Cold conditioning...in THIS heat!

[Aleik]

I was all smug for having upped my PET bottle count to around 140. Meant I'd be able to crack on with a THIRD brew, whilst storing the first two to mature. Then I'd be in a cycle of only drinking brews that were ready, and never running out.

This has all hit a bit of a hurdle now, with nowhere to cold condition the 2nd brew, as my house is a furnace in this constant heat. It's a hoppy IPA, so I'd ideally have conditioning temps around 8°.

Will I get away storing them in the often warm garage at the daft temperatures we've been seeing, to free up the thermostat controlled fridge for fermenting a new wort, or will this ruin the IPA as it's not even close to cold conditioning?

I suspect I should just fridge the IPA til it's ready and forget about a new wort, but thought I'd throw it at you guys first.

Thanks

 

[Dave 666]

I was thinking about this myself this week, what with having to wait until this weather cools down to a level where I can try doing lager\pilsner brews etc. As a fridge for cooling the temps to try now is not a viable option I'm wandering about other cooling options that we might have to cool brews in general?.

For example, would an electric picnic cooler box be an option?. Volume and cool temperature wise, yes but if air tight clearly not. Maybe the container is not even food grade to hold liquid?.

Then what about a decent fan or even a budget air conditioning unit in front of the FV during the hotter hours of the day?. Any other cooling options?.

 

[Llamaman]

For example, would an electric picnic cooler box be an option?. Volume and cool temperature wise, yes but if air tight clearly not. Maybe the container is not even food grade to hold liquid?.

Then what about a decent fan or even a budget air conditioning unit in front of the FV during the hotter hours of the day?. Any other cooling options?.

I'm using one of these in my FV;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001JSVLBO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
I didn't pay £280 though!

I looked at electric coolboxes but there aren't many the right size to hold a 15L FV, let alone a bigger one.
I might get around to using a standard cool box with my iceprobe fitted to create a cold water bath... but that seems like too much DIY in this heat!

 

[MyQul]

@Dave 666 and @Llamaman I have one of these https://www.geterbrewed.com/cool-brewing-bag/ its basically a MASSIVE cool bag andcan easily fit a 23L FV in. In fact I have a 60L blue barrel and can fit that in there. I use it for fermenting but you could just as easily use it for cold conditioning. @Covrich has one too and likes it as much as I do mine. I think Dads_ale uses his to cool cornies down in

Here my review of it https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/cool-brewing-fermentation-bag.58966/

 

[Llamaman]

@Dave 666 and @Llamaman I have one of these https://www.geterbrewed.com/cool-brewing-bag/ its basically a MASSIVE cool bag andcan easily fit a 23L FV in. In fact I have a 60L blue barrel and can fit that in there. I use it for fermenting but you could just as easily use it for cold conditioning. @Covrich has one too and likes it as much as I do mine. I think Dads_ale uses his to cool cornies down in

Here my review of it https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/cool-brewing-fermentation-bag.58966/

I like the low-tech level of this, but I don't have any freezer space (just an icebox in the fridge) and I can't be bothered with changing bottles twice a day. A peltier and inkbird works for me - but I'm now looking at insulation for my FV as at the moment the peltier is running flat out. I'm thinking a fool-backed camping mat cut to size should do the trick.

 

[AlanHarper]

I just got a Fridge freezer for £10 from Gumtree and removed all the shelves in the fridge - it accepts even the tall Youngs Wide Neck Fermenter - and the freezer keeps my Hops safe. It is in the garage but hey - so am I most of the time lol.

 

[Dave 666]

Hmm, I like the idea of the cool bag lined with ice packs or frozen bottles of water, such a simple and more importantly, space saving idea. And I certainly have the freezer space for a load of ice packs or frozen bottles. I can't believe I didn't think of this as a thought myself, but wouldn't you potentially get the equivalent of hot spots, well cold spots in this case where the ice packs or frozen bottles touch the actual FV?.

In thinking, I'd not even need to buy 1 of those. As I have bits here that I could use to make a crude cool bag myself, bush fix style. As I've some Mylar coated insulated sheets\windscreen protectors bought for another project over a year ago that I never started. Just the job for something like a cool jacket I think.

 

[BrannBrew]

I like the low-tech level of this, but I don't have any freezer space (just an icebox in the fridge) and I can't be bothered with changing bottles twice a day. A peltier and inkbird works for me - but I'm now looking at insulation for my FV as at the moment the peltier is running flat out. I'm thinking a fool-backed camping mat cut to size should do the trick.

I too have one of those cool brewing bags and was fermenting a black ipa in it, only to find coming home yesterday the fermenter temp. hit 30c. Ive recently bought a larder fridge (as I was struggling to keep rotating enough frozen bottles) to house kegs, bottles and my fermenter. However I had 2 kegs taking most of the room, hence why I was using the bag again. After abit of jiggle I did fit the fermenter and 1 of the kegs inside. but i forget to put the fridge plug into the inkbird so this morning the fermenter was down at 12c.....Poor beer - have little hops this one will turn out as well as my other recent brews

 

[Aleik]

Thanks all. Had NEVER heard of a peltier, sounds handy for such a small thing. Just got an inkbird wired to heat belt, sitting inside the (also inkbird wired) fridge.

I've decided to just fridge the IPA bottles at 8° for now as there's nowhere else for them to go. If the summer is hot enough they'll stay there. I don't want to ruin a well-thought-of brew just because I wanted the fridge sooner for an FV

 

[Llamaman]

Peltiers are what are used in most of those small drinks fridges and some wine fridges - they can cool down to a few degrees below ambient but you won't get lagering temps. That's fine by me as I don't do lagers. The thing about peltiers are that they are quite inefficient.
My aquarium chiller is fitted in the FV to cool the wort directly (like a Brew Jacket) and can cope with a small (12l) batch. It uses 50W when running. My brew cupboard used to house a boiler so has ventilation to release the heat produced by the peltier but it's still warm in there (I'm free fermenting a saison in there to make use of that excess heat!). I wouldn't want to run another one in there without additional powered ventilation.

My solution works for me but might not work for larger brews. I now have a bigger FV (30l) which I need to cut a hole in to fit the chiller. Hopefully it can cope so I can do larger batches. I'll let the forum know how I get on, as I think these ice probes are a good alternative (for ale brewers) to the significantly more expensive Brewjacket.

 

[Dave 666]

My next brew will be a smaller 10 litre brew and when I make my own my bush fix cool bag\jacket this week I'm going to try it on plain water to see how the temps go before using it on my next small brew. Even 5 degrees will be a massive help in this weather, but having got enough ice packs (2 packs of 3 from poundland) to go round the entire 10 litre FV I'm fairly confident that I might get lager fermenting temps, or pretty close anyway.

Though, the Mylar sheets\windscreen protectors are not as thick as I thought. So will likely use an old cover or something to help with insulation.

 

[Dutto]

In the hotter countries of the world they have been chilling drinking water using porous pots for thousands of years and the system is still the most effective way of chilling anything without mechanical means. All you do is:

• Put whatever needs chilling outside, on the floor and in the shade.
• Cover it with something like a blanket or a heavy towel.
• Spray the blanket/towel with cold water until it's wet. (*)
• Hope that there is a natural breeze. (**)

Enjoy! :thumb:

Notes:

(*) Laying the end of the blanket/towel in a bowl of cold water will help it stay wet due to the "wicking" effect.

(**) In todays world, an electric fan can provide the "breeze".

 

[MyQul]

My next brew will be a smaller 10 litre brew and when I make my own my bush fix cool bag\jacket this week I'm going to try it on plain water to see how the temps go before using it on my next small brew. Even 5 degrees will be a massive help in this weather, but having got enough ice packs (2 packs of 3 from poundland) to go round the entire 10 litre FV I'm fairly confident that I might get lager fermenting temps, or pretty close anyway.

Though, the Mylar sheets\windscreen protectors are not as thick as I thought. So will likely use an old cover or something to help with insulation.

You could get below to lagering temps using enough ice packs but you'd need a hell of a lot of them. Also I use frozen 500ml water bottles instead of ice packs as it's cheaper Just to let you know what I've found using my brew bag so far;

* A given amount of ice will cool more if the the ambient temp is below a certain level. That is to say if the ambient temp is say 18C you'll need less ice to drop the temp by 1C than you would at say 25C

* It takes less ice to cool 2x5L FV than 1x10L. I've just done a 10L brew. After no-chilling 2x5L I put it into the brew bag with 4L of ice. This cooled it from about 24C to 16C. I then decanted the sweet wort off the trub into a 10L FV. Pitched then put it back into the brew bag. The 4L of ice only cooled the wort to 20C

 

[Dave 666]

Well I've little experience in any process (but sure love this learning curve). But I do recall working security at a music festival on the Isle of White 2 years ago in a very warm summer from the North West. An irrelevant point I know, but in doing so it was a 10 hour day. And the story goes, as we never worked the travel day we could have a drink travel day. As on site prices were a piss take I thought make up an insulation getup. Frozen water bottles and a **** load of cans of beer.

Result was about 4 x 1 litre frozen bottles of water the night before in the chest freezer, and my personal at least 8 cans of chilled beer, all in double layered carrier bags and wrapped in a sleeping bag in my suitcase. 11 hours later, I was like a god, after 10 hours in a hot summer in an over packed mini bus was I walking round staff campsite drinking ice cold beer packed 12 hours earlier and the chill bottles were still about 50% ice.

The point being I'm looking forwards to making my own chill bag ☺

 

[Dave 666]

I've been doing a little testing with my Mylar sheeting. So I folded it in half (still tall enough to go round the FV) wrapped it round the FV, put 4 ice pack against the FV and covered the top in a towel. Ambient room temp looks to be about 28\29c, FV temp about 22c. Pretty sure I can refine my testing further to get the temps down quite a bit more before I make my own cool bag.

 

[AlanHarper]

I've been doing a little testing with my Mylar sheeting. So I folded it in half (still tall enough to go round the FV) wrapped it round the FV, put 4 ice pack against the FV and covered the top in a towel. Ambient room temp looks to be about 28\29c, FV temp about 22c. Pretty sure I can refine my testing further to get the temps down quite a bit more before I make my own cool bag.

Hi Dave, I experimented making a MashTun insulating a FV. Perhaps this may help you to: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/mash-tun-advice.74387/#post-716832

 

[dan125]

My brew fridge seems to have bottomed out at 1.2C in this heat

 

[Dave 666]

Hi Dave, I experimented making a MashTun insulating a FV. Perhaps this may help you to: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/mash-tun-advice.74387/#post-716832

I concluded the test when I hit 20c at such a point the ambient temp was 28\29c. Where I to use more ice packs or bigger 1.5-2 litre bottles of frozen water, insulated the floor, insulated the sides and top, in other words make an insulated 360 cool enclosure I'm pretty confident I can get things down a good several degrees at least. Maybe even to lager brewing temps, certainly as we get near autumn. But yes Alan, I'll take some inspiration from that thread. Might not exactly copy it, but look at how I'll do mine based on that with what I have or can get locally.

 

[Dutto]

According to the Met Office we are in for even more high temperatures over the next two weeks at least.

For people like myself who rely on garages and other non-refrigerated places it may be time to move stuff off the shelves and down on the floor where it's cooler.

The difference inside my garage yesterday afternoon was 25*C above the work-surface in the south end (where the beer sits on shelves) and 16.8*C on the floor in the north end (which is currently in wine service).

I plan to move all my beer across this evening when it gets cooler. :thumb: