Swamp Cooler concerns CONDENSATION?

[ChasinABuzz]

Hey y'all,
So I've come to the conclusion over your help and my own research that I need to build some sort of swamp cooler. Being the purebred redneck engineer that I am, I've got a cool idea for how I can make a swamp cooler out of tupperware that's going to fit all my 1gal carboys perfect AND will allow me to move it in and out of the closet it will be in without too much sloshing, and hopefully satisfy the better-half's desire to keep the storage closet with all my softball, hunting, fishing, and camera stuff neat. (After 7 years she still hasn't realized this is a pipe-dream yet...)

BUT, here's my 2 concerns I need help with:

1 - Fan? Do I really need one? Or can I just put the lid on the tupperware, water in the bottom, shirts over the carboys, drop in some icepacks and let her roll? I can install a fan in the side of it somehow I'm sure but that's going to turn into a discussion of how much energy "we" are wasting on "stupid beer", which will become a discussion on how much money "we" waste on not returning Redbox movies on time, which never ends well for me even though we all know I'm right...

At any rate, my situation is as follows: I live in Honolulu, Hawaii so it's not crazy humid, (we had a bad year this summer but humidity is usually pretty good year round) and I live at about 800' or so on the side of a small mountain. The closet I'm using is about 76 or so during the day time and doesn't get much lower at night I'm discovering. So given that info, can I just try to trap the air inside the tupperware? Or is that going to be ineffective and cause condensation to gather on the inside bottom of the lid and then drip down the outside? Which brings me to my biggest concern:

2 - Condensation. Should I be concerned with this? Obviously a puddle in my closet isn't gong to be a very welcoming sight either so you can see my hesitation here. If I'm only doing 1 gal batches, 5 carboys at a time MAX, am I going to see a lot of condensation on the tupperware? I know the tupperware containers do tend to condensate a bit, I brought a deer home last year on an inter-island flight processed and packed into a large tupperware with a bag of ice and that had a bit of condensation when I got it back after landing but it was also at altitude in the belly of the plane for 45 minutes and then came back down to a balmy 82 degrees and had a lot more ice than I expect to use for this purpose so my initial thought was that whole scenario may be a bit misleading since it's quite different from doing something like this with homebrewing.

I also had an idea that I don't know if it would help or not, I have the thing figured out to hold 5 1-gal carboys at once in sort of a X pattern if you will, I don't think I'll be fermenting 5 gallons at once in the near future so will it help me regulate the temp to fill a carboy with water and maybe even some ice and put it in the center with the others touching it? Just a thought that popped in my head. The layout seemed way too perfect to not consider it but I wasn't sure if it would have a little to no impact or worse yet, a negative one.

Thanks for all your help!,

-Chase

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

I'm not entirely clear on what you are saying, but...

No, you don't need any fans.

What is this about condensation?? Who cares about condensation? Regulating temperature is the most important part of brewing. If you have a cold surface then water will condense on it to some extent.

Get yourself a chest freezer or fridge and make a temperature controller using instructions found online. Not willing to? Then your carboys need to be in a swamp cooler with frozen bottles of water. If you don't want a little condensation in your closet, then put down some sort of basin or tarp.

I don't know what your last comment means about carboys touching each other. The carboys containing beer should be mostly submerged in the heat transfer media (water). A carboy full of water and ice submerged in the same water will help keep the temperature down. However if the carboys are just "touching" that will achieve nothing. There is almost no thermal contact.

Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers

 

[william_shakes_beer]

If you are concerned about condensation, do what we all do with house plants; put a saucer under it

Seriously, if you're concerned about condensation on the outside of the water bath damaging the floor, and you can't put it in the spare shower, put the waterbath lid upside down, cover it with a towel and put the water bath on that. The towel will absorb the majority of the moisture and the lid will serve as an overflow in the event towel becomes saturated.

And get Netflix. No late fees to worry about, and they have a TON of titles.

To a answer your last statement, I usually do 5 gallon batches in a pail, so dividing the batch into 5x1 gallon containers is already giving you more surface area, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

 

[ChasinABuzz]

I'm not entirely clear on what you are saying, but...

No, you don't need any fans.

What is this about condensation?? Who cares about condensation? Regulating temperature is the most important part of brewing. If you have a cold surface then water will condense on it to some extent.

Get yourself a chest freezer or fridge and make a temperature controller using instructions found online. Not willing to? Then your carboys need to be in a swamp cooler with frozen bottles of water. If you don't want a little condensation in your closet, then put down some sort of basin or tarp.

I don't know what your last comment means about carboys touching each other. The carboys containing beer should be mostly submerged in the heat transfer media (water). A carboy full of water and ice submerged in the same water will help keep the temperature down. However if the carboys are just "touching" that will achieve nothing. There is almost no thermal contact.

Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers

My concern with the condensation is having a puddle in my closet because A- we rent a small apartment, and B- I have to answer to the woman who is going to lose her mind if she sees a puddle. The chest freezer/fridge idea isn't going to happen. I just don't have the room unfortunately. As far as the last carboy goes I was talking about just using it to help out since there will be dead space in the center of the pattern. I hardly ever have 5 gallons going at once, I keep an empty carboy to rack to in case I need. So my though was sticking some water and ice in that empty one and putting it in there like a big ice pack of sorts might help get the temp down too. My question about them touching was really just describing where it would be inside the cooler (in the middle of the "X" pattern)

 

[ChasinABuzz]

If you are concerned about condensation, do what we all do with house plants; put a saucer under it



Seriously, if you're concerned about condensation on the outside of the water bath damaging the floor, and you can't put it in the spare shower, put the waterbath lid upside down, cover it with a towel and put the water bath on that. The towel will absorb the majority of the moisture and the lid will serve as an overflow in the event towel becomes saturated.



And get Netflix. No late fees to worry about, and they have a TON of titles.



To a answer your last statement, I usually do 5 gallon batches in a pail, so dividing the batch into 5x1 gallon containers is already giving you more surface area, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

I never thought about using another lid as a catch basin good call. I was also thinking about maybe taking a 20 and 18gal container, putting the smaller one inside the larger one and filling the void with foam insulation almost like a makeshift cooler has anybody tried something like that before?

Oh and we have Netflix but I'm starting to get the feeling that it doesn't provide the satisfaction she derives from irritating the crap out of me lol

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Oh and we have Netflix but I'm starting to get the feeling that it doesn't provide the satisfaction she derives from irritating the crap out of me lol

Irritating you is only satisfying if you respond. when I first started brewing, swmbo said I had to make a choice... her or brewing. That was 4 years ago and I rarely miss her.

 

[Queequeg]

If you are an engineer take a look at son of a fermentation chiller

 

[specharka]

I'd recommend looking into a CoolBrew fermentation jacket. Inexpensive, doesn't consume much space, no worries about condensation and it's very low maintenance. Just pop a few frozen water bottles in and change them out every 24-36 hours during primary fermentation (~72 hours). Works like a charm and SWMBO won't hate you for it.

As a side note, only the first 72 hours or so are critical for temperature control. Once the growth phase is over, most yeast is happy in warmer conditions.

 

[ChasinABuzz]

I'd recommend looking into a CoolBrew fermentation jacket. Inexpensive, doesn't consume much space, no worries about condensation and it's very low maintenance. Just pop a few frozen water bottles in and change them out every 24-36 hours during primary fermentation (~72 hours). Works like a charm and SWMBO won't hate you for it.

As a side note, only the first 72 hours or so are critical for temperature control. Once the growth phase is over, most yeast is happy in warmer conditions.

Good to know on the 72 hour thing, I didn't know that. I'll keep it in mind for sure thanks! I ended up builded a swamp cooler I'm calling "Optimus" because I got way too into it hahaha. I'll post the results later.