I live in Costa Rica, which is constantly very warm, usually between 75-95+ degrees. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to build/make a spot that could be constantly kept cool in these conditions for fermenting/storing beers. Any ideas would help a lot! Thanks
Small size refrigerator with a temperature controller added on. I use this for fermentations in central Florida and it works great. Just make sure the refrigerator is tall enough for your fermentation vessel and blow off. I use a Better Bottle with a blow off tube into a glass of liquid in the same fridge, it fits in the corner since the fridge is square and the bottle round. Bought the temperature controller online for $80 or so.
Buy/Find a chest freezer. Get a temp controller like a Ranco/Johnson controller. Set it to the fermentation temp you want, and thats it.
Before I got my fridge/temp control unit, I played around with a swamp coorler approach, i.e., fermenter in a container of cool water with towel wrapped around it to help wick water. and fan directed upon said towel to facilitate evap. The evaporative cooling effect helps to lower the temp of the fermenter. You can help keep the temp cool by imersing mild jugs full of ice into the cool water container. If this isn't making sense, I apologize - it's late and the I've lost count.
Swamp coolers works but you need to keep an eye on them...like everyday. Mini fridge/freezer with temp control is easy, just set and forget.
Another option is to build a Son of Fermentation Chiller. The plans are here:http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF Cheers!
That seems like an easy answer, but OPs temps get to 95+. I would advise some sort of temp control, even with Saison yeasts.
