Another AHS brew, fermented in a homemade fridge...

[pattim]

So I had an old one of those 12VDC Coleman PowerChill Thermoelectric portable coolers - you know, for picnics and such - but it was too small to fit my 5 gallon fermenting bucket in... so I bought a big styrofoam shipping box - and took the styrofoam insert out of it, pulled the thermoelectric module off the side of the Coleman, cut a hole in the end of the styrofoam, and inserted the cooling/fan module attached to a $18 thermostat control. Now I can control ferment to 20C. It worked great - normally my ferments run rather hot. I'm hoping this controls the flavor - after one week it's very smooth... OG=1.085 and a week later, the gravity is 1.024 and still fermenting. Usually my ferments finish in less than a week (presumably from the bucket self-heating up into the high 70's). And I'm not even in a hot climate - I can't imagine what people in a hot climate do...

The water I used this time also is around 40 - 60 ppm TDS. The water I used to use was 400 - 500 ppm TDS (according to a new TDS meter I just got) - I'm hoping this will help too!!
"fridge:" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DE2LGE0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
thermostat: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008KVCPH2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
TDS meter: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C0A7ZY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Edit:
Force-carbed some of the AHS Belgian Wheat and it is pretty nice! I guess good water *and* temperature controls are really important. I've thrown away several batches this last year, presumably because of our nasty water (illegal, actually) and my ferments running away in temperature above 72F.

I've been Googling around and I can't figure out what AHS "brewvint body builder" is - I thought maybe it was some unfermentable sugar, but I got such a low gravity on this batch (down to 1.021 yesterday) that I'm thinking not. Anyone know? I can't find it in Google...

Thanks!