Temperature control without proper temperature control

Below is something I posted a long time ago which might be helpful to you:

“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.”

I have since built a Son of Fermentation Chiller (SOFC) which I use as a lagering chamber. I could easily use my SOFC to maintain fermentation temperatures but the above layered method works so well for me that I don’t use the SOFC for fermentation temperature control.

Cheers!

 

“ …cool wort to 64 F and pitch, immediately place carboy in pan with couple inches of cold water, place a couple bottles filled with ice in pan, replace bottles every 8 hours or so.” Basically that should work. You will just need to ‘play’ with the amount of ice used and periodicity with change outs which will vary as the rate of fermentation (heat produced) changes over time. By day 5 or so the amount of heat produced will be minimal.
The water acts like a ‘cool’ thermal mass which will mitigate temperature fluctuations.

You might want to try the wet towel (with a fan if needed) method since it is a bit more hands off than the ice swap out but do what you feel comfortable doing.

Best of luck your Orval clone. I am presuming that you will be adding Brett Brux in about a week (or so)?

Cheers!

 

Why limit it to a couple o f inches of water? I have tubs that are about 18 inches high and I fill them up!

Do you need anyone to help you empty some Orvals Friday?

 

get a thick garbage bag and put the fermentor in it. Put ice in and tape the top of bag to the top of fermentor

 

so long as the water level in the tub does not come too close to the level of wort in the fermenting bucket.

once the liquids levels get close, the fermentation bucket will become buoyant. pass the wort level and it floats, which is asking for trouble.
Cheers.

 

Hopefully there will be another space-efficient method soon, the BrewJacket. (Not available yet.) Unfortunately I think they will be somewhat expensive, but probably not much more than a chest freezer + thermostat. I am looking forward to achieving precise control over fermentation temperature.