Making the best of less-than-optimal conditions

There was an excellent thread a few weeks ago that asked the veteran homebrewers what the one thing they would never do without if they had to start over from scratch. Overwhelmingly the answer was the ability to strictly control fermentation temperatures.

As someone who usually just puts the carboy in the back of the closet for a week and forgets about it, this kind of shook me a little.

So I've been trying to figure out what the best possible conditions I could create with what I've got - which isn't much.

My house (until the winter anyway) will hover between 74 and 80 degrees depending on the weather, where the AC is set, etc. I have an unfinished basement that stays cool - between 60 and 70 - even in the hottest days.

So where should I be fermenting my beer? Do I keep it upstairs at room temperature or do I take it down to the basement and keep it relatively cool?

Also, working odd hours all week, I'm not able to keep an ice bath or a heating pad on the carboy, so I'm limited in more environmental control.

Thanks!

I go the Yooper-cube method. I bought a cooler at Target for $20, cut a hole the size of my bucket in the lid, put bucket in the cooler, fill with cold water, add ice packs as necessary. I rarely need to add ice more than once a day/every other day. It requires very little maintenance.

So if you make beer, you need to do certian things - like sanatize, but to make better beer you need to control all the factors more - like temperature.

Back to where to keep it. I'd personally go the basement at 60-70, sure the temp isn't stable - although it is probably is more stable than that. So what am I saying? 1, don't worry right yet about temps, unless you get some really off flavors. 2, I'd go basement, that 60 to 70 is like perfect and 3, when you decide "nice beer, wonder if I could do better" then you can look at temperature control. Getting sanitation right on the first few is very important.

I do a more simplistic version of the aforementioned Yooper-cube with just a big plastic storage bin. Not as efficient, swap out gallon milk/water jugs filled with ice up to twice a day to hold relatively stable at 61-63. I don't have basement option, just a 70-degree minimum (in warm weather) apartment. So far it's working quite well. I'd planned on picking up a cooler her in the next couple weeks to make it more efficient as it is.