While it has been an unusually cool summer here even for oregon i've been having problems with fermentation getting too hot. While i've been able to keep the house in the high 60's (or low 70's on hotter days) as you probably know fermentaion causes its own heat. I've had to set my carboys in the bath tub and put towels over the bathroom window a couple times to cool off the beer. For my wheat beer it wasn't enough and fusel alchohols in it give me a headache after a couple beers.
I also think a few of my other brews this summer got too hot and are not quite as good because of it. I finally solved my problem and have been able to move fermentation out to the garage which makes my wife happy.
I couldn't afford a chest freezer and they take up a lot of room so i don't think i could convince my wife to let me get one to conver into a ferm chamber. So what i did was picked up a large sterilite blue plastic tub big enough for two carboys. I filled it with water and put my carboys in it. I then soaked two black t-shirts and draped them over the top of the carboys to keep the little bit of light that makes it into my garage out and to help with a little evaporative cooling. I put one of those orange carboy caps on one of my carboys so i could put an airlock on and at the same time stick a dial thermometer i had with a long rod that reaches the beer to get an accurate reading of internal carboy temperature. I also have a floating thermometer in the water in the tub. I have been rotating water filled soda bottles between the freezer and tub and have managed to keep my last brew in the mid 60's using this. It only takes up about 28"x16" of floor space so much less than a chest freezer.
Next i will improve upon this system by insulating the tub and using my aquarium pump to circulate ice water in an ice box through copper tubing in the tub to cool the water the carboys are sitting in. I will hook this pump system up to one of the $17 ebay aquarium temperature controllers attached to a temperature probe in the carboy so that the pump only runs when the fermention gets above a certain temperature. This should make temperature regulation fully automated besides adding ice to the ice box once or twice a day. I will eventually add some sort of heating element to the icebox for winter time.
I calculated a cost estimate for the whole automated system and it is about $75 on the low end. Even with little odds and ends like fittings and electrical wiring i haven't included it will likely come out to under $100 for a super compact automated ferm chamber.
What are your thoughts about this? Anything i may have missed before i bite the bullet and order the aquarium temp controller and copper tubing?
I also think a few of my other brews this summer got too hot and are not quite as good because of it. I finally solved my problem and have been able to move fermentation out to the garage which makes my wife happy.
I couldn't afford a chest freezer and they take up a lot of room so i don't think i could convince my wife to let me get one to conver into a ferm chamber. So what i did was picked up a large sterilite blue plastic tub big enough for two carboys. I filled it with water and put my carboys in it. I then soaked two black t-shirts and draped them over the top of the carboys to keep the little bit of light that makes it into my garage out and to help with a little evaporative cooling. I put one of those orange carboy caps on one of my carboys so i could put an airlock on and at the same time stick a dial thermometer i had with a long rod that reaches the beer to get an accurate reading of internal carboy temperature. I also have a floating thermometer in the water in the tub. I have been rotating water filled soda bottles between the freezer and tub and have managed to keep my last brew in the mid 60's using this. It only takes up about 28"x16" of floor space so much less than a chest freezer.
Next i will improve upon this system by insulating the tub and using my aquarium pump to circulate ice water in an ice box through copper tubing in the tub to cool the water the carboys are sitting in. I will hook this pump system up to one of the $17 ebay aquarium temperature controllers attached to a temperature probe in the carboy so that the pump only runs when the fermention gets above a certain temperature. This should make temperature regulation fully automated besides adding ice to the ice box once or twice a day. I will eventually add some sort of heating element to the icebox for winter time.
I calculated a cost estimate for the whole automated system and it is about $75 on the low end. Even with little odds and ends like fittings and electrical wiring i haven't included it will likely come out to under $100 for a super compact automated ferm chamber.
What are your thoughts about this? Anything i may have missed before i bite the bullet and order the aquarium temp controller and copper tubing?
