Temperature Control Suggestions

[Oyarsa]

I am starting a chocolate milk stout that will be using US-04 yeast. Currently the house is cooled to about 72 by the thermostat in the hallway where I usually keep the fermenter. This has worked (for my taste buds, anyway) in the past for US-05 yeast o several brews, but I know isn't ideal.

I don't have a fan for a swamp cooler. I don't have a spare fridge for a fermentation chamber (would spoil the food in the freezer portion, right?). The weather here is fluctuating from about 34 at night to 55 in the day. Currently my garage is at 61, but it does get a good bit cooler overnight.

What would be my best option (maybe not great) without spending money? I believe my usual technique would work, but I'd like to try for something better this time.

 

[Oyarsa]

Also, do I understand correctly that only during about two days of fermentation is temperature control necessary?

 

[mongoose33]

During active fermentation you need to control temp, and I'd say that's typically 3-4 days.

As far as swamp coolers: you don't need a fan. I never used one. I just put the fermenter in a pan of water and draped a t-shirt over it. I might put ice cubes under the shirt toward the top to melt and keep it wet, but that was only a sometimes thing.

I always try to keep S-05 between 64 and maybe 68. Frankly, if you put the fermenter in the hallway, do the swamp-cooler thing, maybe put a frozen water bottle in the water in the morning and change it at night, I think you'd end up at a decent temperature for this.

Remember to keep the fermenter--if it's clear--covered so light doesn't react with hop oils to skunk it.

 

[BrewInspector]

I'll second what @mongoose33 said. I used a swamp cooler as discussed above with no fan. In fact I rarely used the tshirt /towel method. A couple frozen water bottles in the morning and again at night kept the beer cool enough. In fact with the shirt and more frequent ice you can get 5 gallons pretty cold.

 

[Oyarsa]

I've got the fermenter in a tub with water up to the level of the wort in the fermenter. Definitely is cooler than my previous fermentation. It is just getting solidly going and I took a temp reading through the airlock that read 62.5.

How close is the temperature of the water in the tub to the temperature in the fermenter? I'd like to try to monitor the temperature, but don't want to risk infection.

 

[mongoose33]

I've got the fermenter in a tub with water up to the level of the wort in the fermenter. Definitely is cooler than my previous fermentation. It is just getting solidly going and I took a temp reading through the airlock that read 62.5.

How close is the temperature of the water in the tub to the temperature in the fermenter? I'd like to try to monitor the temperature, but don't want to risk infection.

The water temp will be close to the wort temp. Don't worry about infection--as long as you're not piercing the sanitized envelope of the wort, you're not likely to get an infection.