Cooling fermenter

I read the Home Beermaking book by Moore that came with my Williams kit and he mentions that a tip to cool the fermenter from 1-5* is to set in a water tub and wrap a towel around the fermenter to cool it by evaporation.

My question, will this cause a problem with my spigot on my fermenter sitting in water for a week or so? I would think squirting some star San in the spigot prior to racking,to the bottling bucket I should be ok. Thoughts?

agbrewer03 said:

I read the Home Beermaking book by Moore that came with my Williams kit and he mentions that a tip to cool the fermenter from 1-5* is to set in a water tub and wrap a towel around the fermenter to cool it by evaporation. My question, will this cause a problem with my spigot on my fermenter sitting in water for a week or so? I would think squirting some star San in the spigot prior to racking,to the bottling bucket I should be ok. Thoughts?

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You could cover the spigot with a sanitized piece of foil during the ferment and spray it with starsan before racking.

*Edit* Just now read that your spigot was submerged in water. Foil won't help you here...

You could put some starsan in the water too as well as covering it. Put a fan on it to cool it more if you need it. Good luck.

Spigots have lots of nooks and crannies, and are hard to sanitize. You gotta pop 'em apart routinely to sanitize their insides.

I would get a bucket for fermenting, and use an auto siphon to move beer into the spigoted bottling bucket. Or, just use buckets and bottle right off the auto siphon.

Cyclman said:

I would get a bucket for fermenting, and use an auto siphon to move beer into the spigoted bottling bucket. Or, just use buckets and bottle right off the auto siphon.

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I agree. That's the safest way to go and has less work involved with cleaning and sanitizing things. Carboys would be even better (my opinion).

So I got a thermometer in the spare bathroom (where I plan to keep the fermenter) and I am getting a pretty steady 70-72* reading.

Is this too warm for ales?

I guess I will need to do the swamp cooler method?

agbrewer03 said:

So I got a thermometer in the spare bathroom (where I plan to keep the fermenter) and I am getting a pretty steady 70-72* reading. Is this too warm for ales? I guess I will need to do the swamp cooler method?

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I'd do the swamp cooler. Try to get it in the mid 60s internal.

agbrewer03 said:

So I got a thermometer in the spare bathroom (where I plan to keep the fermenter) and I am getting a pretty steady 70-72* reading.

Is this too warm for ales?

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Short answer - yes.

I have a speidel with spigot, and my modified swamp cooler method requires daily attention, but works.
I wrap a soaked towel around the fermenter and set the whole thing on a dry towel (to avoid adverse outcomes with SWMBO). I set a fan on low across from it and that facilitates enough evaporation to get from ambient 68-70F down to about 66F during active primary fermentation. This usually requires a towel soak and reapplication once daily.
Then after the first 48-96h I remove the fan, and another day or two and I take the towel away, letting it warm up to ambient. Hope this helps.