Cooling carboy during fermentation

[Whymby]

I live in the hot desert and can't keep my carboy cool in the summer. Any ideas or products anyone knows of that I can use? Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[agodfrey11]

I live in the hot desert and can't keep my carboy cool in the summer. Any ideas or products anyone knows of that I can use? Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!

I use a 100 or so quart cooler standing upright and swap out ice bottles. Keeps it at about 66 to 68 degrees.

 

[tesilential]

9cu chest freezer and Ranco digital temp controller. Set it and forget it til bottling day.

 

[SickTransitMundus]

Yes, a chest freezer + temperature controller is your best option. If you camp out on craigslist long enough you can find one for less than $100.

 

[Whymby]

Sounds good thanks! If I can't afford a chest freezer now do they make any type of cold jacket for carboys?

 

[Mishkan]

If you have a bucket big enough for your carboy (sometimes bottling bucket, sometimes a home depot bucket). Fill it with water (and ice) and then cover it all with a blanket. Switch out the water and ice as needed (you can reuse the water). That should hopefully tide you over til you can get yourself a ice chest.

 

[TeamRockSteady]

The upright cooler idea is so simple and effective I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it before now! I'm in Georgia dealing with near 100' temps right now...with a cooler and a few chill blocks, my fermenter is sitting at a comfy 66-68'.

 

[BigTerp]

The upright cooler idea is so simple and effective I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it before now! I'm in Georgia dealing with near 100' temps right now...with a cooler and a few chill blocks, my fermenter is sitting at a comfy 66-68'.

I'll probably eventually upgrade to a chest freezer type fermentation chamber. But my igloo cooler that is now a swamp cooler works extremely well and is ridiculously easy to use. I had to swap out frozen water bottles 3 times a day, and even 2 bottles at a time, when fermentation was at its peak. But the temperature stayed a steady 63-65 degrees. Now that fermentation is pretty well complete I only have to swap out 1 water bottle 1-2 times a day to keep it at 63-65 degrees.

 

[Clementine]

I have a drinks fridge out in the garage and SWMBO would not allow me to turn it into a beer fermentation chamber, as it is an old fridge I drilled a hole in the side of the freezer attached some PVC to go through the insulation and used an insulated hose to feed cool air into my fermentation chamber. I made that from 2 sheets of 1/4" hardboard from HD and packing foam peanuts and styrofoam from items ordered at work. I made it with 4" of insulation and it works great. The hole thing probably cost less than 20 bucks to build.

My latest addition was a micro-controller temp sensor and fan to draw more or less air from the freezer to hold the temp. The only catch at the moment is I need a thermowell as initial temps from active fermentation require a cooler air temp to compensate.

Clem