Room temperature fermentation

I'm about to start a white labs english ale based bitter, and having no basement and being located in Georgia during the late spring I have no area in my house that goes below 70-72 average. The bottle says 66-68 is ideal for this yeast.

What should I do? Can I just leave it, anyone got any ingenious workarounds either DIY or chemical?

Use a bathtub. Drape a t-shirt or towel over the bucket or carboy allowing it to touch the water. This will lower the temp by 2-3 degrees. If that isn't enough. Try adding a ice pack or two. Switch them out daily, and they will lower the temp by a few more degrees.

Get a taller igloo 60qt cooler on wheels. Fill it with water and ice and drape towels/blankets over the top leaving enough room for the airlock to peep through. Switching out 1 frozen half gallon bottle twice a day I can keep it at 58 degrees.

Ever notice how a concrete floor is cooler?
I just set my carboys in a cardboard box in the closet on the concrete floor. Close the box to keep house temp fluctuations from getting in.

My house runs ~74* but brew temps stay at 70* for high Krausen and drop to 68* after that. I had 4 jugs on the kitchen counter for 24 hours last brew day (to watch the different yeast work) and temps were only 72*.

Since you have a 70-72* range, the floor might drop temps to 68* then 66*.

yup the easy option is a cardboard box over the top with a moist towel over the fermenter and a few frozen coke bottles scattered around it in the box. That will keep it cooler than room temp and total cost and easy is a bonus.

An air conditioner would be a more permenant option.

jaja said:

yup the easy option is a cardboard box over the top with a moist towel over the fermenter and a few frozen coke bottles scattered around it in the box. That will keep it cooler than room temp and total cost and easy is a bonus.

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My only concern with the wet towel option in a box is bacteria and mildew. Thoughts?

Jdecarol said:

Get a taller igloo 60qt cooler on wheels. Fill it with water and ice and drape towels/blankets over the top leaving enough room for the airlock to peep through. Switching out 1 frozen half gallon bottle twice a day I can keep it at 58 degrees.

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badmajon said:

My only concern with the wet towel option in a box is bacteria and mildew. Thoughts?

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Well, you could get some mildew if you live in a humid climate. If you have an old towel, you can just add a tiny bit of bleach or sanitizer to your water bath.

I took off the lid of my cooler, and made a new one out of foam. That way, I can still use the cooler for parties by sticking the original lid back on, and that lid was hollow anyway.

Alpha492 said:

An air conditioner would be a more permenant option.

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I could jack up the AC, but then it'd double my power bill.

badmajon said:

I could jack up the AC, but then it'd double my power bill.

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Yep, that's a concern in the summer. Even if you jacked up the AC, for the beer to be at its best, you'd have to freeze! I'd guess that room temperature should be 62 degrees or so for you to have a perfect ale temperature.

I think I'm going to use a cardboard box with a frozen gallon milk jug of water next to it and see how that works.

... or I could build a cooler out of plywood and foam with a seperate compartment powered with a few PC cooling fans and a thermostat and a chiller coil from an old drinking fountain...

oh wait I forgot I have a two year old and a newborn at home! cardboard box it is!

hey also would it be possible to just use an old fridge, and turn it down to its lowest setting? I'm just not sure how high of a temperature a fridge would go to.

badmajon said:

hey also would it be possible to just use an old fridge, and turn it down to its lowest setting? I'm just not sure how high of a temperature a fridge would go to.

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Probably not without an external controller. The highest temp my fridge gets to is in the 40s, certainly not high enough for fermentation temperatures! With an external controller you could do it, though.

I think that once i get a few beers under my belt and prove I can do this, that will be my choice setup.