How to keep fermenting beer cool?

I live in an apartment, and have been doing extract brewing. I know im not the only one. I've having a hard time keeping my fermentation below 72°-74°. Any ideas? What are the rest of you apartment brewers doing?

Search for swamp cooler. They work pretty well.

Search for swamp coolers. Easiest and cheapest for your situation

So, keep it in a room with a swamp cooler to keep it cool? I was thinking of keeping it,in a bathtub full of,cold water. we have central air and I keep it in the coolest, darkest room. Its just not cool enough

Get a big cooler from Walmart that your fermenter will fit in. Place your fermenter in the cooler with water and ice...add more ice as necessary to maintain the temp you want.

Get a big enough plastic tub to fit the fermenter and freeze some 2 liter empty pop bottles. Fill the tub with water and swap out the frozen bottles to keep the temp down. Some use wet towels and a fan too. It actually works pretty well.

I do a water bath with ice packs and check temps with stick-on thermometers. I switch out the ice packs (as necessary) in the morning before work, at lunch, in the evening, and before bedtime. It sounds like a PITA, but I always like to check on my "Precious", so it's not really a hassle for me unless I have to go out of town.

It could be unwieldy, if I had more that 10 gal in primary at once...

It's a ***** in the summer time, but if you keep enough bottles frozen, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I used to use the Poland spring sport bottles and can fit 2 or 3 in my cooler. I also kept 3 or so in the freezer at all times. I have a couple chest freezers now. Much easier...

I've been trying to do the wet T-shirt around the carboy type thing and just kind of hope. It is somewhat of a nice experiment to see how the slightly higher temps affect it 68-72, and I am much more concerned about it going through really dramatic changes in temperature quickly than I am about the actual temperature.

Really after those first 72 hours in which yeast are producing the most esters, the warm temperatures really shouldn't affect the fermentation and may in fact be the most helpful.

I am also not saying to try and use a yeast that is optimal at 62, I've been brewing beers with optimal ranges that I can suitably fit in the higher end.

BiologistBrewer said:

I am much more concerned about it going through really dramatic changes in temperature quickly than I am about the actual temperature.

Click to expand...

At 80 degree room temperature and with 10 gallons of fermenting beer and >5 gallons of water in the bath, my fermentation temperature doesn't change dramatically when I add a half gallon of ice. Empirically, I observe fluctuation from 66-70 throughout the day, but that is a pretty smooth curve.

Experts, am I doing bad things for my beer by allowing fluctuations in that range over the course of a several hours (four peaks/valleys per day)? Thanks for the discussion!