Controlling Fermentation Temperature

[cbarriere19283]

Hi all,

Just curious what types of tricks and techniques different people are using to control their ferm temp. I personally can really only ferment in my bed room (city life, small place) and sometimes that sucker starts to get to warm in there. Anyone have any good home remedies they use to keep the carboy nice and stable?

 

[Scubadude918]

For my glass carboy, I take a shallow container put the carboy in it, fill with water and put a shirt on the carboy so it'll wick the water up the sides. Then I aim a fan at it.

I've gotten my ferm temp to about 5 degrees lower than ambient that way


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[biodarwin]

I use the son of a fermentation chamber. It works great, takes less space and energy. I rarely brew more than one batch per week so

 

[jlvgolf]

I bought a mini fridge and put my bucket in there. I use a stc-1000 and disconnected the internal thermostat to control the temp. I'm only one batch in but it works perfectly so far. I live in NYC, so I understand the space concerns. A mini fridge fits nicely in the corner though you probably need the larger 4.5 cu ft ones to fit most fermenters.

 

[CrystalShip]

I have a fridge with an stc1000 controller now. when I lived in an apartment I just used a cheapo round laundry tub that I set the fermenter in and poured water in around it. Then I just swapped out frozen water bottles every once in a while. It actually worked really well


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[brettg20]

2 chest freezers in my closet and 1 in my bedroom, all temp controlled...and a very understanding SWMBO

 

[Darwin18]

I use a chest freezer with a digital temperature controller. Set it and forget it. It's has made the most significant improvement on my beer quality than any other piece of equipment / process.

 

[mmlipps]

Square beverage cooler, fill it about a 1/4 with water so the water is halfway up the carboy when placed in the cooler with lid open. Then I add frozen bottles or large ice blocks as needed. The room I have my beer in is often about 80F and using this method I can keep the beer around 68F easy. Sometimes lower. Haven't tried a lager yet. I think the insulation of the cooler and then the water surrounding the carboy creates enough of a buffer from the ambient. I also will cover the top of it with towels sometimes.


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[GreatDayBeer]

I've been using the Cool Brewing bag for the last year and a half.
I usually change out the frozen water bottles twice a day and it has made a big difference in the quality of my beers. Adjust the fermentation temps by adding or subtracting bottles. I live in South Florida so this type of approach is a must.

 

[mmlipps]

I've been using the Cool Brewing bag for the last year and a half.

I usually change out the frozen water bottles twice a day and it has made a big difference in the quality of my beers. Adjust the fermentation temps by adding or subtracting bottles. I live in South Florida so this type of approach is a must.

How much can you drop the temp from ambient?


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