using frozen water bottles to keep ferm temps down?

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bkov

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hey, i read through a bunch of threads on it but got mixed results. when using frozen bottles to keep fermentation temps down, is it best to surround the carboy with water and let the frozen bottles float in water....

or just put the frozen bottles around the carboy and no water at all?

i have my glass carboy in a cooler full of water(no lid though), and ive been adding frozen bottles, usually 2 at a time....but they melt VERY quick
 
i also have a wet tshirt on the carboys. no spare fan right now
 
With the carboy in the tub I usually fill it about 1/2 way then add the bottles with frozen water.

As previous stated adding a t-shirt over the carboy so the water wicks up also

Adding a fan into the equation works well also.

The trick is to keep the brew in the carboy at its fermenting temp range.

Where are you in Jersey?
 
northern....essex county(973)

its been a cool summer for the most part so far but its finally starting to get hot during the days but drops cool at nights still. today my house temperature was 82F
 
so how do you keep the bottles from melting so quick? doesnt this make inconsistent ferm temps?
 
It's fine that they melt quickly. The water around the carboy acts as a thermal buffer. It lowers the temperature of the beer in the carboy gradually as the whole system comes to equilibrium.
 
5-6 gallons of wort in the fermenter will not change temp quickly. The goal is to hold a steady temp in the carboy. Put a stick-on thermometer strip on the fermenter and adjust the temp as needed with ice bottles in the water. Don't be concerned with the ice - just use what is needed to keep the wort at the desired temperature.
 
DO NOT PUT A STICK ON THERMOMETER STRIP ON YOUR CARBOY!!!

The water will seperate the temp strip from the plastic cover and it will be ruined permanently if immersed.

Use a dial thermometer in the water.

To save $$$ on therm strips use them only when your carboy/bucket will not be added to a tub of water. How? Easy...

First off, do not pull the backing paper off of the strip. Place 3" wide packaging tape over the strip and fold the top edge over about 1". Whenever you want to place a fermenter in a tub of water you can remove the taps and strip and reuse it on another fermenter. When the tape goes bad just cut it off and add another piece of tape. ;)
 
so how do you keep the bottles from melting so quick? doesnt this make inconsistent ferm temps?

If you're using a cooler and ice bottles then the temps stay pretty steady. I change out my bottles 1-2 time s a day during peak fermentation periods and my temps fluctuate maybe 3 degrees.
 
DO NOT PUT A STICK ON THERMOMETER STRIP ON YOUR CARBOY!!!

The water will seperate the temp strip from the plastic cover and it will be ruined permanently if immersed.

Use a dial thermometer in the water.

Thats what mine did. I use a t-shirt and ice in the summer, and an aquarium heater in the winter. The stick on lasted about 2 batches.
 
I have been using coolers and frozen 2 liter bottles for a while (my mini-fridge ferm chiller is about on line now).

I usually put two bottles in with an ale for the first day, to get the ferm temps down quick. After that, I rotate one bottle in and out. I use a floating thermometer in a glass of water and try to keep the temp right at 62*F.

I also do some crash cooling that way. I just put a couple of frozen bottles in with my 17 day old Vienna Ale to start cooling. In a day or two I will stick the Better Bottle into the kegerator to really chill it down before kegging.
 
I just had this same problem. I didnt have a lot of $$ to spend and got fairly lucky in solving the problem.
I went to the local Wally World and found me a 43qt plastic tub. Long enough for 2 carboys if needed and its 6-8inchs tall.
It was 7.50 I ferment in my basement but its still 75-80 in the basement at times. I filled the tub a little shy of half full. Put a couple hand full of ice in at first and put a thermometer in the water just to see how cold i was geting it..
Turned out 65 degree wateror so brought the temp down to 70-72.
I added ice about every other day. Also i had a old work shirt not as heavy as a sweater but close that was wet that seemed to wick some water from the pan. Might have helped the cooling a bit.

A idea a buddy had was find a small pump like off a fish tank and recirculate the water...Moving water should bring the temp down better..Kinda same idea as the wort chiller.

You might check craigslist or your local paper for someone selling a mini fridge or a cheap full size fridge. Just the problem is finding the room for it :)

Hope this helps a bit
 
I cover my carboy in a tshirt and add 1gal bottles of ice, they take several hours to melt, I swap them at 8am and 8pm.
 
what temp are you aiming for? I'm curious as to how low a temp you can get with this method. I'm itching to make a lager but I don't think I can get cold enough. next DIY project might be a fermentation chamber of some sort (now that the keezer is up and running).
 
my house is arround 74-76
this keeps my beer down to 67, i can get a few degrees lower is i aim a fan at it, probably 62-64
 
I lager in a cooler without water. It takes 3 quart bottles of ice to maintain the temps in the mid fifties. 2 quarts keep it around 62 and 1 quart keeps it around 67. I change the bottles once a day.
 
I am in the swamp cooler club too, I have no problem getting my temps as low as 62 if necessary with ice bottles and a fan in a coleman extreme cooler with an open lid. Basically I allow the water to cool for a day or two before brew day, add some ice bottles and get the temps down to about 65 and place my bucket fermenters (2) in, and adjust the temp with the ice bottles, once it reaches the desired temp, the fan aimed at it keeps it pretty stable, and I think the well insulated cooler helps keeps temps stable a bit longer than an uninsulated tub.
 
temperature doesnt matter much once fermenation is complete, right? even if i leave in the primary for around a month?
 
I have experimentally determined that I can get my swamp cooler down to lager temps if I'm willing to put 20-30 lbs of ice in to get it there. Once it's in that range I can maintain that temp pretty easily using the same method as already described by swapping out a bottle or two a couple of times per day.
 
i highly recommend a cooler over any other vessel of water...

i have one carboy in the large slop cellar sink and the other in a cooler without lid in the kitchen...

the one in the cooler is easy to maintain at 62F switching the ice twice a day. the one in the sink stays at about 68-70F
 
If I didn't need my cooler to keep all my Yuengling cold for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival this weekend, I'd be doing the same. Instead I used a regular rubbermaid tote with water and frozen water bottles, and it doesn't hold temp well at all. I might just go out and get a dedicated cooler just for temp control.
 
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