New Product! Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler

[lockwom]

I kegged for awhile, but took a hiatus so my chest freezer could instead act as fermentation chamber. Now that I've learned the value of temperature control, I'm returning the freezer to kegging because I'm sick of bottling.

I know most people have the space for a kegerator and a ferm chamber, but I simply do not. This looks like a good solution, so I just ordered it. My analog Johnson controller still required monitoring anynow, so keeping an eye on bottles isn't anything new.

Has anyone experimented with dry ice for more persistent cooling? I plan on having the zipper open slightly for a blowoff tube anyhow, so one would assume gas could escape there.

 

[Safa]

Havent thought about dry ice, but as for a blow off tube, mine fits right inside the cooler. No need to create space for heat to get in IMO!

 

[lockwom]

I'll try external blowoff first; I'm presuming more heat will escape through the tube than enter the bag at peak fermentation, and less potential for excessive moisture accumulating in there.

Not that I know what's ideal, but looking forward to experimenting!

Cool brewing, you should consider marketing this to brew shops in big cities. Folks in NYC and DC are generally tight on space.

 

[vp1]

Not sure if this was discussed already but I was able to get 2 5 gallon glass carboys in and maintain low 60's with ambient temps of 70 with two 1 liter bottles. Just recently I was BARELY able to squeeze a 6.5 gallon glass and a 7 gallon (the tall and skinny one) bucket in. Same temperatures demands as before. Adds a lot of flexibility to be able to have two active fermentations at once cooled. Good product!

 

[BxBrewer]

I would want the co2 to stay in the bag and replace o2. I use a can of "damp rid" inside the cooler along with blow off tube and bottles. There more than enough space.

 

[lockwom]

Does anybody have a controlled experiment (like Kaiser's) where fermentation blowoff is inside and outside an insulated fermentation chamber?

I would suspect that since fermentation is exothermic, the escaping CO2 in a blowoff tube going outside the bag could carry substantial heat away like a chimney.

I wouldn't worry too much about replacing O2 in your bag. People successfully ferment in crawlspaces, which always seems dangerously dirty. The key is a sealed airlock.

 

[Safa]

Good thinking Lockworm, afraid I've not done it.

What is the coldest anyone has achieved? If you started out with like 8 frozen two litres and switched two of them out every 12 hours, how cold do you think we could get fermentation?

 

[bfinleyui]

I have no doubts you could get down to lagering temps, but it'd be a pain in the ass. If you have a freezer big enough to put 8 frozen two liters in, might as well put an STC on it and put your beer in there

Personally, I just hooked up a raspberry pi last night as I changed my ice, so you can go here and see the temp readings over the last 15 hours or so.

 

[lockwom]

Personally, I just hooked up a raspberry pi last night as I changed my ice, so you can go here and see the temp readings over the last 15 hours or so.

Brilliant! Passive temperature control.

 

[CoolBrewing]

Good thinking Lockworm, afraid I've not done it.

What is the coldest anyone has achieved? If you started out with like 8 frozen two litres and switched two of them out every 12 hours, how cold do you think we could get fermentation?

Good Question. I just lagered a Noble Pilsner in a 65 degree room getting it down to 40 degrees F and holding it there. It took 3-4 frozen gallon jugs to lower the temp then changing 2 every 24 hours.

I will post up a detailed graph soon!

 

[bfinleyui]

So based on that, looks like with some diligent attention, I could use this to cold crash before bottling, to get a clearer beer... Awesome

 

[dgarner58]

just ordered this...looks like a great inexpensive way to keep my stuff in the 60's without taking up a bathtub.

 

[dbsmith]

Got my lager chilling at 50 degrees easily. This is a great product! Not only can I now do lagers properly, but I can have people over without my girlfriend being embarrassed by the ugly swamp cooler.

 

[bfinleyui]

I've got both brews currently fermenting in this bag, one a 3-gallon Magic Hop Dust IPA, the other a 5.1 gallon cream of 3 crops hooked up to a blowoff. One gallon milk jug and one half gallon milk jug are keeping them both under 65, even as they're both bubbling away.

 

[lockwom]

Worth mentioning a very simple test case before I got too ambitious with this thing.

Fermenting in a 68 deg F room, keeping a aggressively fermenting beer at 66 F for the past couple days by only rotating out single 20 fl oz bottles of ice every 12 hours. As a test last night, I took the bottle out without replacement for about 30 mins, and the carboy temperature climbed 2 deg very rapidly, showing that the ice are indeed regulating the temperature extremely well.

Each time I've swapped the water bottle for a freshly frozen one, there has been substantial ice remaining, meaning I could have probably left each small bottle longer. With my analog Johnson temperature controller, I felt I had just as much supervision of the early stages of fermentation.

This beer would have easily climbed into the 70s were it fermenting without any controls, so I'd already declare success.

As a side note, I have the blowoff tube running out of the bag, sandwiched between the two zippers because I have the chamber in a precarious spot in my small house, and I'd rather someone not accidentally bump the bag and spill sanitizer and open the blowoff to air. In the future, I'll probably keep the blowoff tube inside the bag because I measured the temperature of the sanitizer solution the blowoff is directed to, and it was 64F in a 68F room -- indicating the blowoff is carrying cooler air out of the bag with it, and should stay contained in the bag. Good to know when I have an extended 60F fermentation up next!

Another experiment for next time: prechilling the chamber before I pitch the yeast and move the carboy inside, giving the ice a head start. Perhaps I can record temperature timeseries with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino next time so I can remotely monitor my fermentation temperature.

 

[dbsmith]

Another experiment for next time: prechilling the chamber before I pitch the yeast and move the carboy inside, giving the ice a head start. Perhaps I can record temperature timeseries with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino next time so I can remotely monitor my fermentation temperature.

This is what I do. I just leave the coolbrewing bag open by the opened porch door while I'm brewing so that the bag is nice a cold by the time my fermenter goes into it. I guess in the summer you could put it in the fridge!

 

[alestateyall]

I bought one when they first came out.. put it away and forgot about it until today. I'm planning on using it during the summer when its hot.. with the ice bottles

But, has anyone tried using it during the winter when they want to raise the temp just a bit? I'm not thinking hot water bottles..

Suggestions??

How about a heating pad and a fan? I put a small fan inside to circulate the air when cooling and it works wonders. I suppose air moving over a heating pad would have a similar effect.

 

[bfinleyui]

Maybe put the cooler on top of the pad, so there's a little heat, but not directly on the fermenter?

 

[Nikobrew]

I was thinking the same thing. It's 4f out right now though so I'm figuring in the garage I'd need a pretty nice heat pad or a really strong heater to keep temp, then I'm concerned about safety if there's an actual heater involved. I may put it inside but indoor space is more limited right now. If hot water bottles did the trick that would be awesome. I wonder if any testing has been done on this.

 

[HokieBrewer]

I bought one when they first came out.. put it away and forgot about it until today. I'm planning on using it during the summer when its hot.. with the ice bottles

But, has anyone tried using it during the winter when they want to raise the temp just a bit? I'm not thinking hot water bottles..

Suggestions??

Exactly what I'm doing right now. We have a sunroom that stays at about 60 during the day and 55 at night. I keep the bags open during the day and it stays 64 inside ambient and then o zip them shut at night...

 

[CoolBrewing]

Hi Everyone , These are good questions!

We have tested with a 40 watt Fermwrap heater and it worked great. We tested up to 115 degrees F with no issues however we have not used a brewbelt or heating pad yet.

The results with the Fermwrap were as follows:
1.) The Fermwrap alone raised wort temperatures 20 degrees over ambient
2.) The Fermwrap in the Fermentation Cooler raised temperatures 40 degrees over ambient.

The ultimate control with a Fermwrap would be to set up a temperature controller with a Thermowell. Then you could dial in a temperature anywhere up to 40 degrees over ambient and it would regulate itself.

Hope this helps!

 

[Nikobrew]

Thanks for the quick response! Is the Fermwrap you used the same one that Morebeer sells?

 

[CoolBrewing]

Thanks for the quick response! Is the Fermwrap you used the same one that Morebeer sells?

No Problem!

I bought mine from Adventures in Homebrewing however Morebeer's looks to be the same.
http://www.homebrewing.org/product....m=ProductAds&gclid=CLb_iZq1-LQCFelFMgodRB4ACQ

 

[revansCAAD8]

No Problem!

I bought mine from Adventures in Homebrewing however Morebeer's looks to be the same.
http://www.homebrewing.org/product....m=ProductAds&gclid=CLb_iZq1-LQCFelFMgodRB4ACQ

Thank you, I too am interested in a way to slightly warm my Carboys (Better Bottle) and fermenters (plastic) in my CBCooler during the winter. Think Fermwrap would be safe for them and/or the cooler bag? If not, maybe insulate between or lay the fermwrap down under them? Oh and I do have a DIY STC-1000 temp controller I could possible use with it.

Any help is appreciated,
Robert
GypsyBrew

 

[CoolBrewing]

Thank you, I too am interested in a way to slightly warm my Carboys (Better Bottle) and fermenters (plastic) in my CBCooler during the winter. Think Fermwrap would be safe for them and/or the cooler bag? If not, maybe insulate between or lay the fermwrap down under them? Oh and I do have a DIY STC-1000 temp controller I could possible use with it.

Hi,

Using a Fermwrap is safe with our fermentation coolers as long as you don’t heat above 115 degrees F. This was as hot as we could get using a standard 40 watt Fermwrap in our fermentation cooler. This should be well above any desired fermentation temperature for beer anyway!

As for Better Bottle it looks like you should be good as well!

I found this listed on their website:
“Use a heating belt or heating wrap with BetterBottle Carboys? – Many winemakers and brewers do so regularly and without any problems. However, bear in mind that the upper temperature limit for BetterBottle carboys is 60°C (140°F). Do not attach a wrap-style or belt-style heater to an empty carboy or to a section of a carboy that is not filled with liquid and apply power. The liquid may be necessary to draw away heat and prevent the surface temperature from rising too much. If you have doubts about how hot your wrap or belt is heating the surface of your carboy, slip a liquid crystal temperature strip capable of reading up to 70°C (158°F) underneath, as a check. Place the label side of the strip toward the carboy so you can read it through the carboy. “

Hope this helps!

 

[Nikobrew]

So to clarify, a Fermwrap can be safely attached directly to the inside of the cooler? My thought is if you can cram multiple fermenters in there and put your temp controller's probe in a thermowell in one of them, and have the Fermwrap attached to the wall of the cooler, as close to the middle of the fermenters as possible, it should regulate the temps of both beers pretty well. Yeah I know the temp of the beer without the probe will not be dialed in 100%, but it would be better than leaving it a swinging room-temp out of the cooler. I am about to place my order of either one or two of these. I'm very excited to stop putting carboys in the bath rub. I'm also not interested in building a fermentation chamber, and this one is portable! Awesome.

 

[IanJ]

Might have to pick one of these up after the next paycheck, I may end up being able to lager after all!

 

[Beer-lord]

I've got 2 and even use them in the winter with no heat. Once I get it to 63 to pitch, it keeps this temp for weeks with no work at all. I love these bags.

 

[IanJ]

I've got 2 and even use them in the winter with no heat. Once I get it to 63 to pitch, it keeps this temp for weeks with no work at all. I love these bags.

Sounds great! Have there been any HBT discounts?

 

[keanderson]

Just ordered one!