep in the cooler.

I went a little further I use a small boat bilge pump and a round collar of tubing with hole drilled on the under side wrap it around the top of carboy with a towel around it and put it on a timer every hour for 5 mins with bottles of ice keeps the fermenter nice and cool. I also have a fan blowing on the fermenter.

Just because we're on the topic of fermentation temperature controlers in small spaces I've gotta share this thing I stumbled across on here a couple of weeks ago.



Thread.

That is pretty cool, pretty pricey though.

Fid said:

Just because we're on the topic of fermentation temperature controlers in small spaces I've gotta share this thing I stumbled across on here a couple of weeks ago.

Thread.

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the hell? what kind of temperature fluctuations must you get to build a contraption that crazy? the builder of that machine is either ridiculously insane or insanely smart.

here's my form of temperature control. i live in florida where it can get extremely hot. this simple setup of a bucket with room temperature water (72-74F), old t-shirt, and small electric fan have kept my fermentation temperatures consistent between 65-70 degrees.

on really hot days (90+ degrees), i'll put a couple of ice cubes in between the old t-shirt and carboy. water diffusion up the t-shirt keeps the temperatures consistent.

Fid said:

Just because we're on the topic of fermentation temperature controlers in small spaces I've gotta share this thing I stumbled across on here a couple of weeks ago.

Thread.

Click to expand...

Very Steampunk, Or Borg-esque if you're a trekky:rockin:

As a follow up I was wondering if the temperature control is more important at some times than others? If I had 3 fermenters going all at different stages would it be more important for the one in active fermentation to be cooled and the one that is just aging for a couple of weeks to be a little more lax on, or is the temperature important the whole way through?

I have a fermenting freezer and I don't keg. It's a 9 cubic ft freezer and, honestly it's like wasted space because I am never at the same place in my fermenting profile at any given time. I think the ideal (if money were no object) fermenting set up for the way I brew would be to have a bank of ~3 dorm fridges, each with it's own temp control. Then I could do the Keezer thing with my freezer.

Hmmmmmm.... Now you got me thinkin...

I think I am going to try out the swamp coolers described above, but I am trying to decide how many I will need. If I can get away with only having to cool some of the fermenters then that will save me a lot of floor space and freezer space for ice. I assume the temperature control for a carboy that is aging is less important than one that is actively fermenting, but not sure.

I have read that when it comes to bottle aging the warmer it is the faster it ages (up to a point) so would the same apply to beer aging in the primary? If so, when should I switch from cooling it for fermentation to letting it sit at room temp for aging?

Personally I try to keep the fermenter at a constant temperature, as close to the bottom end of the yeast's temp range as I can, from lag phase through attenuation phase, so for about 5 to 7 days. After that it's 2, 3 or sometimes 4 weeks at temps in the upper range which, I'm supposing, help the yeast remain as active as possible throughout the clean up phase.

Just leaving the fermenter in the swamp cooler, but without the addition of ice helps lessen the risk of sudden temperature changes, although I'm not sure that's really necessary after the initial, vigorous, fermentation period.

Not that my two cents matters but I would vote for a dorm refrigerator or a small freezer both utilizing a temperature controller. I tried swamp coolers and styrofoam boxes with fans and frozen 2 liters and it all seemed a pain. A nice freezer and temp controler is a set it and forget blessing.

A nice positive is Craigs list. I found a 15 cubic foot freezer for $70. You dont need one that big'

Pi Kapp Beer Guy said:

Not that my two cents matters but I would vote for a dorm refrigerator or a small freezer both utilizing a temperature controller. I tried swamp coolers and styrofoam boxes with fans and frozen 2 liters and it all seemed a pain. A nice freezer and temp controler is a set it and forget blessing.

A nice positive is Craigs list. I found a 15 cubic foot freezer for $70. You dont need one that big'

Click to expand...

That would be ideal, but I don't have the space or money for that, so I'll make due with swamp coolers.