Not your average chilling question

[Tyler Hurst]

So I just bought an anvil 7.5 gallon bucket fermenter with the chilling kit that requires a constant source of cold water. I already have a keezer that I keep at 34*f right next to where I am fermenting. I have extra room in it. Can I just put cold water in that, submerse the pump, and run the hoses through the collar? Thoughts? Sounds better than spending 250$ to make a glycol chiller or refilling ice in a cooler every day. Link is below if you want to check it out.

http://shop.greatfermentations.com...5wu-Y4Wg8NZyFBZuSUnaK1aCU5yByoaRoC0E0QAvD_BwE

 

[NeoBrew]

Been there done that. It will work. You should have little trouble getting to ale fermentation temps. You might need to experiment with the size and materials of your storage tank. I tried buckets and was using a corny keg toward the end. The limitation will become thermal mass and the transfer of heat out of that reservoir. You will likely have trouble getting to cold crash temps. Lager temps will depend on your setup and ambient temps.

When I was doing this I was using an external coil on a glass carboy. Your cooling kit should be much more efficient than my setup was.

 

[Tyler Hurst]

Thanks! I should have no trouble getting to lager temps. Ambient temp is going to vary from 50s to max of about 75. I was trying to think of what type of container to use in my 7sq ft. Freezer which would still slow my two corney kegs to fit in. Also how much water to use (does amount of water matter much?) and if I use a metallic container will water temps remain lower?

 

[mongoose33]

Yeah, it'll work, but the limiting factor will be ambient temp and what temp you want your wort at.

I did something similar, running a glycol reservoir in the freezer compartement of a refrigerator. It worked fine at getting me to lager temps, but not possible to get it below about 40 degrees. That was using 28-degree glycol solution from a chiller.

What I've found is that, generally, it's hard to get the temp in the fermenter below a point 10 degrees above the temp of the cooling fluid. That's primarily because the fermenter is picking up heat from ambient, and the warmer ambient is, or the more protuberances you have sticking out of the fermenter which pick up ambient heat (valves, handles, legs, etc), or the less insulation on the fermenter, the more difficult it is to get it to cool.

If you aren't going to crash and just are going to maintain fermentation temps, you'll be fine doing this.

 

[Tyler Hurst]

Also does anyone know how difficult it would be to connect a BrewPi to this? I already have an electric ferm wrap for heating.