Vacation dillema

I am going out of town for 4 days on Friday. Right now I have an amber ale that is about 10 days old and done with active fermentation. I don't have a fermentation chamber right now. I use a swamp cooler during active fermentation and let the beers sit at room temp until they are 3 weeks old. Usually the beer stays between 66-72F when it's taken out of the swamp cooler.

I don't have AC so I regulate my apartment's temperature by opening windows at night and closing them during the day. During the day my apartment can get into the 80s on warm days but the nights are cool and I'll use a box fan to blow cold air in.

Obviously this won't be possible while I'm out of town. Temperatures are going to be record setting (possibly in the 100s). Without being able to open the windows I'm worried my apartment might get up in the low 90s.

I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be okay for the beer, even if it's done with active fermentation. I was thinking of filling my bathtub with cold water (~58-60F) and putting the carboy in there. Do you think this would be enough to regulate the temps while I'm out of town? Should I just bottle on Thursday night (beer would be ~13 days old at that point).

Not sure what the best option would be.... any advice is appreciated.

I'd do the bathtub idea to maximize its thermal inertia. 13 days in youre pretty safe, but 90s is a bit scary

Do you have a friend you can get to go in and dump a bag of ice every morning? If so, that may be the ideal situation... bathtub+bag of ice == cool beer when you return.

I'd do the bathtub unless you can get rid of some of that useless space occupying food etc in the fridge. I'm just north of you in the Okanagan Valley BC, and they're predicting some stinking hot weather here too mid to upper 30's (100's in F). Don't you have AC?

Do you have a way of measuring gravity? Depending on the yeast strain, it may be done already and you can go ahead and bottle it. I've had an Amber finish in 7 days at warmer temps

The above suggestions sound good, but here is something else to think about.

When you say "done with active fermentation" do you mean krausen is over, that airlock activity has stopped, or that you took a gravity reading and you only expect it to need a little longer?

I've heard of homebrewers who bottle after they see no airlock activity for a few days and claim they don't make bottle bombs.

Of course it is always best to take a gravity reading, but if you can't then I'm thinking if you see absolutely no airlock activity over the next 2 days then get everything packed up early, cold crash that beer if you can, and make bottling that beer one of the last things you do before you leave. If you have a big cooler or two that can contain all the bottles then throw a bunch of ice packs in there when you get ready to bottle and put the bottles in there with whatever ice packs you can fit in. I usually use small plastic pop bottles filled with tap water as ice packs. Keep it in the coolest part of your residence.

No guarantees, but it might keep it below 85 if the coolers are well insulated and you use enough ice.

If you have a hydrometer, check the gravity and see if you can bottle. If not, I would go with the bathtub idea, better if someone can dumb some ice in there every day. If you dont have a hydrometer and are feeling adventurous, you could always bottle it and see what happens... Just make sure you have it in a place where it will be safe if things get a little exploady.

Let it go, it will be fine...

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far! Sadly I don't have AC which is pretty uncommon in Willamette Valley (Eugene, OR -> Portland,OR). It's pretty common for summer temps to be in the 70s - 80s for the high but it seems like the last few years it's more common to have temps in the 80s - 90s which makes it pretty miserable without AC. Right now I live in a poorly insulated apartment on the second (top) floor that faces to the southwest. My first summer in this unit (last summer) was pretty terrible and this summer looks like it's shaping up to be just as bad Luckily it usually cools down into the upper 50s most nights which makes it bearable to sleep. If I close up all the windows before it gets hot the temperature inside remains bearable until the late afternoon - early evening. Probably more than all of you ever wanted to know about my apartment setup

I should probably take a hydrometer reading.

When I said active fermentation is over, I meant that the krausen has dropped and there is no visible movement in the carboy. I'm fermenting this batch with washed WY1272 (American Ale II). Usually the krausen drops around day 7, the yeast rafts drop around day 10-14, and the beer brightens around day 18. American Ale II tends to flocculate really well for me if I give my beers around 3 weeks. I don't cold crash ATM (although just purchased a chest freezer so this will change soon) so it usually takes me that long to get bright beers.

Right now I give all my beers 3+ weeks so I only take hydrometer samples when I'm bottling. I basically just use the FG to be able to determine the ABV. I'll be investing in a wine thief so I can take samples more easily. I'll check the gravity of my amber ale on thursday before I head out, if it's close to expected I'll just go ahead and bottle at 13 days.

If not I'll be putting the carboy in the bathtub full of cold water. I'll see if one of my neighbors can dump some ice in the bathtub at least once or twice on the hottest days. The one problem with this idea is that all my neighbors are also college students and at least 3 of my 5 neighbors left as soon as the spring term ended. I know 1 of my neighbors is still here but in the process of moving out ATM.

If you put it in the tub with water and wrap it with a wet towel, with the towel partially down in the water, then aim your fan on it. The water will wick up to keep the towel wet and the fan will help facilitate evaporation, which in turn will create a cooling effect.

brick_haus said:

If you put it in the tub with water and wrap it with a wet towel, with the towel partially down in the water, then aim your fan on it. The water will wick up to keep the towel wet and the fan will help facilitate evaporation, which in turn will create a cooling effect.

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That's a great idea. You essentially just created a swamp cooler.

Murphys_Law said:

That's a great idea. You essentially just created a swamp cooler.

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Additionally, you might want to leave the faucet open a crack to help keep the tub full.... but not too much so that it runs over and fills your bathroom with water.

Newsman said:

Additionally, you might want to leave the faucet open a crack to help keep the tub full.... but not too much so that it runs over and fills your bathroom with water.

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Unless you are absolutely, positively, willing to stake you deposit and possible eviction on knowing that your tub overflow works flawlessly, do not do this.

You failed to mention initially that you have a chest freezer. That being the case, plug the chest freezer into a 15 AMP (cannot stress that enough) timer you can get from most decent big box stores. Run it for 1 hours each day with the fermenter in the freezer and a folded up towel underneath it.

Stop.

Have a homebrew.

Relax.


Firstly, at 10 days, your initial fermentation is very likely done. That is the period at which you are at risk of getting off-flavors. It's past. Letting your beer get a little warm now is not a big deal.

The bathtub idea is a solid one because while having the beer a bit warm at this point is not going to hurt it, the thermal mass of the bathtub water will prevent the temperature from swining much, and that's still a good idea.

Have your fun and when you come back you can package that beer up.

I'll second @Unkel_Udo if you have the chest freezer and it isn't keeping anything important frozen at the moment, get the timer and set it to kick on at strategic times to keep your brew cool. I'd probably have it turn on at 11am, 3pm, and 7pm for 45 to 60 minutes each time.

A few people are suggesting it will be fine. They're probably right, but I'd be paranoid to and trying to figure out how to keep it cool, just like you.

Empty the fridge, pull the shelves out and put the fermenter in there till you come back.

Got back from Austin, TX a few days ago and thought I should give everyone an update on the state of my brew.

I don't have a chest freezer yet. I'm doing store pickup from the closest Best Buy (about 25 miles away) and it ended up getting here Friday after I had already left. I need to go get it before Saturday and will be using it in conjunction with an STC-1000 controller that will be regulating everything if I can manage to build it without frying the controller or myself

I ended up buying a plastic milk carton to put my carboy in and made a huge swamp cooler using the bathtub, a t-shirt, and the bathroom fan. The water was probably around 60F out of the tap. The weather was a bit cooler than forecasted which was a stroke of luck - it got hot but never hit 100F. When I got home the temperature inside was probably in the mid 80s. Things were looking pretty good until I went into the bathroom to check on the carboy. There was no water in the bathtub - the stopper must not be water tight because the tub was completely dry. The t-shirt was barely damp at the bottom where it went underneath the carboy - I'm pretty sure the tub was dry for at least 24-36 hours.

I use a stick on thermometer on the side of my carboy to measure temps. I went to check the temperature but it was above the maximum readout (80F). If I had to guess it was probably in the low 80s - a bit cooler than ambient temps but not by much. I stuck the carboy in my closet and should be bottling this weekend. It will be be interesting - I haven't heard or read much about beer being exposed to warm weather after active fermentation. I am anxious to see if this created any off flavors or imparted anything noticeable on the brew.

aprichman said:

It will be interesting to see if this creates any off flavors or imparts any noticeable on the brew.

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As long as it was air tight, I would bet a 6-pack of that beer it suffered no ill effects. I regularly left sealed, purged but, not yet carbonated kegs in my garage for weeks in OK in summer.