Swamp cooler/fermentation temp question

[slothorentropy]

I pitched some Nottingham into a SMaSH at about 70F last night (I know that's high; I couldn't get my temp down any lower with the tap water being ~74F) and put the bucket in my new Rubbermaid swamp cooler. Covered with a t-shirt and tossed in a few bottles of ice. Fermentation has started ~9 hours later, though the temp of the water reads about 71-72f and the fermometer on the bucket is right in the same range. I was hoping to use the swamp cooler to keep things in the mid-to-high 60s. Now that fermentation has started, is it worth adding more ice to try to get the temp down, or would that potentially do more harm than good?

 

[Yooper]

I pitched some Nottingham into a SMaSH at about 70F last night (I know that's high; I couldn't get my temp down any lower with the tap water being ~74F) and put the bucket in my new Rubbermaid swamp cooler. Covered with a t-shirt and tossed in a few bottles of ice. Fermentation has started ~9 hours later, though the temp of the water reads about 71-72f and the fermometer on the bucket is right in the same range. I was hoping to use the swamp cooler to keep things in the mid-to-high 60s. Now that fermentation has started, is it worth adding more ice to try to get the temp down, or would that potentially do more harm than good?

You can definitely swap out the bottles to try to keep it cooler. I think nottingham yeast gets sort of foul when it's fermented above 72 degrees, and it's great at 60 degrees so I'd try to aim for 64-66 degrees if possible!

 

[slothorentropy]

No worries about it starting somewhat warm and cooling off?

 

[Yooper]

No worries about it starting somewhat warm and cooling off?

It's not ideal, but no I wouldn't be too concerned. If you can lower it even 5 degrees, it would be a be improvement and still not affect the yeast's behavior much at all.

 

[slothorentropy]

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply, man! I just threw in a bunch of ice cubes and got it down to about 65F. Should be okay to hold it there for at least a few days. I gather it's most important to hold that lower temperature during the first three-four days/week, yeah?

 

[Ravenshead]

I think you'll find frozen coke bottles are easier than ice cubes for holding temp. They take longer to melt so your thermal mass changes slower. I usually keep my fermenter in the cooler for at least the first seven days but the first three of four are the critical ones.

 

[FightingBob]

I pitched two days ago on my Amber with a wort temp of 70F and ambient temp of 72F. I filled my swamp cooler full of cold water and put a bag of ice in it. The "Fermometer" stabilized at 63F six hours later when the first signs of CO2 started bubbling out of the airlock.

It's now happily fermenting at 63F. When the temp rises to 64-66, I put in three to four frozen bottles and it falls back to 62-63F. I do that about every 8-10 hours.

This works for now, but if I had to do this for every brew it would become a PITA.

Time to finish that fermentation chamber.

 

[slothorentropy]

Yeah I've been using ice bottles, too, I just dropped in the cubes to drop the temp quickly.

I agree this is kind of a pain, but considering my circumstances (apartment living, no room for dedicated chamber), this seems like the best practical solution. It'll get a lot easier once the cooler weather comes in, too. High of 68 today!

 

[Ravenshead]

It's actually not that bad. I've been using a swamp cooler in my garage for over a year now. In the winter, the water itself provides most of the thermal stabilization. Though occasionally I have to put an aquarium heater in it. In the summer it's two coke bottles a day. One before work and one before bed. It works fine even when it's 105 *F out.