An idea about keeping fermenter cool

[dcodd87]

Ok, I live in a apartment, so space is definitely not a luxury. Anyways, I know a lot of people use swamp coolers. I was thinking of someway I could save on space. I came up with this idea.

Make some type of wrap for the 5 gallon fermenter out of a material that can hold a good bit of water. On this wrap, have 3-5 pouches spaced for holding 20oz bottles. I'm pretty sure this could probably work. Any thoughts?

 

[dcodd87]

The idea is to keep frozen bottles in the pouches. As long as the material stays damp, I'm thinking it should stabilize the temp if not cool it down. I'm no genius but it seems like it would work, and be very convenient.

 

[tally350z]

This?? Kinda what you were thinking?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f168/cool-brewing-giveaway-331840/

 

[dcodd87]

Lol well it was in line with that. I've scoured the webs for something simple like this. So I said f it and decided to think of something my self.

This looks like it would be perfect

 

[tally350z]

yea, never used one so I don't know how well they work but it seems like it would..

 

[Banzai]

I got one of those $5 18 gallon plastic toats and 4 gallons of spring water from WalMart. Open the water gallons and pour out about 3 cups, recap, and place in the freezer. Place the fermenter(primary or secondary, bucket or carboy) in the toat and cover the fermenter with an old Tshirt, airlock out the neck hole. Place one of the frozen gallons of water (now a nice block of ice) into the toat and fill with water up to the level of what is in the fermenter. Every 8 hours, put a new ice jug in and place the old one back in the freezer for reuse later.

I've easily been able to maintain temps between 60 and 70*F in a room that stays in the high 80s. Use two jugs of ice to get lower temps and more stability.

Don't forget to let some of the water out of the water jugs before freezing, otherwise, you'll split the plastic jug. Trust me on this!

 

[sieglere]

I got one of those $5 18 gallon plastic toats and 4 gallons of spring water from WalMart. Open the water gallons and pour out about 3 cups, recap, and place in the freezer. Place the fermenter(primary or secondary, bucket or carboy) in the toat and cover the fermenter with an old Tshirt, airlock out the neck hole. Place one of the frozen gallons of water (now a nice block of ice) into the toat and fill with water up to the level of what is in the fermenter. Every 8 hours, put a new ice jug in and place the old one back in the freezer for reuse later.

I've easily been able to maintain temps between 60 and 70*F in a room that stays in the high 80s. Use two jugs of ice to get lower temps and more stability.

Don't forget to let some of the water out of the water jugs before freezing, otherwise, you'll split the plastic jug. Trust me on this!

Can you lager in this? (Provided its not hot as hell in the room)

 

[hepcat]

I think his problem is he doesn't have room for a large beer tub/toat in his small apt. so is trying to think of a viable alternative.

And no, you could not lager with a swamp cooler.

Something else to consider dcodd87, if yours finishes as fast as mine has so far, you'll only have the swamp cooler set up for for ~week. Good luck.

 

[dcodd87]

Well I have enough room for that, I just didn't want to deal with all the water in the tub. I'm thinking son of fermentation chiller. Good on the electric bill, small, seems viable to me.