Best way to keep Fermentation temp steady?

“I've heard folks suggest putting it in the bath tub with a few inches of cold water and a towel wrapped around the bucket.” Yup, that will bring is down a few degrees, This concept is called evaporative cooling. You can buy an inexpensive Rubbermaid type shallow pan to hold the water instead of using a bathtub. Directing a fan on the carboy/bucket will get you even a few degrees cooler. For an ale it would be ideal to have the fermentation temperature to be less than 70°F.

“Another suggestions was to rotate frozen water bottles in the actual wort.” You should never place stuff in the wort/beer; that will cause an infection. You can add frozen water bottles to the water bath if you want to increase the cooling capacity.

Fermentation temperature control is important and you should take steps to get your fermentation temperatures into the 60’s.

Cheers!

 

A swamp cooler (what you described) is probably the best bet if your space is limited. If you have a bit to play around with, I've seen others use small fridges/wine coolers as fermentation chambers. There's also some people building an insulated chamber and using an air conditioner to cool it. I myself have the luxury of having space in the building's basement, and have a chest freezer down there.

Try searching for "swamp cooler", "fermentation chamber", or "apartment brewing" and you're sure to turn up some results.

 

If you have a large enough cooler already, something that would work for a tailgate, then just fill half way with water and rotate some frozen water bottles as needed (not in the actual beer).

 

Pretty sure these suggesters live in a low humidty area . . . a luxury you don't have in Houston. Just like you find whole-house swamp coolers in dry climates (W. Texas) but they are scarce where the humidity peaks (Gulf Coast). It can be made to work if your A/C is keeping the humidity under control, but this time of year I suspect its use is slight. Frozen water bottles will be more effective, you can rotate as little as twice a day and generally keep temps under control. The first 3-4 days are the most critical.

 

This is what I do, but I fill the bucket to the beer line of my fermenter. With ~15 gallons of water surrounding my beer, I can keep temps pretty consistent during the 10-12 hours I am at work.