Techniques In Maintaining Temperature?

Hey everybody, hoping to draw from the collective of wisdom and experience! Any and all help appreciated, as always.

I plan on brewing more beer, but I'm hoping to brew a very wide variety and have been told that I'll be worrying about maintaining temperature sooner or later. I was wondering what you guys and gals have found your best methods to be with both bottle and primary fermentation temperature regulation.

So far I've only browsed the "swamp cooler" method for primary fermenting but was wondering what other options might be out there.

Swamp cooler is easy and cheap. You fill some container with enough water to cover at least halfway up the fermenter. You can use ice bottles to make it cooler and an aquarium heater for warmer.

Swamp cooler is what most people seem to start out with before moving on the temp controlled refrigerators/freezers and fermentation chambers. Keeping the temp WNL for the yeast is most critical during the first 3-5 days of active fermentation... after that you may have a little more room to play with. Sometimes it can be as simple as a small fan, or fan blowing on a swamp cooler is all you need. Just remember that the inside temp of the fermenting bucket/bottle can be 10-12 degrees higher than the ambient air temperature....

For bottles we just use an extra bedroom walk in closet where it is a stable 70 degrees for a few weeks until carbed, then into the fridge they go...

Swamp cooler is the way to go if you don't have a temperature controlled environment or some place where the temperature remains constant. Add a temperature strip to your carboy so you have an idea the temp you are pitching at and approximately where your fermentation is at. (7-12 degrees higher during fermentation) It isn't perfect but significantly closer than guessing using ambient temp. If you can't do this then invest 5-8 bucks in a lab grade thermometer to monitor your swamp cooler temp. Best way is to do both!! Go with the swamp cooler and try and keep to the lower end of the yeast strain ranges to get a "cleaner" beer.

Swamp cooler is great for cooling. But doesn't do much for heating in the winter.

Chest freezer with temperature controller is the ultimate solution.

I currently have mine unplugged for the winter, with a small space heater plugged in instead. I set it to 64F, with a 1 degree differential (don't care how often the space heater cycles), and it holds between 64-65F all day long.

thadius856 said:

Swamp cooler is great for cooling. But doesn't do much for heating in the winter.

Chest freezer with temperature controller is the ultimate solution.

I currently have mine unplugged for the winter, with a small space heater plugged in instead. I set it to 64F, with a 1 degree differential (don't care how often the space heater cycles), and it holds between 64-65F all day long.

Click to expand...

Heating a swamp cooler is easy!! Just put in a aquarium heater with built in thermostat. I am of the opinion that a swamp cooler actually works better than a fridge since water has much less conductivity. That means you have far less temperature swings. Much easier to raise the air temperature 5 degrees than to raise water temperature 5 degrees.

OP specifically asked what options exist other than swamp coolers.

So far, everybody is recommending only the one thing that he didn't ask for.

thadius856 said:

OP specifically asked what options exist other than swamp coolers.

So far, everybody is recommending only the one thing that he didn't ask for.

Click to expand...

You are right. So other than a swamp cooler your other choices would be a temp. controlled fridge or to custom build some sort of fermentation chamber. They all have there plus and minuses. A big part of your decision is where you live. A swamp cooler won't work very well in the South during the summer.

If by ‘swamp cooler’ you mean the wet t-shirt method, you’re right, they don’t do anything in the South.

On this forum ‘swamp cooler’ seems to mean anything involving a tub of water.

The method I use is a water bath, cooled by frozen water bottles. It works, but it keeps you busy swapping out the bottles.

I hear tell, in the North, they have things called ‘cold rooms’ and ‘basements.’

thadius856 said:

Swamp cooler is great for cooling. But doesn't do much for heating in the winter.

Chest freezer with temperature controller is the ultimate solution.

I currently have mine unplugged for the winter, with a small space heater plugged in instead. I set it to 64F, with a 1 degree differential (don't care how often the space heater cycles), and it holds between 64-65F all day long.

Click to expand...

I use the exact same system for ferm temps. I can brew ales as well as lagers all summer & winter long.

For cooling a chest freezer with temp control is the best.

If you are handy a Son of Fermentation chamber is easy to build. I used one a lot and it worked great. I still put it into use if my fermentation chamber is full or I want a different temp.than what is in the fermentation chamber.

For heating you can do the Chest freezer with temp control, but add a heater.

A brew belt will also work. I like a big cooler full of water with an Aquarium heater. Mine can go to 88 degrees and holds temp to +/- 1/2 degree. I have a saison fermenting in my 58 degree basement right now. It is at 85 degrees.

Thank you to everyone who put their two cents in, even if you did end up with the swamp cooler idea lol. It's obviously the cheapest, and I may try it out just for sh*ts and giggles until I can afford a decent chest freezer.

Which leads to another question: when fermenting inside of the chest freezer is it bad that the "output gases" have nowhere to go, since the freezer is sealed?

No, not bad. The airlock creates that same CO2-rich environment in the fermenter. If anything, it keeps bugs out of your fermentation chamber.

Open the lid once a day if you're concerned about it. Just don't stick your nose in there for a whiff, or it'll sting.

I have not built mine yet, but I have seen one in action, and will be building one before summer.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

Doongie said:

I have not built mine yet, but I have seen one in action, and will be building one before summer.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

Click to expand...

I'm planning on building one of these too. The owner of my LHBS uses one and is happy with the results. Relatively cheap and simple. Currently I ferment at room temp in my basement and have had good results. We have a 125 year old house with field stone foundation and it is always stable at 62-65 degrees year round. I also have a keezer down there with 4 kegs and room for a fermenter, but that would only work for lagering.

BigFloyd said:

Whatever fridge/freezer you can get cheap on Craigslist (that isn't old and crapped out) + an outlet box built with a $18-19 (on Amazon) STC-1000 digital controller. Total investment is normally less than $100.

You'll never worry about temperature control again. You can brew whatever style you like with your yeast of choice.

Click to expand...

This ^... Just got a 15.5 cubic foot freezer (room for 4-5 5 gallon batches) and added a DIY STC-1000 temp control setup for under $100 in total.