Swamp Cooler vs. Son of Fermenter

Costs and difficulty aside, i'm looking at the differences in effectiveness of a swamp cooler and son of fermenter for fermentation temperature control.


I was planning on building a son of fermenter type climate control, but am wondering if a swamp cooler is actually more effective/efficient. I am aware a swamp cooler might lead to some small deviations in temperature with the melting and replacing of ice, but I am thinking that a son of fermenter will do the same thing. That is, the thermostat will only kick in once a temperature change is detected. Also, the fact that in the swamp cooler the water surrounding the fermenting bucket acts as an insulator to ambient air temperature changes, so I would suspect fermentation temperatures would have smaller deviations.

What about ice life? I'm planning on using frozen water bottles or similar, does anyone know which I might be able to replace them less often in?

Overall, it's just starting to seem like there is no real advantage to a son of fermenter except for the fact that it's a little less messy.

Opinions? Thanks!

Take a look at the Cool Brewing bag . I've got 2 now and have a few 2 litter, OJ, grape juice bottles I keep frozen and swap out twice each day. It's a small pain to swap ice twice a day and I really could get by with only every 24 hours but this way, I can get my fermenter down to 63-64 in a 78 degree house. I've used one of these all summer and have brewed more this summer than ever before.
Worth the money to me.
Here's what they look like with the tops opened. The zipper keeps it closed.
You can't see the temperature but they are both right at 64.

I have no experience with a son of fermentation chiller, but I am using my swamp cooler for the first time and 3 water bottles changed out 3 times a day works like a charm and I'm at 60 F flat in a 73 F apartment. So far I love it, only thing different I would see is less messy and less hassle having to swap out bottles every 8 hours. Anyone else have thoughts because I'm interested in this too.

The cooler looks nice, but $55 seems like a lot of $$ to me.

I vote swamp cooler. In my 65-68deg basement, I was able to lager my Oktoberfest at 40 by swapping out 2L bottles 2-3x a day. When I removed them, there was still a lot of ice in the bottles. If I added in 20oz bottles to the rotation, I got down to 37. I used five towels, 2 bungie straps, and a large blanket for insulation. Without insulation, I fermented my porter at 60 with a few 20oz bottles a day. It's a little work, but pretty cheap.

I vote for an old Fridge from Craigslist. I just picked one up last weekend for $50. It fits 3 6gallon fermentation buckets or carboys. I don't have to swap ice bottles everyday. Just load the buckets in, shut the door, program my thermastat and come back whenever.

The Cool Brewing bag looks great, and I'd love to have one.
But I went with a 70 quart cooler on sale at amazon, $40 shipped.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F6UJ5K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
(because of the wheel well housing the bucket doesnt sit flush on the bottom, but with the cover I built its ok)

I built a cover (actually a box with 7 inches of extra head space for the air lock) out of a 8'x2' Styrofoam 1" insulation slab for $10,
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...oreId=10051&superSkuId=202938960#.UDL1k91lQ_s

and can house an Ale Pail (bucket). I can also use this cooler to hold chilled water I pump through my immersion chiller once the wort is cooled down to 10-15F above tap water. I can also use the cooler for picnics.

the cool brewing bag is great. It takes a little time to get to temperature initially but if you have a Wort chiller it would be easy to hold temperature. I will buy more cool brewing bags because it's the obvious choice.

I formerly used a swamp cooler and now have a son of fermentation cooler. It cost me more than 55 to make it, but I was needing something to do. It takes 2 liter bottles 2 times per day for a very active fermentation, but only every few days after that (near 60 deg in a 70 deg basement). The other downside I have found is that you need to change the thermostat depending on how active fermentation is. Before it starts, I am set it about 3 deg. below. At peak fermentation, maybe 6-8 deg. and as it slows about even with target fermentation temp. I disliked swamp coolers because of the need to run a fan, moisture and mold. Maybe the insulated bag would work good. Honestly, I really wish I had a better way to feedback the beer temp instead of using nearby air temp. I think any method would work fine, if you keep an eye on the actual beer temperature.

illini0250 said:

I formerly used a swamp cooler and now have a son of fermentation cooler. It cost me more than 55 to make it, but I was needing something to do. It takes 2 liter bottles 2 times per day for a very active fermentation, but only every few days after that (near 60 deg in a 70 deg basement). The other downside I have found is that you need to change the thermostat depending on how active fermentation is. Before it starts, I am set it about 3 deg. below. At peak fermentation, maybe 6-8 deg. and as it slows about even with target fermentation temp. I disliked swamp coolers because of the need to run a fan, moisture and mold. Maybe the insulated bag would work good. Honestly, I really wish I had a better way to feedback the beer temp instead of using nearby air temp. I think any method would work fine, if you keep an eye on the actual beer temperature.

Click to expand...

I put a 1/2 oz of starsan in my swamp water to prevent nasty growth and I just use an old t-shirt for insulation. For now, since I don't have space for a cooler, the swamp cooler is my method of choice. Cheap, efficient, and if you have to switch a son of fermentation cooler 2-3x a day might as well use a swamp cooler. A nice ice chest that I can program and walk away would be ideal.

I have 8 gallons going in a bucket right now in a 13-ish gallon storage tub that's about half-full of water and has two 1-gallon frozen water jugs in it. My house is about 75 degrees (air conditioned at 72, but I don't turn it on until about mid-day) and I have a thermometer in the beer reading 60 degrees all day. This is the third day of active fermentation, I've kept it under 68 (and really, under 62 except for creeping up once over the 2nd night) since pitching just by checking it every few hours when I walk by and rotating one of the frozen bottles in the morning and evening. I think the OP is right in saying the key is having that large mass of water to act as a stable heat sink. I've used a t-shirt and fan with glass carboys, but it's always a pain because I'm running the fan and it puts a lot of moisture in contact with the thermometer strips, if you happen to have those. This is my first go with the 8-gallon bucket, and I'm loving it so far just half-submerged in the water.

Be sure to leave some space for the water level to rise when you do add ice blocks or frozen bottles.

My house temp fluxuates a lot during the day so I have a really hard time keeping anything steady in a swamp cooler. If I put in a few bottles in the morning, it drops it to 65F but by the time I get home from work it is 75F. If I put in enough ice in the morning so it is still 65F after work, it drops my morning temp down to 55F. A T-shirt and a fan keeps a nice steady temp, but not cool enough for most of my ales. Something insulated like the Cool Brew bag or Arc's ice chest would surely be better.

I finally found a free fridge and built a temp controller so most of my beers go in there now. I only use the swamp cooler (no ice or fan) for my Saisons which just need a steady temp, not a cool one.

A fridge with a temp controller is obviously the easiest and best way to control temps, but it is more expensive.

I do have a SOF chamber that I use quite often when my fridge is full. It is very easy to keep a good steady temp. If I change out the Ice bottles once a day I can hold any temp I want easily. My basement was at 78-80 degrees most of the summer and I could easily hole the chamber at 60 by changing out ice once a day. If I use the round water bottles that stack I can even cold crash in it by stacking 2-3 bottles per side.

A swamp cooler is the cheapest but does take a little more effort to keep a constant temp.

In this thread there are some pics of mine. I made some mods. Also if you look at the first page of the thread I show a pic of the dowel/tube system I used for better durability.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/best-tools-son-fermentation-chamber-340884/index2.html

For me, space was an issue. I don't think I could fit a chest freezer in the shower stall. So I went with son of fermentation. It's relatively cheep and it keeps my wort within 1 degree of the set point. I even do lagers at 50F with it and I don't have to worry about temp fluctuations as long as I keep enought ice in there. The only issue I see is that you need to swap out ice bottles a couple times a day. I would rather set and forget it if I had more space. I think my wife would freak out if she found a chest freezer in the shower. After active fermentation, if I want to put different beer in the chamber, I sometimes move the carboy to an ice cube cooler. I take the lid off and put my custom styrofoam lid on and just put a single 16 oz frozen water bottle in there with it. No water is needed. And I don't permanently modify the cooler. It keeps the beer at about 68F consistently if I change the ice 2x a day. This only works after active fermentation.

Old thread, but just wanted to say that I use a Cool Brew bag and it works extremely well. I use three frozen 1 quart gatorade bottles switched out every 24 hours and it keeps my temp right at 63 degrees. I'm a new brewer and this has allowed me to be ahead of the power curve when it comes to making good beer.