Cooler ised as Swamp cooler?

[ramgeva]

Hi all
Before I'm starting I'm a little bit worried about the temp control of the fermentation, I read a lot about the swamp cooler but it seems that I need to check every couple of hours as the bucket doesn't keep the temp inside (unlike coolers) so I was wondering if it is possible to use a cooler and put inside the fermentation? Will it work? Will it reduce the amount of time need to check it?
10x

 

[ewebb]

-- Just re-read your question..

The fermentation process creates heat, from 2-6 degrees, so putting your fermentor inside of a normal cooler without anything else would probably be counterproductive. The swamp cooler methods works through evaporation, so i'm not sure using a cooler for swamping your carboy is a good idea. I just use a t-shirt and a rubber-made container, and it really only needs new water every few days. Your experience may vary based on humidity where you live in your house however. What does help is setting it up in the coolest part of your house, away form natural light. Underground (basement) seems to work best for me.

 

[ramgeva]

Thanks for you're answer.

Ok I understand the cooler will not give the water chance to scatter the hit from the fermentation.
So if for example my room temp is around 80-83 humidity is about 60% and the fermentation needs to be at about 70 what will be the initial water temp in the swamp? Do I need ice? How much? What will be the rate of water exchanges I will need to do? Any good calc for that?
Thanks a lot for the help

 

[StoneHands]

I use a cooler for my fermentation chamber. Put your fermenter down in the cooler (glass carboy, better bottle, bucket WITHOUT a spigot, etc.), fill the cooler with water to the level of the fermenting beer. Add ice as necessary. Once you get down to temp, the large thermal mass of the swamp water regulates the temperature of the fermenting beer quite well. I do lagers in mine, in my 80 degree basement, and it holds 50F quite well. Again, the key is getting it down to temp, and then just monitoring it by checking the temp of the swamp water. This obviously does not rely on evaporation like the "traditional" swamp cooler, but it works extremely well. For ice, I use frozen Gatorade bottles (with a little salt in them) and just swamp them out twice a day. 32 - 64 oz of ice at each swap keeps lager temps within about 3-4 degrees.

Also, put a few tablespoons of bleach (a splash or two) in the swamp water, it gets nasty after a few days.

 

[ewebb]

StoneHands is correct. If you chose to use the water bath method, then you onlyhave to have the bath wter to the desired temp, and keep it there.

There in lies the problem. If your like me, your out of the house some 12 hours a day and dont have the ability to monitor the temp of the carboy and add ice/water accordingly. Hence why i use the t-shirt method. IT doers better than most realize, but does rely on moving air to pull moisture away form the carboy (And heat with it)

I'm actually toying with the idea of using a few small pumps and some extra copper tubing to circulate cooled water from a holding pan, over the carboys, into a second pan, where its then pumped into copper tubing along the exterior underground wall to cool...

Its a silly, overly complicated thing, and not the simple solution you are looking for, but i just cant seem to make enough ice...

 

[ewebb]

i think im starting to realize just how crazy i am...

 

[ramgeva]

Thanks all

I will checkout the T-shirt option also, I guess it is better to ferment at winter time with aquarium thermostats (-:

 

[ramgeva]

Just kept on reading and the refrigerator option with the thermo control unit looks exactly what I need, the question in if I tape the probe to the fermenter (I use a plastic bucket fermenter) , will it accurately give the temp inside the bucket (I think even a 1-2 degrees delta will be sufficient no?) ? Should I stick it with any isolation? What material you recommend for that?
Also where should I pass the probe wire inside the refrigerator? jsut close the refrigerator door on it and it will be OK?
10x

 

[fowlintent]

It's pretty amazing how much simple evaporation can cool an object. I learned this while using a digital thermometer while brewing. I took the thermometer out of cooling wort and it went down to 63 degrees, about 10 degrees cooler than the ambient temp. Once the thermometer was dry, it registered 73 degrees.

Which brings me to a question. Has anyone ever used a simple aquarium or garden pump to run a constant stream of water over their carboy ? Seems you could place your carboy in a larger vessel, like a washtub, put a few inches of water in the vessel and set up the pump to pump the water from the reservoir onto the upper part of the carboy. I guess ice or frozen bottles could be used with this set up if necessary.

 

[501irishred]

Just kept on reading and the refrigerator option with the thermo control unit looks exactly what I need, the question in if I tape the probe to the fermenter (I use a plastic bucket fermenter) , will it accurately give the temp inside the bucket (I think even a 1-2 degrees delta will be sufficient no?) ? Should I stick it with any isolation? What material you recommend for that?
Also where should I pass the probe wire inside the refrigerator? jsut close the refrigerator door on it and it will be OK?
10x

Sure. It's not as efficient as a thermowell, but will certainly get you close. As for running the probe, you can close the door on it, or drill a small hole in the side and run it in that way.

 

[ramgeva]

Sure. It's not as efficient as a thermowell, but will certainly get you close. As for running the probe, you can close the door on it, or drill a small hole in the side and run it in that way.

Nice 10x man
What the use of the absolute Vodka?

 

[ramgeva]

---post twice by mistake----

 

[dgr]

Nice 10x man
What the use of the absolute Vodka?

You drink it
You can put in in your airlock instead of star san which is what I do. It kills anything, especially the nasty fruit flies that try to swim through the airlock to my beer. You do have to watch it more often as it evaporates faster than water.

 

[501irishred]

Nice 10x man
What the use of the absolute Vodka?

You drink it
You can put in in your airlock instead of star san which is what I do. It kills anything, especially the nasty fruit flies that try to swim through the airlock to my beer. You do have to watch it more often as it evaporates faster than water.

Yea, a shot for me, a shot for an air lock....and another shot for me! I use starsan in the flask for blow off tube, and vodka in my airlocks. I also use it to make extracts to add to a secondary (hot peppers mainly).

 

[ramgeva]

lol!!!!!
I have never could have think of that (-: