beer is at the mercy of my house temps!

[breez7]

I would like to regulate my fermenting temps a little more to be able to keep the temp a little lower but my house stays pretty warm(70-72). What do some of you guys/girls do to keep your temps down in your fermenting? I would like to be able to try a dunkelweizen using notty around 58-62*f.

 

[McGarnigle]

Swamp cooler. It's not too hard to get down to ~60 (lagering is another story).

 

[breez7]

swamp cooler?????

 

[brewmonk]

it's like a wet tshirt contest for your carboy

 

[breez7]

I like it already! lets hear more. Just wrapping it with a wet blanket or something will keep temps down?

 

[billy915]

What they mean, I think, is put the carboy in a tub of water and throw an old tee shirt around the carboy so the shirt is in the water; then have a fan blowing over the tee shirt. The water should wick up the shirt and the fan will help evaporate the water, creating a swamp cooler effect.

 

[LarryC]

I bought an Igloo Ice Cube cooler. My carboy fits in it with room on the sides for "ice bombs". I fill it about 1/2 way to the top with water & a little bleach to keep the slime out. I use a floating thermometer and can control the temp +/- a few degrees by dropping the frozen water bottles in. You can't close the lid with a carboy in there so I put towels over it to keep light out & cool air in.

Here's the one
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-60-Qt.-Ice-Cube-Roller-Cooler/5663765

 

[stageseven]

I got a rope tub from Target a few batches ago, and it seems to work great. I just fill it up about halfway with water at a few degrees lower than whatever temp I want to ferment at, then check it every couple days and add water to bring the temp up or down. It will only fit one bucket though, and takes up a lot more space, so something larger might suit you better if you're doing more than one fermenter at the same time.

Here's a link http://www.target.com/Rope-Tub-Blue-18-gal/dp/B002C0VBB8/ref=sc_qi_detailbutton

 

[nebben]

I was looking for an exterior fermentation enclosure the other day at Home Depot, and found these same rope buckets for ~$5.99 FWIW.

 

[Yooper]

Here's mine:

I took off the lid, and made a four-layer foam lid out of foam insulation. That way, I didn't have to cut my cooler lid and can still use it as a wheeled cooler when I need to. Plus, the lid was hollow anyway.

I put water in it, and then frozen water bottles as needed to keep the temperatures cooler and stable. In the winter, I have done a water bath with an aquarium heater to heat the fermenter, too. I have a floating thermometer in the water, to check the temperatures. It's nice because even as the ice melts, the temperature doesn't change much since it's such a large volume.

 

[Homercidal]

I use the rope tub and frozen pop bottles. I think Yoops cooler idea is better, but the rope tub was super cheap and my daughter had one for her toys. All I had to do was dump them out and replace it later when I went to the store!

 

[Irrenarzt]

Y'all don't have bathtubs?

 

[springer]

I can get to the low 50's without to much trouble but then again my basement stays in the low to mid 60's all year round

If I need to lager I just use this

or

There are many ways to control the temps from cheap to somewhat expensive

 

[springer]

Y'all don't have bathtubs?

Two full baths four people in the home older home so no free standing shower just the ones in the bathtubs

 

[LarryC]

Thanks for the suggestion on the cooler lid Yooper! I didn't want to put a hole in my Ice Cube lid so I just went with towels but your way gives me the best of both worlds

 

[breez7]

Thanks for all the great ideas! So what is the best way to get an accurate temp of the beer? I just have those thermometers that stick onto the side of the carboy but im not sure how accurate they are. Is that what everyone else uses?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for all the great ideas! So what is the best way to get an accurate temp of the beer? I just have those thermometers that stick onto the side of the carboy but im not sure how accurate they are. Is that what everyone else uses?

Yes, those are pretty accurate. One caution, though- when you put the fermenter in the water bath, if those thermometers get wet, they're ruined. So, either put the thermometer above the water level (but under the level of the beer) or use a floating thermometer in your water bath. With no water bath, those strip thermometers last a long, long time.

 

[breez7]

well thats good to know cause I really like the price of those ha.

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

I'm ghetto, I just fill my bathtub up with water, set the fermenting bucket inside, and throw frozen bottles of water and ice cubes in. I keep the probe from my digital thermometer in the water and I'm all set. I usually just rotate out the water bottles once or twice a day and add a little ice from the icemaker at the same time.

 

[LarryC]

I'm ghetto, I just fill my bathtub up with water, set the fermenting bucket inside, and throw frozen bottles of water and ice cubes in.

I don't think our son would appreciate the ice bottles in his tub but he'd probably go for the green beer!

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I built a small box out of foam board. It is big enough for a 6 gallon Better Bottle and 2 frozen 2-liter bottles. I still use it for cold crashing, sometimes.

My big fermentation cooler is made of foam board, too. However, I took the door off a 4cf mini fridge and attached the box to it. I use an external temp controller. Right now, it has 8 gallons of light lager fermenting inside.

Why are you planning to use Nottie? I wouldn't really call that a "Dunkelweiss". For a real Dunkelweiss, you need to use a wheat beer yeast, IMHO.

 

[springer]

I have ten gallons going right now and the swamp water temp two days into active fermentation is 62.3° without adding any ice the ambient is 64 . I have it sitting on the bare concrete floor in the storage room in the basement.Tthe water started at 48° I just didn't cool the wort as much as usual and just let it stabilize @ 65° and pitched the yeast.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Y'all don't have bathtubs?

Um, yeah, but most of us need them once in a while to actually get ourselves clean........Don't like the idea of going for weeks at a time without showering while the beer ferments........

 

[Irrenarzt]

My apologies, I should have said ya'll don't have an extra bathtub?

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

I don't think our son would appreciate the ice bottles in his tub but he'd probably go for the green beer!

Haha, yeah, no kids yet here. It's just me and my fiance and our place has two bathrooms - we never use one of them so the bathtub is my fermenting cooler.

I typically just keep it cool the first few days, because that's when 95% of the fermentation completes. After that I drain and it rises to about 70 degrees which is no big deal.

This weekend me and a friend are supposed to brew an IPA, but my fiance's best friend will be in from out of town staying with us. There might be some contention around that bathtub...

 

[breez7]

I built a small box out of foam board. It is big enough for a 6 gallon Better Bottle and 2 frozen 2-liter bottles. I still use it for cold crashing, sometimes.

My big fermentation cooler is made of foam board, too. However, I took the door off a 4cf mini fridge and attached the box to it. I use an external temp controller. Right now, it has 8 gallons of light lager fermenting inside.

Why are you planning to use Nottie? I wouldn't really call that a "Dunkelweiss". For a real Dunkelweiss, you need to use a wheat beer yeast, IMHO.

I'm going off a recipe DeathBrewer posted on the partial mash sticky.... maybe I'll try it both ways...

 

[breez7]

cpt kirk: I just went back and looked at the recipe it actually calls for wlp 300 which i have on order I just got it mixed up with the stout im planning on as well which i will use the notty. How will the wlp 300 do for the dunkelweizen?

 

[beergears]

... but my fiance's best friend will be in from out of town staying with us. There might be some contention around that bathtub...

s/he either like beer... or NOT!

if it a "he", you gotta do some talking.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

cpt kirk: I just went back and looked at the recipe it actually calls for wlp 300 which i have on order I just got it mixed up with the stout im planning on as well which i will use the notty. How will the wlp 300 do for the dunkelweizen?

I've never used WLP 300, but Wyeast 3068 is supposed to be the same strain. I use 3068 for a lot of wheats, including Dunkelweiss, and I think it works GREAT. If you keep the temps in the low 60's, you get a good bit of clove and a nice hint of banana.

 

[SanAntoneRR]

60 qt cooler half full of H2O. Wrap in a shirt and put a small submersible pump from an aquarium running water over the top.

Was how I did it years ago.