Rubbermaid Tub - It's a Good Thing

[El Pistolero]

It's 95 miserable degrees outside (at seven in the evening ), it's an almost, but not quite, livable 78F in the house, but my brew is purring along nicely at 60 BPM in it's nice cool 68 degree water bath, thanks to a rubber tub and a block of ice. I don't remember who's suggestion this was, but dang I owe you man! It's a whole lot easier than building a fermentation cooler, and a whole lot cheaper than cooling the whole house an extra ten degrees.

 

[Sir Sudster]

Yeah, it was Brewhead, "piney mountain brewery"..remember. Been doin that since he suggested it. Thanks again Brewhead!

 

[Eskram]

Living in steamy Florida, that's the only way I can keep my beer at a reasonable temp.

I swap out a frozen 1g bottle of water 2x a day, and I'm able to keep it at 58-60 pretty easily.

 

[Sir Sudster]

Man that is purrrrty! Great setup. Cheap too!

 

[El Pistolero]

Yep, this lo-tech stuff is the way to go...so minimal...so, close to nature!

 

[Eskram]

Cheap and effective. My kind of thing.

I'm glad I upgraded to the glass blow-off tube though. Seems sooo much easier to clean than a plastic one would.

I even sacrificed my mechanic's creeper to make the tub easier to roll around if need be.

Of course, I haven't had to move it yet... LOL

 

[El Pistolero]

I started to order one of those fancy blow-off tubes, then stopped myself cuz I couldn't figure out how it was gonna work with the tub...less water, doh!

 

[Eskram]

I started to order one of those fancy blow-off tubes, then stopped myself cuz I couldn't figure out how it was gonna work with the tub...less water, doh!

I normally keep the water level lower until I rack to the secondary, then fill it 3/4 the way up.

I have found that using a weizen glass instead of a water jug will allow me to fill teh tub about 1/2 way and still use the blow-off tube.

 

[robmee]

Where in Florida are you esk?

 

[robmee]

Another thing you can do is to put a old t-shirt on the carboy w/ the bottom in the water which will give you a wick effect(much like when you sweat). Doing this will keep the carboy at about 5 to 10 degrees cooler than your room temp without the ice. A guy in the local brew club swears by this and I must say he can make some good brews.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yeah, DeRoux mentioned that same thing, but he talked about also having a fan blowing across it (the towel instead of the t-shirt) to get that kind of a temp drop. I guess I could get another tub and do some experiments, but I'm too lazy.

 

[Rhoobarb]

Another thing you can do is to put a old t-shirt on the carboy w/ the bottom in the water which will give you a wick effect(much like when you sweat)....

I've started doing that, too. The last two batches, I've put in the sink with about 3" of water, then placed a towel around it and into the water. It seems to be doing the job. My current carboy is ~68oF.

I like that Rubbermaid tub set-up, though! If I don't get a lagering fridge soon, I may try that.