Keeping Cool

[Piggy]

Keepin cool
does any one else have trouble keeping fermenters cool in summer. sometimes temp gets over 30 deg c fermenters in a melamine cupboard in a tin shed. what do i do?
need some sort of aircon/ fridge set up
cheers piggy

 

[Bribie G]

1. use normal font and colouring.... having a shot B)

2. If you intend to brew long term have enough space, get yourself a dead fridge free from somewhere (trawl your local Harvey Normans etc), strip the fridge right down to get rid of motor, grille, all the silly little things inside. Put fermenter (s) in fridge and use two litre frozen PET bottles. Currently in QLD (ambient 30 degrees at the moment) I'm keeping a brew going nicely at 19 degrees with two bottles changed night and morning.



3. As you are living in Victoria then in the winter you can tuck the beer to bed every night with two PETs filled from the hot water system.

Welcome to the forum and happy brewing.

 

[cozmocracker]

or you can get yourself a working fridge and get a temp control unit like a fridgemate and have a dedicated fermenting fridge. thats the ideal! or you could simply put the fermenter in a tub of water with a wet towel wrapped around it and a fan blowing on it.

 

[AlexL]

I've just put on a brew and I'm keeping it cold by sitting the fermenter in a tub of water and rotating frozen bottles of water. This seems to be working well, but I'm concerned that I will have a significant temperature gradient in my fermenting beer, i.e. really cold at the bottom, ambient/warm at the top and just right in the middle, do you guys have any thoughts on this?

 

[PostModern]

I've just put on a brew and I'm keeping it cold by sitting the fermenter in a tub of water and rotating frozen bottles of water. This seems to be working well, but I'm concerned that I will have a significant temperature gradient in my fermenting beer, i.e. really cold at the bottom, ambient/warm at the top and just right in the middle, do you guys have any thoughts on this?

Convection is your friend.

 

[bozzy]

I've just put on a brew and I'm keeping it cold by sitting the fermenter in a tub of water and rotating frozen bottles of water. This seems to be working well, but I'm concerned that I will have a significant temperature gradient in my fermenting beer, i.e. really cold at the bottom, ambient/warm at the top and just right in the middle, do you guys have any thoughts on this?

if your worried grab a submercible pond pump and a length of hose to push the water round a bit. pond pumps are pretty cheap $15+ and hose is pretty cheap too.

 

[Bribie G]

once more unto the dead fridge my friends....

Yup the dead fridge works great, currently have a brew sitting at 18 with two frozen 2 Litre PETs changed morning and night... currently 21 - 30 ambient but gets well into the 30s if the garage door is closed. I can even do a 'fake' lager using Nottingham and 3 PETs keep it down to under 16.


Here's another hint: I have ramped up production and because of the fridge 'bottleneck', after doing primary in the dead fridge I have been racking to secondary in my 25L fermenter and placing on the garage floor on a towel, three Frozen PET bottles around it then wrapping it all in a feather doonah, the one I keep for insulating my urn during a mash. Keeps the brew to under 22 which is fine for ales in secondary. I have also done a Muntons Gold kit from go to woah wrapped in a doonah with PETs and is looking fine (bottling Saturday). Wet towels etc sound like a total hassle compared to just swapping PETs in and out of the freezer.