New Product! Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler

[DeuceDog]

I'm glad I came across this thread before I went out and bought another appliance. It's hard to explain to the wife why I need another fridge/freezer when I've already got 2 dedicated to beer.

As someone in a previous post had mentioned, I'd be curious to see how this would work for lagers in a fridge that runs at serving temps. I'd like to keep my fridge at around 40 F as I've got my serving kegs in there, and use a heat wrap to bring the temp up to 50 F inside the carboy cooler for lager fermentaions. Not the most efficient use of energy, but I bet you'd have pretty decent temp control without having to drink warm beer. Has anyone tried this yet?

 

[asidrane]

I can't wait to get mine tomorrow and start making lagers. How much ice should I use to keep the temps appropriate for lagering?

 

[CoolBrewing]

Hi, So far the Fermwrap heater is working great with our Cool Brewing Cooler! With my current testing the Fermwrap alone is rising the wort temperature around 20 degrees over the room temperature. When placed in the Cool Brewing Cooler with the Fermwrap it is rising the wort temperature a consistent 40 degrees over the room temperature. The cooler seems to be holding up great so far to the heat! I will follow up in another 2 weeks just to make sure it holds up well to long term heat.

Just a follow up 12 days later our fermentation cooler is still working great with the Fermwrap. It is staying a consistent 40 degrees warmer then the outside temperature with a 40 watt Fermwrap inside our fermentation cooler.

 

[CoolBrewing]

I can't wait to get mine tomorrow and start making lagers. How much ice should I use to keep the temps appropriate for lagering?

Hi,

This will depend on how many degrees cooler you need to be to room temperature. In our testing in a 80+ degree room around 1 frozen gallon jug lowered actively fermenting wort temperature around 10 degrees.

Cheers to lagers!

 

[EvilDeadAsh]

This thing is awesome. After a failed SOF build, I was going to give a swamp cooler a try but didn't really feel like dealing with the mess. This product seemed like a great alternative.

+1 on customer service - I ordered mine through Amazon and received a shipping notification within hours!

I received my cooler earlier this week, brewed on Tuesday. I was able to get my wort down to about 90 degrees quickly, but I didn't feel like waiting to get it further down to pitching temperatures. I threw my better bottle with 90 degree wort into the Cool Brewing cooler with three (3) 1G jugs of ice, and the following morning it had dropped to 72 degrees so I pitched.

Another 24 hours later, I was able to drop the temperature down to 62 degrees and my primary fermentation is chugging along wonderfully! I went to swap out the ice jugs last night, assuming they were melted and discovered there was still a significant amount of ice left in both jugs - so I left them another 12 hours.

Temperature is holding great and I am really happy with my purchase.

Pros: Cheaper than SOF, low tech cooling solution, cleaner than swamp cooler
Cons: None come to mind, loving it so far!

 

[asidrane]

Do you think I could use this with a kegging setup? I imagine that kegged beer should be easier to cool than fermenting beer.

On a different note, I put my saison with a heating pad in the chamber last night and this morning I could see that the yeast activity had ramped up quite a bit.

 

[TheSmithsEra]

I used this last night and I used one liters because I misread the approximate calculation. Even still it lowered the temp with a blow off tube attached to stay in range. Now to only follow directions!

I love this thing!

 

[libeerty]

As someone in a previous post had mentioned, I'd be curious to see how this would work for lagers in a fridge that runs at serving temps. I'd like to keep my fridge at around 40 F as I've got my serving kegs in there, and use a heat wrap to bring the temp up to 50 F inside the carboy cooler for lager fermentaions. Not the most efficient use of energy, but I bet you'd have pretty decent temp control without having to drink warm beer. Has anyone tried this yet?

I will be your guinea pig. I am going to try this. Just ordered it.

Though, I am wondering if it makes more sense to just turn my thermostat to 65F in my apartment, then cool down the fermenter to 50F using it?

 

[amh61]

Has anyone tried using their cooler for cold-crashing? If so how much ice did you have to use to get it to sufficient temperature?

 

[littlelord]

I ran across this thread today... 10 minutes later I ordered two bags. I brew in a small NYC apartment so there's definitely no room for another fridge... this looks like my solution!

 

[libeerty]

This product does not really advertise that it could work for lagering, but I am going to give it a shot. My apartment is at about 65F, so I think I can get my lager down to the 50F I am looking for. Will let you all know how it works out..

 

[chask31]

Do you think I could use this with a kegging setup? I imagine that kegged beer should be easier to cool than fermenting beer.

On a different note, I put my saison with a heating pad in the chamber last night and this morning I could see that the yeast activity had ramped up quite a bit.

Sounds like a good idea to pre-chill a keg when you know the keg in the kegerator will be kicked in a day or two. I always hate having to wait to taste a new keg until the next day!

Well, I am definitely ordering this. I live in a small apt in NY and I stick to saisons and belgian golden strong in the summers. Now, I dont have to!!

 

[DeuceDog]

Tried out the cooler for the first time yesterday, and wasn't disappointed. Using 3 frozen 2 litre bottles, I brought the temperature down to 58F from 69F in 12 hours. Good thing I'm using notty yeast, because i didn't expect that much of a temp drop in that short of time.

Super simple, super effective, and super easy. Highly recommended. :rockin:

 

[Czm]

Ordered one. Can't wait to try out for this weekends brew.

 

[libeerty]

I am having tremendous success keeping my lager at a steady 50/52 (I use adhesive temp strips, so probably 51. Ambient temperature ~70) I froze five 3 liter Poland Spring bottles, put four in, and each morning and afternoon I replace a watery one with a frozen one. It is fermenting away, and I couldn't be happier. This product should definitely advertise the fact it can be used to cool down to lager temps, as that would be a big selling point for folks.

 

[DeuceDog]

I am having tremendous success keeping my lager at a steady 50/52 (I use adhesive temp strips, so probably 51. Ambient temperature ~70) I froze five 3 liter Poland Spring bottles, put four in, and each morning and afternoon I replace a watery one with a frozen one. It is fermenting away, and I couldn't be happier. This product should definitely advertise the fact it can be used to cool down to lager temps, as that would be a big selling point for folks.

Nice! I just may have to try making my first lager!

 

[littlelord]

I live in a small NYC apartment and don't have room for a fermentation chamber... i was so excited by this thread that I rushed out and ordered one before looking at the dimensions. Just received my cooler yesterday... fast shipping. Haven't used it yet but it looks like a quality product. Only thing is... this thing is HUGE! Seriously though they should make a smaller version for those of us that ferment in 3 gallon carboys. Anyway, I can't wait to use this thing....

 

[CoolBrewing]

I am having tremendous success keeping my lager at a steady 50/52 (I use adhesive temp strips, so probably 51. Ambient temperature ~70) I froze five 3 liter Poland Spring bottles, put four in, and each morning and afternoon I replace a watery one with a frozen one. It is fermenting away, and I couldn't be happier. This product should definitely advertise the fact it can be used to cool down to lager temps, as that would be a big selling point for folks.

Thank you for the feedback! Cheers to lagers!

 

[Beer-lord]

I have posted in this thread a number of times about how pleased I am with this cooler 'bag'. I even bought a second one to get me thru the summer.
However, I have even more proof that my money was extremely well spent.......
I live just outside of New Orleans (Metairie) a suburb and as some may know, we were lucky enough, almost exactly 7 years to the day to have another troubling hurricane that was supposed to be an easy one (I've been thru dozens in my life) but this one dumped lots of rain but worse, knocked out much more power than most so called 'small' storms. My power went out Tuesday night at 9:15 and I just got it restored on Sunday, at 11:30 am. Almost 5 full days without power. I have a generator that I used for my two refrigerators, my kegerator (priorities man!) and an over the air tv and a small fan to watch my sweat move around my body.

I had brewed a batch of Breakwater Pale Ale 2 weeks ago and it was too early when power went out to keg it. So, since my generator kept my freezers frozen, I kept changing the frozen bottles out as normal. Yesterday the temperature in my house hit 85 at 5pm and only went down to 84 at 6 am. This little bag kept my beer at 68 degrees. It's been keeping it at 64 but I could have added more frozen packs to keep it at 64 for 68 worked fine for me.
Without this bag, I would have ditched the beer or had to work much harder with a swamp cooler and a mess. Something I didn't have time for or want to do when I already had enough on my mind. I didn't need convincing, but anyone thinking about this and sitting on the fence is just wasting time. This product will always have my seal of approval!

 

[johnfrankl]

Im ordering one now! BUT I also hope you make a smaller version for 3 gallon carboys, etc.

Thanks!

 

[msherretz]

I would like to try these in MY HOMEBREW STORE

[email protected]

 

[jpappilli]

Just ordered mine, great idea!!

 

[bk0]

Count me in the "me too" camp. This product almost works TOO well. I had to use less ice because my carboy was too cold, fermentation slowed to a crawl. Took one of the frozen 2 liters out and everything was great from then on.

Thanks!

 

[JimCharb]

Count me in the "me too" camp. This product almost works TOO well. I had to use less ice because my carboy was too cold, fermentation slowed to a crawl. Took one of the frozen 2 liters out and everything was great from then on.

Thanks!

bk0...can ya let us know what temps ya got down to using the two 2 liter bottles (also what the room's approximate ambient temps were)? Also what it went up to with one bottle and what you were fermenting in (5 gal or 6 gal carboy)? Thanks for sharing!!! - Info Geek

 

[bk0]

bk0...can ya let us know what temps ya got down to using the two 2 liter bottles (also what the room's approximate ambient temps were)? Also what it went up to with one bottle and what you were fermenting in (5 gal or 6 gal carboy)? Thanks for sharing!!! - Info Geek

Sure. I was using a 5 gallon PET carboy for a batch of mead. Ambient room temp was around 70-75 F. Temperatures initially got down to 50-52 F which made fermentation slow down too much.

I was actually using four 1 liter bottles, so I removed two. After that temps went up into the high 50s/low 60s which worked better.

 

[JimCharb]

Sure. I was using a 5 gallon PET carboy for a batch of mead. Ambient room temp was around 70-75 F. Temperatures initially got down to 50-52 F which made fermentation slow down too much.

I was actually using four 1 liter bottles, so I removed two. After that temps went up into the high 50s/low 60s which worked better.

Thanks! Helps others to gauge what they might need to get to where they want to go re: temps.

 

[jpappilli]

Got mine today, Fermenter is in and getting Cool...

 

[DoctorDuvel]

I'm using this thing, for the second time, to make a LAGER. The heat from the fermentation helps regulate the ambient air in the cooler, and i add a warm water bottle - the process is easier than an ale!

 

[ThatGeekGuy]

Using mine for the first time, with a 7 gallon plastic fermenter bucket and two 2L bottles. I started off putting two frozen 2L in, and the temp dropped about 15F overnight. The next day both bottles were about half melted, so I swapped out one for a fresh frozen and left the other as-is to melt completely. Since then, I swap out the fully melted one with a fresh frozen every 12 hours and I'm getting a temp drop of ~10F in a 78F ambient room.

I'm liking this, any discount for repeat purchases?

 

[Beer-lord]

I've got 2 that I've used for back to back brews going on 3 times. Early in the summer, I could only ferment 1 batch every 3 weeks, Now I can do 2. The extra beer is needed for football season. I'm going to have to start charging my friends.