For my second batch, I want to make sure I can keep my fermentation temperatures down so I've decided to try the tub full of water and frozen bottles technique. For those of you who do this, where do you keep your water level in regards to your carboy? I would think that having the cold water level as high as the wort would be most effective but maybe that isnt neccessary? Also, will those thermometer strips that are often used on glass carboys be able to give accurate readings if they are submerged in water? I'm thinking not.
Fermenting in a tub with water bottles...
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FlyinkibbleZ
Well-Known Member
i have never done it this way, but thats how my dad keeps his cool. from times i watched he only has the water about 1/3 of the way up the bottle. I have seen him even put a fan in the bathroom blowing across the bottle (evaporative cooling) to help a little more too on warmer days.
The thermometers on my buckets (same strips), which I no longer need because I use a digital controller for this method, are all shot because of the water submersion.
How does the digital controller work?
I put my bucket in a plastic tub with water in it. My temperature controller is a DeepSea aquarium controller. It has a plug for a "heater" and a "cooler". I have an aquarium heater plugged into the "heater" and a fan into the "Cooler". The heater will raise the temp as high as I want. The fan will only keep it 1-2 degrees lower than room temp unless I add ice to the bucket. But having this set up will keep your temp under control much better than just using ice and having no way to control the temp swings.
So how high on the carboy do you have your water in the tub in relation to the wort? Is it equal to the wort level? Or half? Or something else maybe?
Sojourn
Member
I have mine in the bathtub with about 3 inches of water. Using frozen 2-liters it stays at 64-68 pretty easily.
Sojourn
Member
Eh not really sure. Thermostat's set at 71, but I bet it gets warmer in there during the day. I had just started doing this with my second batch (a brown ale recently bottled) and it tasted great. I just have the curtain closed and sometimes throw in a frozen gallon bottle as well.
I usually fill it to about the 4 gallon mark on the ale pale. Any higher and it starts to float. The thermometer will delaminate and peel off after being submerged in water for awhile. I added a wine thermometer through the lid so that I can measure the temp of the wort. I guess that you could just stick a thermometer in the water in the tub, which should be the same as the wort after the temps have equallized.
I have mine up to the beer level or pretty close. I have a floating thermometer in the water to monitor the temp.
Evaporative cooler (the towel and the fan) work well for some people. A water bath with frozen water bottles works the best for me. It keeps the temperature stable, since it takes a LONG time for that much liquid to change temperature.
I usually have the water around half-way up the wort level.
The easiest thing to do for temp control is the swamp cooler. I go up as high as I can with the water, then use the t-shirt as a wick to draw the water up as a wick around the rest of the fermenter.
Basically it is a rubbermade cooler, water, some frozen water bottles (you ca also chuck rock salt in) and t-shirts over the fermenters to act as wicks, drawing the cold water up and around the fermeters.
I have gotten the water in the swamp cooler down to the high 50's and the fermenter a few degrees higher.
A fan blowing on it can be used as well.
edit, IIRC normally I fill up much higher than in pic 1, I did that to temp control the small batch in the mr beer keg. Normally I go pretty close to the level of that indentation.
Basically it is a rubbermade cooler, water, some frozen water bottles (you ca also chuck rock salt in) and t-shirts over the fermenters to act as wicks, drawing the cold water up and around the fermeters.
I have gotten the water in the swamp cooler down to the high 50's and the fermenter a few degrees higher.
A fan blowing on it can be used as well.
edit, IIRC normally I fill up much higher than in pic 1, I did that to temp control the small batch in the mr beer keg. Normally I go pretty close to the level of that indentation.
BendBrewer
Well-Known Member
I was forced to do this on Sunday morning as I had 2 brews from Saturday climbing near 80 degrees.
It worked well to bring the temps down but by Monday morning one of the beers, the bigger one, just stopped doing it's thing while the other one is putting along just fine. Not sure what is going on.
It worked well to bring the temps down but by Monday morning one of the beers, the bigger one, just stopped doing it's thing while the other one is putting along just fine. Not sure what is going on.
I put a towel under the water barrel, wrap a several layers of old bed sheet or the like around the sides, and throw a blanket over top. I use about 6 inches of water in the barrel after adding the fermentor. This seems to be enough to allow a good heat transfer between the beer and the ice bottles. For a smaller beer, say 1.045 or less, I can change out two small water bottles twice a day and keep it between 60 and 64 degrees even during the most active part of fermentation. The room temp is generally between 70 and 80 degrees, but that doesn't matter so much when you insulate the water barrel like I am.
Hang Glider
Beer Drinker
+1 with Upper Michigan - I get my water level near my beer level. That way I'm not cooling the bottom of my carboy, I'm cooling the whole thing.
