Our Fermentation Cooling Chamber

[alliloop]

So, we just brewed ourselves an all grain Belgian White. Sort of an Allagash clone - a lovely lil brew with fresh ginger, orange peel and coriander seed. But, of course it needs to ferment at 65º.
Looked around on here and saw a lot of great ideas for fermentation chambers. So, decided to fix up one ourselves. We got a round 10-gallon Rubbermaid Water Cooler. And we already have plenty of ice and ice packs already handy.

$45 and 45 prep and work time...

All we needed was a tape measurer, electric drill and boring tool, and a dremel tool to clean up the edges.

Measure once...

Measure twice, cut once...

Clearly safety wasn't first in our case...

Fortunately, the only hole that the boring tool made was in the lid...

We cleaned up the edges and widened the hole just a tad to fit the cap...

And voila!

It seems to be maintaining the temp fairly well. Of course, since there's no fanning system, we'll have to keep up with the ice and whatnot, but... it works for us right now.

However, if anyone has any suggestions (especially if in looking at what we have to work with, you can tell me how we can hook this up with the Ranco kinda system), please speak up! Thanks!!!

 

[CodyBoyBrewery]

Nice! How stable is the temperature? How often do you need to add ice?

 

[JOHN51277]

Does not look like a whole lot of room to put ice/ice packs in there. But it should hold more of a steady temp.

 

[alliloop]

Last night we tested it with a carboy full of water. I'd say 4 ice packs and 2 trays of ice. We started off with the water at 80º (NE heatwave!), but got it down and maintained it at 70-72º. We just put our White in it with double everything, which will be updated at lunch time. So, yeah... I think we got a good thing going here. Thanks for the interest!

 

[NoNothing]

I like it! I love how the carboy just fits inside of it, so much better than my swamp cooler.

Is that a 6 gallon carboy?

 

[bf514921]

very nice, great idea for those with limited space.

 

[Dunerunner]

Great idea! And it all nests together for easy storage, perfect for someone in an apartment.
I wonder if you could circulate water from a seperate source, like a 5 gallon bucket full of water. You could chill and circulate the water with one of these http://thegiantfish.com/index.php/aquarium-chiller/aqua-euro-usa-1-10-hp-chiller.html.

DIGITAL CONTROLLER
Is equipped with an integrated digital temperature controller and probe with a +/- 1F difference from the set point. Simply set the desired temperature and the controller will do the rest automatically.

* Temperature Setting Range: 32-99F
* Smart Memory Chip
* Calibration Feature
* Constant Digital Temperature Read Out

 

[AnOldUR]

Looks nice, but I would think that with the exothermic nature of fermentation and the close fit you will need a pump or some way to circulate the water for even cooling. Do you have the capability to test the actual wort temperature (thermowell)? Interested in hearing the results, this has great potential.

 

[bf514921]

well just to add fuel to the fire. what if you took a smal fridge, put your bucket of water in it, added some quick disconnects and apupme, set your water temp to circulate around the carboy. multiple qds ofr multiple velssels, but now that is just overkill

 

[wildwest450]

well just to add fuel to the fire. what if you took a smal fridge, put your bucket of water in it, added some quick disconnects and apupme, set your water temp to circulate around the carboy. multiple qds ofr multiple velssels, but now that is just overkill

If he had a small fridge, why not just put the carboy in it?

 

[NoNothing]

if he had a small fridge, why not just put the carboy in it?

+1

 

[bf514921]

i am thinking the really small ones, able to fit about 1/2 a carboy.

 

[alliloop]

Alrighty, so... first off, someone asked the size of our carboy - it's a 5-gal. In terms of what's been going on, we've kept it at a steady 68º so far. And it should be said that our place -thanks to this evil NE heatwave- has been roughly 82-84º thru the day. So, yeah... I'd say this works just fine.
We are interested in some sort of circulation system for this, and will look into it. We're just wanting to focus our spending on making beer than chilling it.

Thanks for all the interest and comments!

 

[Burgs]

If I tried to primary in a 5gal, it would essplode every time... what size batches are you doing? Also, I like this idea.

Here's another overkill idea: what if you filled the cooler with water, but then also had some copper coils hugging against the insides of the cooler, so that the carboy would fit in the middle, then use a cheap fountain pump to recirculate your ice water through?

 

[SweetSounds]

You could take a stick and swish the water around every once in a while

 

[NoNothing]

I like the idea, as I said before, but I only see it being useful as a lagering vessel.

The exothermic fermentation will just constantly raise the cooler temp and have no where to go with the stationary water. The 5 gallon fermenter will need a blow off every time (not a big deal).

But as a lagering vessel it might be great. Keep ice water in it, drain from the bottom and put more ice water on the top of the vessel. It will maintain the temp well, and fermentation is going so slow at that point the heat generated is negligible to the heat mass of the cooler.

 

[alliloop]

I like the idea, as I said before, but I only see it being useful as a lagering vessel.

Yeah, that's all we intend to use it for. However, I must say that I am thinking to myself of just taking the plunge and just getting/building a kegerator and broden my horizons even more.