Evaporative cooling technique

[dale1]

Hey All,
I'm new to brewing and had a question about the wet t-shirt/towel trick. Below is a picture of the setup I've done.

I've used 1/2 ounce of starsan in 2.5 gallons of water, hoping to keep mold, mildew and bacteria off of the towels. The fermenters are better bottles which I've wrapped in the starsan solution-soaked towels.

My questions are: will the starsan keep the towels from smelling and getting nasty from bacteria, mold, etc?

Is there any worry of keeping the better bottles soaked in starsan solution for that long?

Anything else I should know from those who have used this method?


Thanks all!

Here is the picture

 

[duboman]

Hey All,
I'm new to brewing and had a question about the wet t-shirt/towel trick. Below is a picture of the setup I've done.

I've used 1/2 ounce of starsan in 2.5 gallons of water, hoping to keep mold, mildew and bacteria off of the towels. The fermenters are better bottles which I've wrapped in the starsan solution-soaked towels.

My questions are: will the starsan keep the towels from smelling and getting nasty from bacteria, mold, etc?

Is there any worry of keeping the better bottles soaked in starsan solution for that long?

Anything else I should know from those who have used this method?

Thanks all!

Here is the picture

It appears that you have set up what a lot if us refer to as a swamp cooler and it is a very inexpensive and effective method is maintaining cooler fermentation temperatures.

For the duration of time required all the star San is really over kill. You could simply fill the tub with cold water and swap out frozen water bottles as necessary. If you need to go colder you can as shown, use wet shirts and a fan to blow air over the tub.

There are countless threads on this site regarding swamp coolers

 

[dale1]

Thanks for the reply Duboman!

I understand and have read plenty about swamp coolers, but I had a couple of questions I couldn't seem to find answers to.


It looks like the starsan may be a bit overkill for a 3-4 week fermentation. However, since I've already set it up this way, is there any worry of keeping the better bottles soaked in starsan solution for that long?


thanks again!

 

[duboman]

Thanks for the reply Duboman!

I understand and have read plenty about swamp coolers, but I had a couple of questions I couldn't seem to find answers to.

It looks like the starsan may be a bit overkill for a 3-4 week fermentation. However, since I've already set it up this way, is there any worry of keeping the better bottles soaked in starsan solution for that long?

thanks again!

You're welcome,

No there should be no concern with the star san

 

[flars]

I do the same with wet t-shirts and towels. I add a fan if necessary. I do not cover the fermometer strip though. My thinking is the temperature would be lower than the wort temperature because of the cooling effect of the wet cloth directly on it. This also means keeping the fermentor in a dark area and checking temperature with a flashlight.