Provided you keep on top of it, there is nothing wrong with the water bath and ice bottle method. The key is keeping the ferm temps down and no matter what method you use, you will get better beer out of it.
Brewing down south
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Provided you keep on top of it, there is nothing wrong with the water bath and ice bottle method. The key is keeping the ferm temps down and no matter what method you use, you will get better beer out of it.
ibbones
Well-Known Member
You will like the Winpak's. I have two of them and I still try to chill down to 85-90+, I still let it set out until the wort reaches fermentation temp and then pitch.
user 30639
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Cooler filled about halfway with water, t-shirt over the carboy and throw in a cold pack in the morning. I've had a few beers ferment too hot, but overall that's worked for me.
Eventually I'm going to get a freezer with a good temperature control, but we just moved from a house to an apartment (and lost 500 square feet) so there's no room right now. Lame.
Eventually I'm going to get a freezer with a good temperature control, but we just moved from a house to an apartment (and lost 500 square feet) so there's no room right now. Lame.
I keep my house at 75 in the day, and 68 at night. My fermenters are in a closet, the stick on thermometer never read more than 78, and i've never had any off flavors. Also i select yeast strains that are generally better suited for higher temps (ie WLP-001).
Whirlpool (fridgeair) 2fit just fine with room to spare
I use a small Chest freezer with a Johnson controller. I usually set it a few degrees below my target ferment temperature because the yeast creates about 5 degrees of heat at full ferment. I check once a day and adjust accordingly.
I just moved down to Georgia, and I'm thinking about getting a chest freezer with temp control. My garage gets very hot during the day... should I plan on making room for the freezer inside the house, or will it handle the hot and humid temps in the garage without wasting too much money on electricity? For now, I do no-chill brews in the winpak, then ferment in a water tub with t-shirt. I built a son-of-fermentation chiller, but the fan was running all the time and the frozen bottles melted quickly... I guess my insulation work wasn't as airtight as I was hoping.
aerod1
Well-Known Member
I have a chest type Coke box with the rack removed. Fermenter sits nicely in the bottom. It's controlled with a Johnson analog controller. It works great. Before that I was using a swamp cooler.
Hey Amusedbystander! Welcome to the brewing life (grin) -I live about 20 odd miles away from your area. These days I have a chest freezer with a temp controller to keep my fermentation temp in range. BEFORE that, I kept the fermenter in the bottom of a closet and tried to use yeast that were more tolerant of higher brewing temps and had very good results. I never tried the wet T-shirt thing but thats only because by the time I learned about that, it was getting colder outside and I kept my fermenters in the utility room (grin).
These last two years have seen us hitting below-freezing temps and I would bring my fermenters indoors when the temp dropped too low (even the keezer wasn't enough insulation -though I had reasonable success by putting a high-wattage lightbulb in there to help take the chill off -covered the light with aluminum foil.
These last two years have seen us hitting below-freezing temps and I would bring my fermenters indoors when the temp dropped too low (even the keezer wasn't enough insulation -though I had reasonable success by putting a high-wattage lightbulb in there to help take the chill off -covered the light with aluminum foil.
redcoat_or_rebel
Well-Known Member
most likely inside. otherwise it won't even be able to get as cold as it needs to.
Hang Glider
Beer Drinker
I haven't measured electricity consumption, so I don't know about efficiency, but in the 95 - 98s we've been having, my kegerator (chest freezer) sits in my 90+ garage at 38F...so yes, it can get plenty cold. That is NOT to say it wouldn't work better inside - it probably would.
Houblon
Well-Known Member
I have this simple setup along with a beer fridge for lagering & serving.
Using enough ice bottles(8) can keep the beer down to 42F and right now I have a czech pils fermenting.
Using enough ice bottles(8) can keep the beer down to 42F and right now I have a czech pils fermenting.
Seven
Well-Known Member
I have my keezer in the garage in Florida (it gets extremely hot and humid in there each day) and my kill-a-watt meter says it costs about 6 dollars a month to run it. It has no problems keeping the beer at my target temp. of about 40-degrees F. either.
I'm guessing my freezer compressor probably has to work harder in the hot garage... but so far I've had no problems with it.
Boleslaus
Well-Known Member
I recently built a mobile kegerator, so I'll probably start using that so I can lager.
milesvdustin
Well-Known Member
I just put my ferementers in a closet. It is about 74 in there in the summer. I just make sure I age in primary for 6-8 weeks, then keg and let that carb and age in the kegerator for another four or five weeks. Occasionally i get a beer that has a "twinge" to it, but otherwise it works ok.
AmusedBystander
Well-Known Member
Hey Nightbiker, I'm actually in Valrico, what brew store do you typically shop at?
jacobmarley
Well-Known Member
As well as S.N. beer camp double IPA and hemisphere
