New Product! Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler

[lotusworker]

can you add water to this or is it enough to use 2 liter bottles. Just trying to see if hitting a target temp of 52 degrees is viable

 

[Burnmyiz]

I never took mine that low, but you can definitely add water

 

[CoolBrewing]

can you add water to this or is it enough to use 2 liter bottles. Just trying to see if hitting a target temp of 52 degrees is viable

Good question! You can use water however it is not needed in most cases to get down to 52 degrees.

We have tested down to 38 degrees F in a 68 degree F room for lagering without the use of water. We have found that our coolers work great up to around 30-35 degrees F cooler than the room temperature. In most cases a 1 gallon frozen jug will keep around a 10 degree F drop over the room temperature for around 24 hours.

 

[HopHead_32]

Just used my brew bag for the second time for my pale ale... Steady at 67F with changing the 1 liter water bottle every 12 hours. Awesome buy!! Good job guys!


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[CoolDaddy]

First brew I used this with, it worked great. I tried using it again on Sunday, but with 2 bottles and 3 small ice packs I could not get the carboy temperature down at all, it didn't change in 6 hours and was stuck at 75. By that point fermentation had begun and I was forced to put it in my old swamp cooler to drop temps. Any idea what I did wrong? I pitched a bit high, I know, but I don't know why them temps would not drop at all.

 

[pvpeacock]

I found that puting my carboy in a milk crate inside the bag and puting the frozen water bottles in the crate right up against the carboy works best. (smart water bottles work perfectly because they are narrower and taller). In addition, it is best to wait until you have the carboy cooled down in the bag before you pitch the yeast, rather than pitch and try to bring the temperature down after the fact.

 

[CoolDaddy]

I found that puting my carboy in a milk crate inside the bag and puting the frozen water bottles in the crate right up against the carboy works best. (smart water bottles work perfectly because they are narrower and taller). In addition, it is best to wait until you have the carboy cooled down in the bag before you pitch the yeast, rather than pitch and try to bring the temperature down after the fact.

I pitched too soon, I had only realized after I pitched so yes that was my fault. I usually don't pitch that high. Thanks for that tip. I did have the bottles/ice packs what I thought was close enough, but I guess not.

 

[ianmatth]

Having the frozen bottles touching the carboy will definitely get the temperature lower quicker, but I find having the bottles not touching the carboy is better for keeping the temperature consistent. There is a similar system on the market that uses a jacket and a pump along with a temperature monitor and controller for more accurate temperature control. Cool Brewing could easily put together a system with their product like this, and I'd be quite interested in such a system, but if they don't maybe I'll just get the parts and set up such a system on my own. While the system as it stands is good and and very affordable, I use Conan yeast, which is very temperature sensitive, and have had some issues in situations where I went over 24 hours before rotating out the bottles. I end up erring on the side of keeping the temperature too low and have occasionally had my temperature drop 10 degrees lower than where I would have ideally wanted it.

 

[dbsmith]

can you add water to this or is it enough to use 2 liter bottles. Just trying to see if hitting a target temp of 52 degrees is viable

I'll second what CoolBrewing said and say that you can definitely hit 52 pretty easily. As long as you chill your wort pretty low it should be no problem maintaining. I had a lager getting into the mid 40's and I actually had to keep it from getting much lower (using just 2-4 two-liter bottles)! The main thing is chilling your wort after the boil sufficiently. It gets more difficult to chill a 70 degree fermenter than a 55-60 degree one.

 

[Chant124]

Use a 30" 1/2 x 1/2" square wood rod with two rebar end caps to make a support structure for the bag....it will sag and this makes it very stable...temps seem lower than I thought by testing it with carboy with water in it.

 

[bford]

With my house temp around 75, I've had no problem using three one liter bottles to get the temp around 58... in fact, it was colder than I needed so I went to two one liter bottles... to get it around 62 or so.

 

[snooby]

I've had this bag for about two months now, so far the bag is great at maintaining temps. Definitely one of the best non fridge fermentation control methods. One thing I want to point out though is that the zipper for the bag is really delicate, the stitching on the zipper already started coming off and the zipper piece started to fall off. I had to bust out my tool kit to try to get the piece back on.

I would suggest the makers look into this, everything else about the bag is high quality except the zipper and stitching near the opening.


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[CoolBrewing]

I've had this bag for about two months now, so far the bag is great at maintaining temps. Definitely one of the best non fridge fermentation control methods. One thing I want to point out though is that the zipper for the bag is really delicate, the stitching on the zipper already started coming off and the zipper piece started to fall off. I had to bust out my tool kit to try to get the piece back on.

I would suggest the makers look into this, everything else about the bag is high quality except the zipper and stitching near the opening.


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Hello,

Thank you for the comments. We are sorry to hear this issue with the zipper on your cooler! We will look into this immediately with our manufacture to ensure this is not a repeated issue.

Cheers,

 

[FullDraw]

I'm looking forward to the summer temps to test this thing out more, but so far have really enjoyed it.
I cut myself a few 4" PVC pieces to fit over my airlocks based on bucket or carboy and they do a great job holding the bag up off the airlock. This past weekend, our club went to a festival. I took the bag with 4 cornys in it ( placed there vs hauling full). We sprinkled ice between them and it was awesome. Here's my test fit. Didn't even force it and the zipper worked fine.

 

[mtnagel]

Just want to chime in to say I'm the proud owner of a cool brewing cooler. I have a basement and in the winter I have to raise the temp using a water bath and aquarium heater since the basement drops down to around 60F. But in the summer, it gets to around 72F and it was a pain in the butt to have to constantly change out the ice bottles in a water bath and it let to big swings in temp and the ice would melt in a few hours, so it wasn't good when we were gone or overnight. So far the cool brewing cooler seems to be more stable. I only have 1 gal batch in there, so I only needed a couple 20 oz frozen water bottles to drop the temp down to 65F. So far so good!

 

[bhowie4]

Hey everyone -

Reading about how much luck everyone is having with these makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. Fifteen hours after placing my 3 gallon better bottle carboy in the bag with two frozen 1 liter bottles I'm seeing no change in temp. I've taken measurements with both the brewometer at the top of the carboy and a probe thermometer placed on the side of the carboy.

How long has it taken before you guys start to see results? I know I still need to dial it in but I'm getting a little concerned as fermentation is starting to take off.

 

[mtnagel]

It should be faster than that. Stupid question, but you have the lid closed right? Other than that I got nothing because it's really just a big cooler, so nothing special is needed.

 

[bhowie4]

It should be faster than that. Stupid question, but you have the lid closed right? Other than that I got nothing because it's really just a big cooler, so nothing special is needed.

Yes, lid is closed and sealed. The bag is being stored in a dark closet that has an ambient room temp of about 72-78F.

Is there any specific technique I should be using? I have the bottles placed against the carboy at the moment. Also, is too much extra space in the bag an issue considering I only have the one 3 gallon carboy in there?

 

[mors]

Extra empty space would need to be cooled as well so it would affect the cooling capabilities... Maybe try 2 liter bottles. Also what temp was the wort when you put it in the bag? If it was really warm it would take extra time to cool.

 

[bhowie4]

Extra empty space would need to be cooled as well so it would affect the cooling capabilities... Maybe try 2 liter bottles. Also what temp was the wort when you put it in the bag? If it was really warm it would take extra time to cool.

Wort was 71F when placed in the bag. Fifteen hours later still 71F. I swapped out one of the bottles and added two more frozen ones and it seems to have helped a little, lowering it to 68F within a couple of hours.

I would try 2 liter bottles but am limited for space in my freezer. I have a small handful of 16oz bottles frozen as well that I can throw in. Not sure if I can do much about the extra space either except for putting an empty carboy in there. It's a pretty heavy duty bag and difficult to collapse any (except when empty, of course). I could try wrapping in bungee cords? Just not sure why I'm having so much more trouble then the rest of you guys seem to be having.

 

[hopbrad]

only using 1 liter bottles may be the issue. i use two 1 gallon jugs, usually old motts bottles. then once the wort gets in the mid 60's (which takes me about 24 hours) i then switch out 1 of the gallon jugs per day along with a 1 liter bottle. and will also throw in some smaller 16oz frozen bottles here and there.
also if you have enough water bottles to go around. leave the melted ones in there. eventho they arent frozen, they are still usually pretty cold and i feel like they keep the bag cooler too.
but all that said, my room temp is anywhere from 75-80 degrees. im suprised you are having issues.

edit - i also think it is staying around 71 bc your fermentation is creating heat.

Wort was 71F when placed in the bag. Fifteen hours later still 71F. I swapped out one of the bottles and added two more frozen ones and it seems to have helped a little, lowering it to 68F within a couple of hours.

I would try 2 liter bottles but am limited for space in my freezer. I have a small handful of 16oz bottles frozen as well that I can throw in. Not sure if I can do much about the extra space either except for putting an empty carboy in there. It's a pretty heavy duty bag and difficult to collapse any (except when empty, of course). I could try wrapping in bungee cords? Just not sure why I'm having so much more trouble then the rest of you guys seem to be having.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Review for this on my website in my signature. I love this product. I have had no trouble keeping my beer at 66-68 degrees. Perfect and hassle free.

 

[ncbrewer]

Hey everyone -

Reading about how much luck everyone is having with these makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. Fifteen hours after placing my 3 gallon better bottle carboy in the bag with two frozen 1 liter bottles I'm seeing no change in temp. I've taken measurements with both the brewometer at the top of the carboy and a probe thermometer placed on the side of the carboy.

How long has it taken before you guys start to see results? I know I still need to dial it in but I'm getting a little concerned as fermentation is starting to take off.

I haven't tried this product, but my experience with temperatures in general has been lots of heat generated during the lag phase. Even in a water bath, the fermometer often reads 6 degrees or more higher than the bath water temperature during the lag phase. Maybe you're fighting the heat generation.

 

[Burnmyiz]

only using 1 liter bottles may be the issue. i use two 1 gallon jugs, usually old motts bottles. then once the wort gets in the mid 60's (which takes me about 24 hours) i then switch out 1 of the gallon jugs per day along with a 1 liter bottle. and will also throw in some smaller 16oz frozen bottles here and there.
also if you have enough water bottles to go around. leave the melted ones in there. eventho they arent frozen, they are still usually pretty cold and i feel like they keep the bag cooler too.
but all that said, my room temp is anywhere from 75-80 degrees. im suprised you are having issues.

edit - i also think it is staying around 71 bc your fermentation is creating heat.

I agree with Brad, seems like you just aren't using enough to cool it. Many of us start off with at least 2 2litres to get it started

 

[bhowie4]

Alright, two 1 liter bottles and two 16oz bottles seem to have brought it down to 66F which is closer to where I wanted it to go. I would like it lower (at least in the initial fermentation stages) but, again, have space issues in my freezer and barely have enough room to swap out what I have every 12 hours or so. I'm also wondering if it got cooler overnight and "peaked" and was on it's way back up when I checked on it this morning.

Either way, it looks like the bag does work as advertised. Any tips for bottle placement? I'll see if I can make room for some two liters in my fridge. Thanks guys.

 

[Beer-lord]

Since I have 2 of these great bags and don't brew as much in the summer as I used to, yesterday I decided to put one bag inside another bag and put my fermenter in them both. It fit fine and I pitched my yeast at 68 then immediately added 2 quart frozen bottles so that the temp spike would be minimal.
Fermentation started fast, 4 hours after pitching and this morning, it was going gangbusters and the temperature was still holding at 68. I'm sure if I were to add more frozen jugs, I could get this down to 60 easy in my 78 degree house.
This is overkill but is uber efficient and while I'm not using the second one for another brew, I might as well take advantage of it and try it out.

 

[mtnagel]

Last week was the first time I used my bag for a 5 gal batch. I cooled the wort to 68F, pitched the yeast, put it in the bag with maybe 1 or 2 frozen half gal milk jugs. Temp got down to 64F. Then fermentation started and I had to add more ice packs, but the temp never got above 67F. After that it dropped back down to 65F and I let it slowly rise by only putting in 1 frozen 20 oz bottle.

It does require a little fiddling during active fermentation, but it maintains the temp well after. This is in a 70-72F basement, so I don't need much, but really just need to lower it during the active part of fermentation.

 

[fimpster]

I wish I would have found this thread earlier. I have a Kolsch in my basement, ambient is around 64-66ºF. When active ferm started the temps rose to 72ºF. Not good for a Kolsch. Right now its in a makeshift swamp cooler. Today after reading glowing reviews in this thread I ordered one for myself. I will likely order a second one if it works as well as I anticipate.

 

[heckofagator]

I ordered yesterday. The rest of my starter package is here Thursday, so I'm really hoping this bag arrives for the weekend so I can start my first batch.

Seemed to make the most sense for me at this time. I'm excited to check it out.

Edit to Add: I ordered mine from Morebeer.com with their free shipping. While the time is outlined as an additional 1-2 days to ship, apparently they are unwilling to push it to the 1 day instead of 2 when asked, so I guess I won't be brewing my first batch this weekend. Bummer. I'll be steering clear of morebeer for all of my future needs. But still looking forward to my Cool Brewing bag!

 

[fimpster]

Just a quick follow up after having my CBFC for about 5 days now.... This thing is COOL (pun intended!) I brewed up an ESB and got it cooled down to about 70°, pitched the yeast and stuck it in my CBFC with a frozen gallon jug. Within 4 hours my fermenter was down to about 60°. Oops, a little too low. Now I just have a single frozen 16.9 oz (500ml) water bottle in there and temps are holding solid at 64-65° during active fermentation in ambient temp of around 66-67°. I only have to change the frozen bottle out once per day. I will definitely be getting another one of these in spring when temps start rising.