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- Nov 26, 2006
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So, it's a little finicky, but I need to keep my brewery footprint to a minimum, which isn't easy when you have 10 cornies and 30 gallons of fermenting capacity. I think this might be a pretty good idea... but will it work?
Use a cheap aquarium pump in a small 1 gallon cooler. Partly fill it with water, and then once or twice a day, stick a frozen bottle of water into the cooler.
Mount a copper coil downwards on a carboy cap. Make a third hole for the airlock.
Pump the water into the copper coil extending down into the wort. Wrap the carboy in a thermal blanket/insulation/neoprene wrap/etc (lots of options for this).
I figure just a couple liters per minute of ~38 degree water running through an Immersion Chiller should be able to at least keep the beer down below 60F. Maybe even colder? Not ideal, I know, but not bad. And the parts are cheap, the system could be stored in something not much larger than a shoebox. Aquarium pumps are like ten bucks. The copper is cheap. I have the rest of the stuff lying around.
Do you think I could keep reasonably lower fermentation temps (and perhaps even do a warm-ish lagering phase) with this set up?
Use a cheap aquarium pump in a small 1 gallon cooler. Partly fill it with water, and then once or twice a day, stick a frozen bottle of water into the cooler.
Mount a copper coil downwards on a carboy cap. Make a third hole for the airlock.
Pump the water into the copper coil extending down into the wort. Wrap the carboy in a thermal blanket/insulation/neoprene wrap/etc (lots of options for this).
I figure just a couple liters per minute of ~38 degree water running through an Immersion Chiller should be able to at least keep the beer down below 60F. Maybe even colder? Not ideal, I know, but not bad. And the parts are cheap, the system could be stored in something not much larger than a shoebox. Aquarium pumps are like ten bucks. The copper is cheap. I have the rest of the stuff lying around.
Do you think I could keep reasonably lower fermentation temps (and perhaps even do a warm-ish lagering phase) with this set up?