Newb question regarding swamp cooler temps

[Fishing73]

I am fermenting my second batch. It's a two hearted extract clone. My ambient temp. is 70 degrees and my beer fermentation temp was 76-78 degrees. Way to warm, so I moved it into a swamp cooler.

About 15 hours later the water temp of the swamp cooler is around 56-57 degrees! Holy $%*!

Question,
#1- If my water temp is 56-57 degrees, what is my beer at?

#2- What is to cold?

 

[the_mox]

still pretty new at this, so take this with a grain of of salt
but as i understand it....

#1) inside the fermenter its 5-10 degrees warmer than ambient...

#2) depends on the yeast you used, each yeast as it own temp range, but normally for an ale yeast below 60 is too cold.

 

[Fishing73]

still pretty new at this, so take this with a grain of of salt
but as i understand it....

#1) inside the fermenter its 5-10 degrees warmer than ambient...

#2) depends on the yeast you used, each yeast as it own temp range, but normally for an ale yeast below 60 is too cold.

I know it's 5-10 warmer when outside the swamp cooler, but not sure when it's in the cooler. Water vs air?

I used wyeast 1056.

It's been approx. 14 hours in the cooler and still fermenting very well.

 

[the_mox]

well as far as i know, its the same in the swamp cooler and it is, out in the air...

as far as how hot is too hot..check out wyeast website, and check your yeast temp.

 

[Fishing73]

well as far as i know, its the same in the swamp cooler and it is, out in the air...

as far as how hot is too hot..check out wyeast website, and check your yeast temp.

I'm more worried how cold is to cold. The kit says optimum temp: 60°-72°F. If the beer and water are the same temp, then 56-57 would be to cold.

 

[JetSmooth]

Is this a "swamp cooler" consisting of just a bucket of water with ice or a real swamp cooler that incorporates evaporation through a t-shirt? (If it ain't evap, it ain't a swamp cooler)

If there's ice, you may be able to ditch it and not be so aggressively cold using evaporation.

 

[Fishing73]

Is this a "swamp cooler" consisting of just a bucket of water with ice or a real swamp cooler that incorporates evaporation through a t-shirt? (If it ain't evap, it ain't a swamp cooler)

If there's ice, you may be able to ditch it and not be so aggressively cold using evaporation.

It is in a bucket of water with a towel around it with ice bottles.

 

[tvtoms]

I bottled a batch last week that used wyeast 1056 in a similar sounding swamp cooler with a cloth over the bucket and icy water in the tote/tub. Using my half gallon jug and smaller 12 ounce frozen container, my temp probe read 59 at coldest in the swamp cooler water.

I kept it that way for the first 5 days or so as carefully as I could. Kept it nice and cool all during main fermentation, and left it for 2 weeks more with less attention.

Well, I popped one open last night, only 5 days after bottling.. and WOW it's getting good already.

My goal was to keep the wort around 64 degrees during heavy fermentation and I think it was close, but probably was a bit warmer. Anyway I know I'd do it again because the beer tastes GOOD, lol.

 

[JetSmooth]

It is in a bucket of water with a towel around it with ice bottles.

You can probably take the ice bottles out then and it should settle int oa decent temp that's not terribly cold. Maybe one bottle or so every often to keep it "cool" but not COLD.

Also, while it's a little counter-intuitive, a t-shirt might evap better than a towel.

G'luck!

 

[Fishing73]

You can probably take the ice bottles out then and it should settle int oa decent temp that's not terribly cold. Maybe one bottle or so every often to keep it "cool" but not COLD.

Also, while it's a little counter-intuitive, a t-shirt might evap better than a towel.

G'luck!

Cool, thanks. I will take the bottles out and let it warm up a bit.

 

[ChshreCat]

Just stick a thermometer in the beer and see how cold it is. I don't use the t-shirt and fan, but I put my fermenter in a large tub of water and put ice bottles in that. I know the water is going to get damned cold, but the beer keeps on chugging along. I've never checked the temp of the water, but the beer is always in the 60's when I've checked it directly.

I'd check the temp before pulling out the ice bottles. You're probably in the low 60's now and it might warm up too much if you take out the ice.

 

[tvtoms]

I say 56 to 57 sounds absolutely perfect for swamp cooler water temp.

Is it well confirmed that ferment temp is ~10 degrees hotter than swamp cooler temp? Because without ice, swamp cooler water temp will be ambient temp anyway.

If the evaporation itself cools the water and not just the air between the bucket and the tshirt, how much so?

 

[arturo7]

tvt, even without using ice a swamp cooler will, in almost all cases, achieve temps lower than ambient.

As for ferm temps being +10, this is not a general rule. This is on the high side.

 

[tvtoms]

Ok, good to know. Because like the OP, I would like to be able to know within a few degrees or less what the real temp in the fermenter is while trying to cool to a specific temp. Measuring the swamp cooler water temp would *seem* to be a good way to know, but perhaps not so much.

Next time I'm going to slip a sanitized thermometer into the grommet hole maybe once or twice a day and take good notes comparing in and out and air temps.

 

[Fishing73]

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Hang Glider]

Water is a large, stable thermal mass - Air is not.

Therefore, the beer temperature is closer to the water temperature (given time) in a water-bath method. Perhaps a couple degrees over.

In an air environment (temp-controlled fridge, etc) the wort temperature will be 5-10 over ambient during the first few days of high activity.