Ferment temperature controls?

Any suggestions on setups or gear to better manage fermentation temperatures? Right now I do it the ghetto way...drop the ac and put the carboy near-ish a vent. There's gotta be a better way...

I'm in the process of building a fermentation chamber, using an old mini fridge. If you don't want to build something, or buy a big freezer, then there are some other tricks to keep your fermentation temperature down, such as fermenting in a bath tub in a few inches of water while draping towels over the fermenter.

I have had thoughts about using a mini fridge and an arduino to control a pc fan to duct air into a cooler/cardboard box/etc. Ghetto and borderline free if you can scrounge well.

Find a cheap or free used fridge and use a johnson controller. It's worth every penny. Mine has heat and cool mode and adjustable differential. Soo much easier.

The water bath method works well. Just change out cold packs or frozen water bottles as needed.

Even though I'm new to this, for my second batch I used a rubbermaid container that the carboy fit in. Filled to about 1/3 carboy height with water. When temps got to 70-72, threw a cup of ice in the water and kept it at 68. House temp is about 78-80. Can tell the beer will be better than my first batch, (no water bath, ferm temp about 76.) Fermentation was much slower and steady and the airlock gases smell much better. Would def recommend this for a cheap, easy fix.

It depends on how much you want to spend. I'm cheap, so this is my solution:



A water bath, with frozen water bottles added as needed and a floating thermometer in the water bath to check the temperature.

Yooper said:

It depends on how much you want to spend. I'm cheap, so this is my solution:

A water bath, with frozen water bottles added as needed and a floating thermometer in the water bath to check the temperature.

Click to expand...

This is actually what I do now. I was lucky and found blue ice packs on sale at Lowe's. I got five. They rotate between the freezer, fermentation cooler, and cellar(igloo cooler).