How do I cool down my fermentation?

[Bluebane]

Hey guys, first time poster. My brother and I have done our first two batches (Pale Ale and a Ginger Lemongrass Hefeweizen) and our main problem seems to be that we can't hit the recommended fermentation temperatures - the recipes suggested holding the temperature of the carboy at 65 degrees, but even in our dark cool closet the temp is around 75 to 80 degrees. We don't have a cellar or extra fridge - any other tricks for how to cool a carboy?

Thanks! Looking forward to pick your collective brains as we keep this up.

 

[cooldood]

Put your caboy in a small tub of water with only a bout an inch of water, put a t shirt over the carboy so the bottom is in the water wicking the water up. Point a fan at the carboy. the evaporation will cool your carboy up to 10 degrees.

 

[Tinhorn]

Look up swamp cooler on here
It's basically a tub of water with frozen ice bottles as needed
Very low tech but preferable over ambient air temperature

 

[Roadie]

Search Craig's List for an old/used budget fridge and hook up a Ranco Controller to it. It's some of the best brewing dollars you will ever spend!

 

[Tinhorn]

Search Craig's List for an old/used budget fridge and hook up a Ranco Controller to it. It's some of the best brewing dollars you will ever spend!

True temp control makes a huge difference and you will be very pleased with the results whatever method you use

 

[smokey810]

I'm a huge fan of the Cool Brewing cooler. https://www.cool-brewing.com/

 

[FlapjackAM]

I'm a huge fan of the Cool Brewing cooler. https://www.cool-brewing.com/

+1 for cool brewing. Easy to use, not messy and works well. Get a cheap aquarium thermometer and tape it to your carboy/bucket.

 

[Setesh]

If you live in a dry area swamp coolers work very well. Terry cloth towels are MUCH more effective than Tshirts BTW.

You can also fill a tub with water, put the carboy in it, and use frozen water bottles to keep the temp of the water down.

The best method is a fridge with a temperature controller on it, but that is a bit more spendy. If you want to go that route Craigslist is your friend. I built two mini fridge fermentation chambers with temp controllers for <$80 total through CL.

 

[MindenMan]

A couple of days ago, I saw "keg tubs" for sale at Wally World. They were less than 10.00.