Tricks to control temp?

[Hackinjeebs]

I live in an area that can get pretty dang hot. I cant really ferment my beer below 70. I also do not have any kind of fridge or temp controller besides my house AC. Anyone know of any tricks for controlling temp in this sort of setting?

 

[FifteenTen]

There are all kinds of tricks, wet t-shirt and a fan, set your fv in a tub of water and add ice daily as need, etc. But frankly I couldn't be bothered. I hide my fvs in the coolest room in the house with the A/C set on 72̊. I'm not going to win any competitions, but I'm drinking fine beer none the less. With that said, I've got 5 batches under my belt and I am by no means a novice, much less an intermediate or an expert. Ask me again in a year and I'll probably have $500 in temp control apparatus.

 

[eastoak]

the old tub full of ice works well and so does a cheap mini fridge off of craigslist.

 

[Hackinjeebs]

Wet shirt and a fan eh? That seems the most viable for my situation. I am not out to win a competition either. But I also like good beer. Anything I can do to maximize the quality of the product with out blowing a butt load of money is a win.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Just get one of those big plastic storage bins, put your fermenter in it, fill it up with water, and then add ice as needed. My apartment holds around 70*, and I'm able to hold the low 60s with very little effort (swapping out a gallon jug filled with ice twice a day), and the low 50s with slightly more effort (two gallon jugs three times a day). Works well enough for me, and I'm on a very tight budget. Once I've got some expendable income I'll put together a proper fermentation chamber, but this does the trick for now.

 

[Hackinjeebs]

That is a great idea too. I actually bought several large totes for storing my equipment and bottles that are conditioning in. Perhaps I could utilize one as a cooler instead.

/ponder.

Thanks for the tips guys. This is great.

 

[eastoak]

controlling fermentation temps is one of the best ways to take your beer to the next level of quality.

 

[Haputanlas]

Do you have a budget for this trick you are looking for?

$10?
$50?
$100?

 

[Haputanlas]

the old tub full of ice works well and so does a cheap mini fridge off of craigslist.

Craigslist is a homebrewer's best friend

14 cu ft Chest freezer and Ranco Digital temp controller for < $100.

 

[ACbrewer]

Change your beer style.. something nice and summery and belgian is a good way to go - they have a decent flavor tollerance for warmer temps.

Although the suggestions listed here are good for cooling the ferment....

 

[jonmohno]

AS far as i know being shortly experienced in dry yeast (ale) just keep it around 60,stick it in a tub and use frozen ice bottles keeping it at 60ish during the first week or two then the last week maybe up to 70. Your first week or two is what you need to worry about then trying not to jump more than 10 deg. But im not shure about conditiong if jumping up to 80 would be bad or not,and havent heard much about, but really its during initial fermentation temps its what you are getting.

 

[Hackinjeebs]

Icic. That is very interesting. I think I will try that. So just water bottles full of ice. Will the temp of the water reflect the temp of the beer?

 

[trevor_b]

Search "swamp cooler" on here for all the info you could ever need.

Freeze water bottles and switch them out twice a day or more as needed. You will get the hang of it.

 

[Hackinjeebs]

Gotcha. Greatly appreciated. I will look into that.

 

[NorthRiverS]

Recently my fermenting bucket was getting over 70 degrees. I put the bucket in my laundry tub and filled it half full of water, then added quart milk jugs filled with frozen water. I added ice as needed to keep the fermentation temperature down. Worked very well.

NRS

 

[Moonraker]

I have one place in the house that stays at a steady 70 degrees. Is it really worth the effort of maintaining a swamp cooler to drop another 5 degrees or so? Like, is a steady 70 significantly worse than a wobbly 65?

 

[billf2112]

I am lucky, I have a 5 ft by 5 ft closet in my basement that never goes about 70 degrees. In the winter with the door kinda sealed (rolled blanket on the floor) it stays around 50. I lagered there last winter. I did the large bucket (like $10 at wall mart) and rotated frozen 2 liter bottles of water. 3 at a time kept me at a steady 40 degrees.

Sad thing is part of me cannot wait for winter to fix the little issues I have with my lager.

 

[Daybis]

I've use to wrap my carboys or buckets in a towel and mist them with a spray bottle. Check on them every few hours to make they are still damp and I've had pretty good luck keeping temps around 68 degrees.

 

[Yooper]

I have one place in the house that stays at a steady 70 degrees. Is it really worth the effort of maintaining a swamp cooler to drop another 5 degrees or so? Like, is a steady 70 significantly worse than a wobbly 65?

In my opinion, it's worth it! Remember that an active fermentation produces heat itself, and the warmer the fermentation, the faster it goes. The faster it goes, the warmer it gets. I've seen some active fermentations go 10 degrees above ambient- which means a "steady 70 degree room" may have an 80 degree fermentation! That's beyond too hot.

A "cooler" fermentation is slower and steadier usually, and less explosive. Yeast love those hot temperatures, but it doesn't produce the best beer. The best temperatures for fermentation tend to be on the lower end of the yeast strain's optimum fermentation temperature (found on the yeast manufacturer's website). For nottingham dry yeast, it's great at 60 degrees but pretty foul at 72. For Wyeast 1056, 64-68 is perfect. Generally speaking, an ale at under 68 degrees provides the best flavor.

A water bath really doesn't cause temperature spikes. Remember that it takes a long time for 5 gallons of beer to change temperature and that water is a great insulator. I use maybe 5 gallons of water in my water bath, so there is a total of about 10 gallons of liquid. Dropping a frozen water bottle or two in there every day, and floating a thermometer in there, shows me that it's a very slow change to warm up or cool down.

I have pictures in my gallery of my igloo cooler waterbath set up, if you'd like to look.

 

[iron_city_ap]

I don't need to add ice to my swamp coolers, but they work fantasticaly for keeping the temp. @68. In my old house I did have to add ice though. I found using gallon apple juice (good excuse to make a cider) containers work great. They are narrower than gallon milk jugs and I only needed to swap them out once daily. Put a new one in the cooler, put the old one in the freezer. Repeat the next day.

Things in this hobby can get expensive very quickly, and this is one of the least expensive/best bang for your buck things you can do.

 

[wormraper]

I'm going to have to try the ice trick with my first batch. I live in Arizona with a swamp cooler as my home cooling so in July and August when it gets muggy average temps are around 80ish degrees in the house

I'm thinking of trying a nice wheat beer like Dry Heat Wheat (from Brewersconnection.com's recipe ) since supposedly it ferments nicely in mid to high 70s

 

[Moonraker]

In my opinion, it's worth it! Remember that an active fermentation produces heat itself, and the warmer the fermentation, the faster it goes. The faster it goes, the warmer it gets. I've seen some active fermentations go 10 degrees above ambient- which means a "steady 70 degree room" may have an 80 degree fermentation! That's beyond too hot.

A "cooler" fermentation is slower and steadier usually, and less explosive. Yeast love those hot temperatures, but it doesn't produce the best beer. The best temperatures for fermentation tend to be on the lower end of the yeast strain's optimum fermentation temperature (found on the yeast manufacturer's website). For nottingham dry yeast, it's great at 60 degrees but pretty foul at 72. For Wyeast 1056, 64-68 is perfect. Generally speaking, an ale at under 68 degrees provides the best flavor.

A water bath really doesn't cause temperature spikes. Remember that it takes a long time for 5 gallons of beer to change temperature and that water is a great insulator. I use maybe 5 gallons of water in my water bath, so there is a total of about 10 gallons of liquid. Dropping a frozen water bottle or two in there every day, and floating a thermometer in there, shows me that it's a very slow change to warm up or cool down.

I have pictures in my gallery of my igloo cooler waterbath set up, if you'd like to look.

On the basis of that response I headed out to Target for an 18 gallon plastic storage tote. $6.49 or thereabouts. Got something like 10 gallons of water in it and rotating one or two 1-gallon water jugs between the tub and the freezer got the temp down from 74 to 65 in a couple of hours and seems to hold between 65 and 68 with minimal effort. Doesn't have the insulation your set up does but it's an improvement on nothing and, hey, six bucks.

Cheers.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Doesn't have the insulation your set up does but it's an improvement on nothing and, hey, six bucks.

Cheers.

Mine isn't insulated either, and it still works very well. Unless you need to keep much colder temperatures steady (say if you're trying to lager), my experience says that insulation isn't critical. But my apartment is ambient around 70* in the summer, so warmer homes might be a different story

 

[ozzy1038]

I decided on my first batch to be an ale that ferments in the high 60's because of the time of year and what I had to work with. That being said, I have a room that is linoleum tile that stays at 68f and the floor temp is about 66f. We have our thermostat set at 72f. I think it helps that we have no basement and our house is on a slab.

I put the primary in a plastic keg tub with tap water and that keeps it right at 67f with no frozen bottle additions at all. I believe I could ferment lagers with this setup and ice bottles no problem.

A fridge is in the near horizon though as I love beers like Stella Artois, Pilsner Urquell and the like and I need a way to lager them for the required time. Plus it'll give me somewhere to put all my beer that I intend to have soon!!

Best of luck.