cooling ideas

[martin w]

does anyone have any suggestions for keeping my fermentation temps down,i came home from work (hot day down here) to find my beer had climbed to 27 oC,its been in for a week so i'm hoping there isn't too much damage but that might just be wishful thinking!
i can't afford a fridge or freezer at the moment, the missus won't be too happy if i take over the bath.
any suggestions for an effective ,even if its laborious method of controlling the temp?

[James P]

Hey Martin

In a bath or basin with cold water and wet towel, in addition a fan blowing on it may help.

If you have the capacity to freeze about 6 1.5 litre bottles, then use two at a time against the side of the fermenter, and swap them every 12 / 24 hours.

Edit: just noticed the bath comment, get yourself a party tub from somewhere like payless plastics, or cut a 44 gallon drum down.

[Michael]

Martin,

Are you using a heating pad? If so, turn it off, or raise the bucket off of the pad by a couple inches. (I know, you are probably not using this.)

If not, how about putting the fermenting bucket into a larger bucket filled with water? I have also heard of people wrapping their vessel with a wet shirt.

A final solution is that I saw a bloke use a bunch of styrofoam panels and built a box with a number of compartments. He put ice in one compartment, and a fan gently pulled the cold air across the fermenting bucket. Check this out, it looks real cheap to build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXGUrmvedIo

[martin w]

i'm actually using a heatlamp below the fermenter connected to a thermostat just to maintain temperature at night, i'll get some bottles in the freezer and try to source something large enough to sit the fermenter in.

[jt]

try not using any heating at all. If you pitch a yeast @ say 20C there'll be some lag time and it'll drop down a bit. But when fermemntation kicks in it'll generate a fair bit of heat itself. OK, I know it's cooler at night, but it takes a while for 20+ litres to warm up & cool down. Also, if it's hot, use a concrete floor as a cooling / stabilising infuence for the beer. I find a beer on the convcrete floor is 4 to 5 degrees cooler than on the bench

[martin w]

the heating kicks in at 19 degrees, with this brew i'd be surprised if its kicked in at all, we had snow down here 2 weeks ago and temps were dropping quite a bit so cooling has only just become an issue

the concrete floor suggestion is something i didn't think of, the fermenters on a shelf in the garage at the moment(convenient siphoning height),i'll move it down there and hopefully see some results along with a wet towel!

[jt]

Sorry, hasty reply while the kids were creating a ruckus. The concrete acts as a heat sink and is very a very stablelising infuence on the fermenter.