Cooling the fermenter

Currently I'm using the swamp cooler method on my plastic fermenter (wet towel in water around the fermenter). I also have the fermenter under the ceiling fan to try to maximize the cooling. However, even with all this its still fermenting at 75 degrees according to my digital thermometer. It is working to some degree, room temperature water is about 78 degrees, and supposedly the primary fermentation also raises the temperature by a few degrees. What else can I do to lower the temperature a few more degrees?

add ice to the water
JJ

Lower the house/apartment temp, and if you've got a cool tile floor somewhere put the fermenter there to stabilize the temp (carpet insulates). Also, oscillating fans are cheap and worth considering, b/c you can really chill down a fermentation when the fan is 1 foot from the fermenter. It gets hard to keep the towel wet.

When I caught my fermenter running a little hot a couple of months ago, I put it in a bathtub with water at my target temperature. I also tend to set my house temp to fermentation temp during at least the first week of fermentation. In the winter time, the fermenter gets dibs on my electric blanket; you just have to check the temp about every 6 hours or so and make minor adjustments if needed.

In the future, I would like to construct a fermentation box that will feed off of my kegerator.

I"ve got mine in a bathtub with a towel around it and 2 two liter soda bottles filled with ice. I keep two in the freezer and two in the tub. Temperature is around 66F. And the room temp is 75F

I think a big part of the problem is that I'm using a plastic fermenter....I could probably lower it by another few degrees if I was using glass.

i have heard about people putting there fermenter in a bucket filled with water and adding a submerceable fish tank heater and adjust the temp you want it at i have not tried this but plan on doing it this summer when it starts getting hotter up here in canada.

...and never forget, secondhand fridges are dirt cheap. You can probably find one off eBay for $30.

And there's always Son of Fermentation Chiller.

BassBurner said:

And there's always Son of Fermentation Chiller.

Click to expand...

I built a slightly larger version of this (holds 2 buckets) and it's fantastic. A second fridge wasn't an option for me (apartment dweller) but I was able to raise the bar in my closet and get this underneath my clothes. I can hold 2 buckets at 63F with a single 4L frozen bottle that gets swapped each morning for a fresh one. It's probably the best thing I've done to improve my brews, gets rid of the off-flavours from too high fermentation temps.

Hmm, maybe I'll try combining fermentation chiller and the aquarium heater technique in project.

Here's what I do:

1. Get a big-ass bucket big enough to hold the fermenter in with room to spare (I use kimchi buckets since I'm in Korea, but I'm sure you can find some kind of giant bucket or barrel in the states).
2. Put the fermenter in and fill up the barrel to the brim.
3. Fill some plastic bottles most of the way up with water and stick them in the freezer and then stick them in the bucket around the fermenter periodically to keep the temp down.

Is working wonders so far.