Small Swamp Cooler Ideas

[BlakeL]

Right now I ferment in a closet next to my air handler and since my wife is home during the day with our kid, the house stays pretty cool most of the time. During the day the temperatures in the closet may climb above 75 degrees but I have never checked the ambient temperatures. I'm going to assume they do however because my last batch has some fusel alcohol flavors that are more pronounced as the beer warms. Fortunately, it's not bad enough to dump the whole batch. I want to make some kind of low budget swamp cooler but I don't have room in the closet for those beverage tubs most people use. I have a couple different ideas and wanted to know which would be the best.

1. Use a rubbermaid storage container that fits my 3.5 gallon bucket and do the whole water/ice pack method with a damp towel on top. The downside for this is dealing with the water and evaporation in a dark enclosed area.

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2. Find a large styrofoam box with a whole cut out in the lid that fits around the base of the bucket and to only use ice packs and no water. I'm hoping I can just swap out a couple of ice packs per day to get it down 5-10 degrees. Since I don't have room to completely surround the bucket with Styrofoam, I will have to wrap a damp towel around it to seal the seam between the box and the bucket.

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3. Use a cheap insulated tote bag similar to that cool brewing bag and just use frozen water bottles and seal up the top as well as I can. This seems like the cheapest/easiest solution but might not be as insulated as the others.

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[Beer-lord]

This is the best thing I ever bought.....got 2 of them going right now. Yes, it's not as cheap as a swamp cooler but no mess. I use 2 frozen OJ bottles and change them about every 12 hours and my 5 gallon fermenter keeps it's temperature at about 64-65 degrees. Even in a 78 degree house in the south during summer, I was able to get it to 59 degrees with a third bottle added.

 

[RmikeVT]

I drop my ferm bucket into an igloo cube cooler. My basement has an ambient recently of 72* and with 2L and 1L ice bottles I can keep my temps consistently between 60-65 (depending on the brew) and over a 10 hour period only increases a degree or two. I have also put a lab thermometer down the airlock hole and measured the center fermentation column and it is the same temp as the outside water. So, I am confident the 63* water is keeping the fermentation at 63*. This process has been the single biggest factor increasing the quality of my brew.

 

[BlakeL]

This is the best thing I ever bought.....got 2 of them going right now. Yes, it's not as cheap as a swamp cooler but no mess. I use 2 frozen OJ bottles and change them about every 12 hours and my 5 gallon fermenter keeps it's temperature at about 64-65 degrees. Even in a 78 degree house in the south during summer, I was able to get it to 59 degrees with a third bottle added.

Do you think the cool brewing bag is much better than a picnic party cooler like the one below? The size of the picnic cooler is perfect for my 3.5 gallon bucket.

http://www.amazon.com/Picnic-Ascot-Collapsible-Party-Cooler/dp/B001A5I83A/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I would also be concerned about evaporation in a dark, somewhat warm, enclosed part of the house. It would probably be ok for 3-4 days during the vigorous part of fermentation but after that I'd make sure to open the closet and run a fan for a day or so to make sure it dries out in there. Any insulation will make it easier to keep cooler temperatures so I'd go with the cheap styrofoam cooler as long as it is sturdy enough to support the fermenter and all that water without breaking the sides open.

 

[porcupine73]

I've done the cooler method you show using that exact styrofoam cooler. Those are used by many places to ship frozen foods. It was for my sauerkraut crock. I didn't bother filling it with water though since I was using packs and not relying on evaporation. I just the ice packs in the cooler and covered the whole thing with blanket. If you had two of those coolers though, you could flip another one over upside down and sit it on top. The water might help stabilize the heat transfer a bit but it seemed to work fine for me in that application without adding water.

 

[Beer-lord]

Do you think the cool brewing bag is much better than a picnic party cooler like the one below? The size of the picnic cooler is perfect for my 3.5 gallon bucket.

http://www.amazon.com/Picnic-Ascot-Collapsible-Party-Cooler/dp/B001A5I83A/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

It's about the same thing but my Cool Brewing bag but I can say my bags are heavy duty and extremely well made. Not sure about the one you link too.

 

[junior]

Just make a small investment and use something like this

 

[porcupine73]

o O very nice ... that is one time when pictures are worth several thousand words. Interesting, so how does that work, do you put ice in that once or twice a day?

 

[BlakeL]

I've done the cooler method you show using that exact styrofoam cooler. Those are used by many places to ship frozen foods. It was for my sauerkraut crock. I didn't bother filling it with water though since I was using packs and not relying on evaporation. I just the ice packs in the cooler and covered the whole thing with blanket. If you had two of those coolers though, you could flip another one over upside down and sit it on top. The water might help stabilize the heat transfer a bit but it seemed to work fine for me in that application without adding water.

My father in law said he has one of those food styrofoam coolers that he got some medicine shipped to him in. I'm going to grab it tonight and see if it's big enough for my 3.5 gallon bucket.

 

[BlakeL]

I checked out my father in laws styrofoam cooler and it was not big enough. I also checked my local grocery store and Target and they were to small as well. Now, i'm leaning more towards using one of those beverage tubs or a simple box made out of pink insulation foam. If I went with the beverage tub route, do you think I would have to worry about the moisture if I cover the whole thing with a couple towels, not damp?