New Product! Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler

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So based on that, looks like with some diligent attention, I could use this to cold crash before bottling, to get a clearer beer... Awesome
 
Got my lager chilling at 50 degrees easily. This is a great product! Not only can I now do lagers properly, but I can have people over without my girlfriend being embarrassed by the ugly swamp cooler.
 
I've got both brews currently fermenting in this bag, one a 3-gallon Magic Hop Dust IPA, the other a 5.1 gallon cream of 3 crops hooked up to a blowoff. One gallon milk jug and one half gallon milk jug are keeping them both under 65, even as they're both bubbling away.

sLIPL.png
 
Worth mentioning a very simple test case before I got too ambitious with this thing.

Fermenting in a 68 deg F room, keeping a aggressively fermenting beer at 66 F for the past couple days by only rotating out single 20 fl oz bottles of ice every 12 hours. As a test last night, I took the bottle out without replacement for about 30 mins, and the carboy temperature climbed 2 deg very rapidly, showing that the ice are indeed regulating the temperature extremely well.

Each time I've swapped the water bottle for a freshly frozen one, there has been substantial ice remaining, meaning I could have probably left each small bottle longer. With my analog Johnson temperature controller, I felt I had just as much supervision of the early stages of fermentation.

This beer would have easily climbed into the 70s were it fermenting without any controls, so I'd already declare success.

As a side note, I have the blowoff tube running out of the bag, sandwiched between the two zippers because I have the chamber in a precarious spot in my small house, and I'd rather someone not accidentally bump the bag and spill sanitizer and open the blowoff to air. In the future, I'll probably keep the blowoff tube inside the bag because I measured the temperature of the sanitizer solution the blowoff is directed to, and it was 64F in a 68F room -- indicating the blowoff is carrying cooler air out of the bag with it, and should stay contained in the bag. Good to know when I have an extended 60F fermentation up next!

Another experiment for next time: prechilling the chamber before I pitch the yeast and move the carboy inside, giving the ice a head start. Perhaps I can record temperature timeseries with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino next time so I can remotely monitor my fermentation temperature.
 
lockwom said:
Another experiment for next time: prechilling the chamber before I pitch the yeast and move the carboy inside, giving the ice a head start. Perhaps I can record temperature timeseries with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino next time so I can remotely monitor my fermentation temperature.
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This is what I do. I just leave the coolbrewing bag open by the opened porch door while I'm brewing so that the bag is nice a cold by the time my fermenter goes into it. I guess in the summer you could put it in the fridge!
 
ThreeGnomes said:
I bought one when they first came out.. put it away and forgot about it until today. I'm planning on using it during the summer when its hot.. with the ice bottles

But, has anyone tried using it during the winter when they want to raise the temp just a bit? I'm not thinking hot water bottles.. :)

Suggestions??
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How about a heating pad and a fan? I put a small fan inside to circulate the air when cooling and it works wonders. I suppose air moving over a heating pad would have a similar effect.
 
Maybe put the cooler on top of the pad, so there's a little heat, but not directly on the fermenter?
 
I was thinking the same thing. It's 4f out right now though so I'm figuring in the garage I'd need a pretty nice heat pad or a really strong heater to keep temp, then I'm concerned about safety if there's an actual heater involved. I may put it inside but indoor space is more limited right now. If hot water bottles did the trick that would be awesome. I wonder if any testing has been done on this.
 
ThreeGnomes said:
I bought one when they first came out.. put it away and forgot about it until today. I'm planning on using it during the summer when its hot.. with the ice bottles

But, has anyone tried using it during the winter when they want to raise the temp just a bit? I'm not thinking hot water bottles.. :)

Suggestions??
Click to expand...

Exactly what I'm doing right now. We have a sunroom that stays at about 60 during the day and 55 at night. I keep the bags open during the day and it stays 64 inside ambient and then o zip them shut at night...
 
Hi Everyone , These are good questions!

We have tested with a 40 watt Fermwrap heater and it worked great. We tested up to 115 degrees F with no issues however we have not used a brewbelt or heating pad yet.

The results with the Fermwrap were as follows:
1.) The Fermwrap alone raised wort temperatures 20 degrees over ambient
2.) The Fermwrap in the Fermentation Cooler raised temperatures 40 degrees over ambient.

The ultimate control with a Fermwrap would be to set up a temperature controller with a Thermowell. Then you could dial in a temperature anywhere up to 40 degrees over ambient and it would regulate itself.

Hope this helps!
 
Thanks for the quick response! Is the Fermwrap you used the same one that Morebeer sells?
 
CoolBrewing said:
No Problem!

I bought mine from Adventures in Homebrewing however Morebeer's looks to be the same.
http://www.homebrewing.org/product....m=ProductAds&gclid=CLb_iZq1-LQCFelFMgodRB4ACQ
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Thank you, I too am interested in a way to slightly warm my Carboys (Better Bottle) and fermenters (plastic) in my CBCooler during the winter. Think Fermwrap would be safe for them and/or the cooler bag? If not, maybe insulate between or lay the fermwrap down under them? Oh and I do have a DIY STC-1000 temp controller I could possible use with it.

Any help is appreciated,
Robert
GypsyBrew
 
revansCAAD8 said:
Thank you, I too am interested in a way to slightly warm my Carboys (Better Bottle) and fermenters (plastic) in my CBCooler during the winter. Think Fermwrap would be safe for them and/or the cooler bag? If not, maybe insulate between or lay the fermwrap down under them? Oh and I do have a DIY STC-1000 temp controller I could possible use with it.

Hi,

Using a Fermwrap is safe with our fermentation coolers as long as you don’t heat above 115 degrees F. This was as hot as we could get using a standard 40 watt Fermwrap in our fermentation cooler. This should be well above any desired fermentation temperature for beer anyway!:D

As for Better Bottle it looks like you should be good as well!

I found this listed on their website:
“Use a heating belt or heating wrap with BetterBottle Carboys? – Many winemakers and brewers do so regularly and without any problems. However, bear in mind that the upper temperature limit for BetterBottle carboys is 60°C (140°F). Do not attach a wrap-style or belt-style heater to an empty carboy or to a section of a carboy that is not filled with liquid and apply power. The liquid may be necessary to draw away heat and prevent the surface temperature from rising too much. If you have doubts about how hot your wrap or belt is heating the surface of your carboy, slip a liquid crystal temperature strip capable of reading up to 70°C (158°F) underneath, as a check. Place the label side of the strip toward the carboy so you can read it through the carboy. “

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
 
So to clarify, a Fermwrap can be safely attached directly to the inside of the cooler? My thought is if you can cram multiple fermenters in there and put your temp controller's probe in a thermowell in one of them, and have the Fermwrap attached to the wall of the cooler, as close to the middle of the fermenters as possible, it should regulate the temps of both beers pretty well. Yeah I know the temp of the beer without the probe will not be dialed in 100%, but it would be better than leaving it a swinging room-temp out of the cooler. I am about to place my order of either one or two of these. I'm very excited to stop putting carboys in the bath rub. I'm also not interested in building a fermentation chamber, and this one is portable! Awesome.
 
Might have to pick one of these up after the next paycheck, I may end up being able to lager after all!
 
Beer-lord said:
I've got 2 and even use them in the winter with no heat. Once I get it to 63 to pitch, it keeps this temp for weeks with no work at all. I love these bags.
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Sounds great! Have there been any HBT discounts? :p
 
Nikobrew said:
So to clarify, a Fermwrap can be safely attached directly to the inside of the cooler? My thought is if you can cram multiple fermenters in there and put your temp controller's probe in a thermowell in one of them, and have the Fermwrap attached to the wall of the cooler, as close to the middle of the fermenters as possible, it should regulate the temps of both beers pretty well. Yeah I know the temp of the beer without the probe will not be dialed in 100%, but it would be better than leaving it a swinging room-temp out of the cooler. I am about to place my order of either one or two of these. I'm very excited to stop putting carboys in the bath rub. I'm also not interested in building a fermentation chamber, and this one is portable! Awesome.
Click to expand...


Thanks! That is a great idea!

In our testing we did not have any issues with the 40 Watt Fermwrap directly touching the cooler.

I am excited to hear how it works for you with multiple fermenters! :mug:

I should add however we have not tested with a brewbelt or heating pad yet so I would not recommend using a brew belt or heating pad yet. I will be sure share once we complete testing with other heating elements.


Cheers,
 
CoolBrewing said:
Thanks! That is a great idea!

In our testing we did not have any issues with the 40 Watt Fermwrap directly touching the cooler.

I am excited to hear how it works for you with multiple fermenters! :mug:

I should add however we have not tested with a brewbelt or heating pad yet so I would not recommend using a brew belt or heating pad yet. I will be sure share once we complete testing with other heating elements.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

I put a drugstore heating pad on between a carboy and a brew hauler inside a fermentation chamber for two weeks while fermenting a Saison and it worked without issue.
 
Love this thing so far.

This weekend I brewed up a Schwarzbeir which I am attempting to pull off a lager with in my Cool Brewing bag. On day two and my wort is still around 50F and the ambient is about 52F. Fermentation is only just starting to take hold now so I am thinking I may need to swap out the ice more frequently to keep its temperature stable.
 
The lagering is done and went well, though I think if I had used more ice bottles it would have kept the temperature closer to where I wanted it. The ambient outside temperatures is 65F and I was able to keep the ambient in the bag to 52-54F by switching 4x 500ml bottles out every 12 hours. I think if I made it 6 bottles I could have had it at 50F like I wanted. All-in-all it wasn't hard to do, though during summertime I would probably need 8+ bottles of frozen water to keep it that low.

My major gripe about this bag is, like many others have stated, that the lid caves down on top of the airbung knocking it over. Not a huge deal and easily remedied with a bit of effort. I am going to build a mesh frame next time to put into the bag to keep it more stable.
 
Bradinator said:
The lagering is done and went well, though I think if I had used more ice bottles it would have kept the temperature closer to where I wanted it. The ambient outside temperatures is 65F and I was able to keep the ambient in the bag to 52-54F by switching 4x 500ml bottles out every 12 hours. I think if I made it 6 bottles I could have had it at 50F like I wanted. All-in-all it wasn't hard to do, though during summertime I would probably need 8+ bottles of frozen water to keep it that low.

My major gripe about this bag is, like many others have stated, that the lid caves down on top of the airbung knocking it over. Not a huge deal and easily remedied with a bit of effort. I am going to build a mesh frame next time to put into the bag to keep it more stable.
Click to expand...

I switched from the s-type bubbler to a 3 piece air lock. The 3 piece type are much sturdier. No need for anything to hold up the bag anymore. The airlock easily handles the load.
 
For those of us more interested in smaller batch brewing, maybe you can consider adding a smaller version. I don't need/want anything that's big enough to fit two 5-gallon carboys.
 
dm1217 said:
For those of us more interested in smaller batch brewing, maybe you can consider adding a smaller version. I don't need/want anything that's big enough to fit two 5-gallon carboys.
Click to expand...

Hi,

We are working on a size just right for 1 and 3 gallon brewers! I will be sure to let you know once we have them ready.

Cheers,
 
I've been brewing with these for several months now and I love them.

Haven't yet figured how to keep the lid weight off the airlock when using a glass carboy. In a bucket I just stick something taller than the airlock on top to prop up the lid.

I can usually easily achieve 7-8 degrees below ambient temp. With a little care and effort I can achieve 10-11 degrees below.

I've learned to predict temp swings and add/remove frozen water bottles as need. My last beer I managed to keep a constant temperature of 67 degrees F for a solid 14 days. One time it went down to 66, and up to 68, but for no longer than an hour or two.
 
Just ordered one, i cant wait to use this. Im really tired of my swamp coolers and i think the gf is too since it takes up the guest bathroom. With this i can actually brew a lager too.
 
As far as keeping the top off of the airlock, I used a tomato cage around a carboy. I did have to twist it but I got it exactly the height I needed. I was planning on building a circular cpvc frame but that project is on hold. Great product. Love mine
 
I read through the entire thread, trying to decide if this would be handy for lagering. My basement stays around 60F. This bag is the perfect solution for ales, but would I be able to achieve 35-40F temps for lagers? I'm assuming a fermentor in water (considering it's fully insulated) will more easily maintain lagering temps than an insulated bag and ice. Can anyone share their experiences?
 
For me if I use two frozen gallon jugs I can lower the temp about 12-14 degrees. So I'd say just using ice bottles alone, you will easily get 10 degrees below ambient temp. So in your case 50 degrees will be easily achieved. It is much more difficult for me to maintain temps lower than 10 degrees, but it can be done with some attention.

Water, PLUS ice bottles will cool it even further, however you will be replacing water bottles more frequently.
 
dm1217 said:
I read through the entire thread, trying to decide if this would be handy for lagering. My basement stays around 60F. This bag is the perfect solution for ales, but would I be able to achieve 35-40F temps for lagers? I'm assuming a fermentor in water (considering it's fully insulated) will more easily maintain lagering temps than an insulated bag and ice. Can anyone share their experiences?
Click to expand...

I have a kegerator that I can lager a beer in, I just don't want to ferment in it, so the bag lets me ferment a lager then in the fridge it goes.
 
MotorcycleMatt said:
I have a kegerator that I can lager a beer in, I just don't want to ferment in it, so the bag lets me ferment a lager then in the fridge it goes.
Click to expand...

Do you mean cold crash? Lagering is fermenting, right? Maybe that's what he was asking about though since he said 35-40 degrees which is cold crashing temperatures.
 
Greels said:
Do you mean cold crash? Lagering is fermenting, right? Maybe that's what he was asking about though since he said 35-40 degrees which is cold crashing temperatures.
Click to expand...

No, lagering is after FG is reached, after fermentation. Lagers ferment at a temperature too high to serve beer at, so cannot use a kegerator to serve and ferment, but you can use them to serve and lager.
 
Greels said:
Do you mean cold crash? Lagering is fermenting, right? Maybe that's what he was asking about though since he said 35-40 degrees which is cold crashing temperatures.
Click to expand...

To expand on the answer above, for lagers you ferment at or around 50F and then lager at a lower temp, no more than 40F, for around a month. This process is part of what gives the beer the characteristic lager smoothness.
 

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