Staying cool

Just tell it to be like Fonzie. Everyone and everything wants to be like Fonzie.

 

I use this and frozen water bottles, works great:
https://www.cool-brewing.com/

Don't really have the space for a chest freezer, and coupled with a johnson controller I was looking at ~ 160 bucks, so this saved me 100 bucks. But if you have the funds a chest freezer will be much better.

 

Dude. I own 5 guitars, I drive a Hummer, and I brew my own beer. Cool is not a problem

 

Rock on then. And Cheers!


p.s. I own entirely too many guitars. But I still want more.

 

You lost me at Hummer

 

The wet t-shirt trick works. It will bring the internal temp down 5-10 degrees, in my experience. Set carboy in tray, put t-shirt over carboy, wet t-shirt thoroughly and leave an inch or two of water in the tray, allowing water to wick up. Periodically check to make sure t-shirt doesn't dry out. Nothing to it.

I've never heard of burying a carboy, though it'd probably work. Sanitation shouldn't be a problem, if the carboy is sanitized and sealed, but digging the damn hole and pulling the beer in and out of it would be a major pain in the ass.

Eventually, you're going to want to get some kind of cooler or refrigerator. Watch craigslist.

 

Something I posted before:

My homebrewing area (utility room in my half basement) is a bit too warm now (ambient about 72-73°F). My preference is to ferment my Wit beers around 70°F (although 72°F would be OK). So, since fermentation is an exothermic reaction (it produces heat) I need to ‘manage’ the fermentation temperature. Right now I am able to do that by simply placing my bucket on the basement floor; the basement floor operates like a heat sink drawing the ‘excess’ heat away. I will just use the ‘floor method’ unless the fermentation temperature exceeds 72°F. If that occurs I will place my fermenter in a shallow Rubbermaid pan (about 5 inches tall) and put water in the pan. The presence of water increases the heat sink effect by cooling a couple more degrees. If I should need even more cooling I will place a towel (or a T-shirt) around the bucket for evaporative cooling. If even more cooling is needed I add a fan to the mix. If even more cooling is required I add some ice to the water; refreezable blue ice blocks.

Cheers!

 

Just a little curious... since you make your starters just like you make your beer (and thus pitch the whole starter into the beer wort without undue worry), how do you control the temps of your starters?

 

Any technique that maintains a proper fermentation temperature for a beer will also maintain a proper temperature for a yeast starter. A yeast starter is simply a mini-beer; or at least it is a mini-beer for me.

Cheers!

 

That's what I was curiuous about. So you use towels/t-shirts/fans/ice with your starters? And ice allows pretty precise temp control (at a temp much higher than the ice), even acting on such a small thermal mass? Seems to me that would be pretty hard to control.

 

How could you use the "floor technique" for your starters if by chance you use a stir plate?

 

I don't think JackHorzempa uses a stirplate. But I am very curious about how well all those techniques can actually regulate (without overshooting) something so small as a starter.