pilsner - need 50-55F fermenting environment quickly!

[mboardman]

I ordered and brewed this kit without realizing Id need a much cooler area than my normal 65-70 F basement.

What do most of you do when you need to chill a lager primary? Im thinking I can use my old fridge for the secondary at 35F. But what is the solution for a primary at 50F???

What do most guys do?

 

[SanPancho]

A refrigerator with temp controller. You sir, seem out of luck there.

You can put the fermenter in a bigger bucket, like a keg bucket, fill with water and toss ice in periodically to cool. Folks freeze a bunkch of 1 or 2 liter water bottles and rotate them out morning and night.

Your other option is to use different yeast. S23 is reported to handle temps up to 70 without real noticeable difference. Or was it 34/70? One of these two. Cant remember.

 

[stonebrewer]

Search for swamp cooler on HBT...you can build one pretty cheap. Longer term you will want a temp controller and some sort of chilling mechanism ( freezer, fridge, conical with cooling solution, etc). SanPancho's bucket suggestion is a good stop gap. Good luck!

 

[madscientist451]

Use your old fridge for fermenting, Put the bucket or carboy in with 3-4 frozen 2 liter water bottles. Do a test run with a carboy full of water and see how much ice you need to maintain 55F Get a cheapo thermometer and you're all set. You can have the fridge turned on when you first put the carboy in, turn it off when it chills down. The thermometers that stick on your carboy helps when trying to control temp.

 

[mboardman]

Gotcha. A tub with ice water, makes sense. Cheap too. I like that. Thanks boys.

 

[mboardman]

I imagine I can find the answer to this one, but if I buy an inkbird temp controller for my fridge, how do I wire it up? I mean, is the inkbird simply there to control power to an outlet, which the fridge is connected to? Or do you actually integrate the inkbrid into the fridge wiring somehow? Its an old Sears Coldspot, which Ive used off and on as a kegerator....would hate to lose that functionality.

 

[jtratcliff]

a t-shirt over the carboy ( touching the water) helps, too.. Water wicks up the shirt ... leads to evaporative cooling... A small fan blowing on the t-shirt can enhance the effect.

 

[z-bob]

A refrigerator with temp controller. You sir, seem out of luck there.

You can put the fermenter in a bigger bucket, like a keg bucket, fill with water and toss ice in periodically to cool. Folks freeze a bunkch of 1 or 2 liter water bottles and rotate them out morning and night.

Your other option is to use different yeast. S23 is reported to handle temps up to 70 without real noticeable difference. Or was it 34/70? One of these two. Cant remember.

It's 34/70.

I haven't tried to actually maintain a cool temperature before, but I have used 1 liter ice bottles to chill the beer when I was ready to pitch and it was still a little too warm. Just rinsed them off with StarSan before I put it in the fermenter.

 

[Yooper]

Gotcha. A tub with ice water, makes sense. Cheap too. I like that. Thanks boys.

I suggest a cooler, with the water bath and then frozen water bottles floating in the water bath, switched out as needed. Have the ice bath up to the level of the beer to maintain stable temperatures.

I even made a lid out of foam, so that it's pretty darn efficient.

 

[mboardman]

OK, just watched a few videos on the inkbird setup and see that its all about making an outlet live or not, depending on the inkbird. Isnt that hard on a chest freezer to suddenly pull power away from it? Shouldnt it be allowed to cycle down before turning off the compressor?

Sidenote - I am using a water bath with ice and it seems to be working fine. No coolers I had would fit the fermentor inside, too narrow....but Im still curious about the chest freezer and inkbird setup.

 

[SanPancho]

dozens of threads here about inkbird, STC1000, etc. for temp controller setups. you can buy one prebuilt on amazon for pretty cheap. plug the cooler into the controller, input your settings and tape the probe to your beer and your're good to go.

lots of settings: C/F, temp variation +/-, compressor delay, low/high temp alarms, etc.

 

[ericbw]

If you like projects, get the parts and build it. If you just want it ready to go, the inkbird is almost as cheap as making it yourself.

 

[thunderwagn]

I've got a helles on tap that I fermented at 68f using 34/70. It turned out excellent. I could have fermented cooler, but wanted to test out one of brulosophy's xbmts for myself.
I racked to keg with gelatine and lagered at 36f. It's crystal clear and delicious.

 

[stonebrewer]

OK, just watched a few videos on the inkbird setup and see that its all about making an outlet live or not, depending on the inkbird. Isnt that hard on a chest freezer to suddenly pull power away from it? Shouldnt it be allowed to cycle down before turning off the compressor?

Maybe but so many folks go this route I would lean toward no. I have had this setup for years with a chest freezer, and had an ancient standup freezer in this configuration for a couple years before (compressor eventually died after 20 years or so).

 

[ericbw]

I think the bigger concern is turning it off and then on quickly. So there's usually s delay you set so it can't turn on for like 2 minutes.

 

[oylerck]

A refrigerator with temp controller. You sir, seem out of luck there.

You can put the fermenter in a bigger bucket, like a keg bucket, fill with water and toss ice in periodically to cool. Folks freeze a bunkch of 1 or 2 liter water bottles and rotate them out morning and night.

Your other option is to use different yeast. S23 is reported to handle temps up to 70 without real noticeable difference. Or was it 34/70? One of these two. Cant remember.

34/70. I'm assuming that's why they named it that.

 

[stonebrewer]

I think the bigger concern is turning it off and then on quickly. So there's usually s delay you set so it can't turn on for like 2 minutes.

The temps in a chest freezer change slowly so that should not be a concern. You have a large thermal mass that will keep it stable as well. On top of that, you generally have +/- 2 degree hysteresis built into you controller which prevents any rapid cycling, even without a thermal mass...I think it is safe and I have used one for years without issues. YMMV!

 

[mboardman]

OK, I accept the freezer + inkbird thing. Will build in short order. Was going to convert that freezer to hold kegs anyway, so this will just be half the work done anyway.

Im confused on the 34/70 talk? Are you referring to another type/brand of yeast aside from the S23?

And btw - this pilsner I was so worried about has lost its head of krausen since I put the ferm in a bath yesterday. I knew it would slow down once immersed in cooler temps, but it was foaming up beautifully at 68F....before I got my panties in a tizzy about it. Maybe I shouldve left well enough alone and Id be ok with a slightly fruity pils...

Oh well, each batch is a learning opportunity!

 

[jtratcliff]

Im confused on the 34/70 talk? Are you referring to another type/brand of yeast aside from the S23?

Saflager W-34/70 yeast...

Maybe I shouldve left well enough alone

Probably....

http://brulosophy.com/2016/02/08/fe...ager-yeast-saflager-3470-exbeeriment-results/