Going insane - plan to cool my fermentor

Ok I live in an apt and its usually like 75+ in the days and i have no AC. I really need to brew some new beer. I have a plan how does it sound.... when i leave for work tomorrow im going to put a damp towel over my bucket and put a couple dollar store ice packs on the lid? After i set that up ill put my fan directly on the fermenter. Has anyone try anything like this before? Does it sound like it will work ok? My goal is to keep it in the low 70's....

Any thoughts or advice - welcome!

That is actually a common method! People get a large container like those big tubs with rope handles, fill them with water, put a towel over the fermenter, point a fan at the towel.

I actually keep big bottles (2 L soda bottles, or orange juice bottles) in the freezer and swap them out in the morning and night.

PS pic shamelessly stolen from homebrewtalk's gallery. Search swamp cooler there for a bunch of ideas!

It'll work better with a box fan blowing on it.( I dropped mine 10 degrees that way) I use an old shirt, but I am sure a towel will work just fine. Just be sure to soak it good before you leave.

You can get it in the sixties, which will be perfect. Your plan sounds great (as the folks above have suggested). If you take a look at YooperBrews photos, you'll see her solution - a cooler with a foam lid, water and ice (similar to Germelli's above, except she put a lid on it).

The world-headquarters of Singing Boys Brewing and Cidery maintains a pretty constant 62, which is soo damn helpful.

Your solution (sometimes called a swamp cooler - do a search for it here and you'll find lots of threads) will work great.

That is certainly the most prudent and economical way to proceed. To widen the choice spectrum a bit, you could use a compact fridge (also easily convertible to a kegerator) and a bit of electronica to satisfy your needs. Admittedly a gadget freak, this was just too much fun for me to turn down and not for everyone. I can provide the details if anyone is interested. It's actually easy, but obviously much more costly.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-temp-controller-build-133364/index5.html#post2259923

Germelli1 said:

Click to expand...

+1 to this ^

Doing exactly this, I kept a beer fermenting in the 60's when it was over 100 outside and int he 90's inside an un-airconditioned apartment. Just had to swap out the ice bottles every 4 hours or so through the afternoon. When it's just in the 70's, I only swap them out about twice a day. Throw a couple in before going to work, and swap them out when I get home. No need to use the ice bottles overnight if it cools off enough.

I'm doing my Undead Guy ale in one of those rectangular plastic storage tubs you can get from just about anywhere. Filled 1/2 - 3/4 the way with water. big enough to fit my 6 gal. carboy and a frozen gallon jug full of water. The fermometer reads 60 and it's 70 in here. Beer is happy.

I just went ahead and bought a temp controller so that I can get the exact temp I want. In the grand scheme of things, it's not that much of an investment and I don't have to worry about continually worrying about putting new ice packs in the water. Just something else to think about.

I have a plastic bucket exactly like the one above but it's black and it works great.

By swapping frozen bottles, I can easily keep it in the low 60's. I could get it lower if I wanted by adding more frozen bottles. I don't have any fans, towels or tshirts on it...just the fermenter sitting in the tub of water.

Maybe you could also save up some ice and use that in the tub when you first put the fermenter in there since it'll be probably closer to 80 degrees at first.

Good luck!

Jeff

You're on the right track here, lots of us have done it with great success.