Brewjacket thoughts

[trogdor447]

I haven't posted on ages I have been actively brewing for a while back in the home brew club meetings monthly etc. I'm eager to see the results of my first batch with the brew jacket. I have some initial opinions and out of box feelings that I will share.

No I'm not sponsored and yes I paid full price... I would love to go mini freezer or fridge... When we end up buying a house I will install one. For now I'm limited on a small apartment so the appeal to get this was nice.

First thoughts from shipping to my door. I'll be respectful and say with better website software this process could of been better. The order was closed and I had to ask for a tracking number. Not the end of the world but left me in limbo as I didn't want to miss this at the post office.

I also received a foreign plug for the power supply. No big deal as I have plenty old ones laying around from my computer's. They are sending a new cord out and don't want the wrong one back.

All that aside the quality of the product is fantastic. The jacket does a darn good job cooling down the fermenter. I pitched an chocolate vanilla porter with wpl001 at 2 o'clock PM at 75 degrees. I didn't go to check on it as I heard the fan running constant. When I got up to go to take the dogs out at 8 I checked the temp was at 69. So it has done its job and I am fermenting out at 68 degrees. The ambient temperature is crazy high where the fermenter is, it us near my pellet stove. So I am rather impressed.

The fan noise... As they say there is no real way to reduce this. It may be 45db it is definitely at a ln annoying 100% load sound of a computer fan. But this being said put it far enough away and you won't hear it over the TV.

Very excited to be able to brew in the summer without worrying about insane temps being hit on my fermenters. This was certainly the most discouraging thing about brewing in the summer. Having to swap water bottles and buckets of cold water.. Just a huge pita.

I'll get pics and do a more appropriate review of the product.

 

[jdauria]

Thanks for the review. Been debating buying one of these while trying to figure out how get it by my wife!

I currently use the Cool Zone fermentation system from www.gotta-brew.com and it works great, for ales. However, you either need to use a ton of ice, or hook up to a bucket of water inside a fridge, so takes up space. I started with ice, but now have a bucket inside a mini-fridge. Problem is between an old fridge and the fact that there is a hole in the door for the tubing, I cannot chill anything down past 50 as the water in the bucket freezes. Hence the reason I am looking at the BrewJacket for lagers.

 

[trogdor447]

It takes some time to cool down but maintains the temp really well. If you can ice bath your wort and fridge a few gallons of top off water over night it should pitch around 60 degrees or so from my experiences. I pitched the ale warm because frankly I wanted to test it and didn't feel like getting ice to bath it. Just used cold water. From what I understand if you have this running constant ie to get a huge temp drop.. It's going to form ice on the road too. So be careful with that. I'm still learning and the brew is holding at 68 and fermentation is blasting this kicks on frequently now to keep it coil. Once initial temp is reached its easy to maintain w the insulation