How cold can you go (cold crashing) with SS BrewTech FTSS

[samandbekah]

Hi Everyone,

Curious to know everyone's setup for those using an SS BrewTech conical fermenter with a FTSS system connected.

I love the hardware however more recently I have been trying to attempt cold crashing. While pretty successful, I am chewing through A LOT of ice...

I am looking for other potential ideas that fellow homebrewers have done for attempting to cold crash the beer in the Chronical (mine is a half barrel size) without the use of glycol and/or a glycol chiller. I hope to get the SS Brewtech glycol chiller this Christmas but in the meantime, I am hoping to find more convenient/efficient means to hit cold crash temps (and maintain them) using the standard cooler with ice water method.

My current setup I have is the FTSS hooked up to a small cooler (approximately 3 - 4 gallons in volume) and I use ice blocks (frozen water in washed out milk jugs) combined with bags of ice and that does a great job at holding ferment temps but will struggle with cold crashing. I have successfully been able to hit low 40s and maintain that temp but I am changing out the ice every 8 to 12 hours.

 

[Ontop27]

Not the best method but i put ice in a keg and set my keezer to 33. And just ran the ftss into that. It held low for about a day until all the ice was gone.(lid had to be open about half an inch) i just bought a 5 cu ft chest freezer that will fit my brew bucket perfect for the next round.