Hot weather and 18oC target

[Galvers]

Normally I’m okay in my garage, which is generally cold, so a heating belt is fine on an inkbird. K

Drama!! Kegerator was emptied yesterday as the temp in the garage was obvs never gonna stay anywhere near range. All seems okay now and hopefully no lasting damage done.

It’s sad seeing a full keg out of the fridge - spurring me on to search Facebook/Gumtree for a fermenting fridge to avoid such future drama.....

does the equipment ever end?! Ha ha

 

[chillipickle]

A good search on gumtree should bring up a few bargins in your area.I managed to find a decent fridge for £30 been a godsend in this weather.

 

[Galvers]

A good search on gumtree should bring up a few bargins in your area.I managed to find a decent fridge for £30 been a godsend in this weather.

Fingers crossed something crops up soon!

 

[cushyno]

It's a tricky one, the thermal mass of my garage floor survives temperature swings for a couple of days - I could ferment with the FV on the floor with a fairly constant temperature for a couple of days. It's usually too cold though, so brew fridge is best policy. Why not test the flour temperature to see if it will give you the right temps? It may be just right for a few days.

 

[Galvers]

Th

It's a tricky one, the thermal mass of my garage floor survives temperature swings for a couple of days - I could ferment with the FV on the floor with a fairly constant temperature for a couple of days. It's usually too cold though, so brew fridge is best policy. Why not test the flour temperature to see if it will give you the right temps? It may be just right for a few days.

thanks Cushyno, I’ve have a look into that

 

[kudos1uk]

Put the FV in a builders rubble trug, bungee a fluffy cotton towel around the FV so it hangs down the whole outside and into the base of the trug, put a few inches of room temperature water in the trug and point a desk fan at it.

This is a home made evaporation cooler, just take care not to turn the fan up too high or get it to close as you only want a slight cooling effect not an ice bucket.

This will make the humidity very high so best done in a garage or shed.

 

[Sandimas]

Do you know how hot your garage is at the peak? I put a max/min thermometer in mine and I was surprised, way hotter than expected and much hotter than the house.

I've got my latest brew on the floor in the coolest room in the house, door shut and it's in a trug of water. Still a bit warm but that's the best I can do.

 

[kudos1uk]

Another option is a peltier cooler which are notoriously rubbish in fridges but ideal in these circumstances.

I had one in the shed from a road trip I did in Kenya, I bought it as it was small/lightweight for the flight and I could make an onsite coolbox from a cardboard box and power it from the cars 12v supply and it worked very well.

With the weather so hot right now I constructed an old cardboard box (the old coolbox idea) around the FV and it has worked well at reducing the ambient temperature in the box. Keep the box small so the cooling volume is low and tape up all the gaps very well.

The thing about peltier coolers is they only reduce the ambient temperature by a few degrees, this is ideal for a brewer, but not very useful to keep drinks cool in a fridge in hot weather.

The big fan discharges the hot air outside the box and the small blows cold air inside the box.

The only problem I had was the small fan iced up after the first 8 hours, this was an orientation problem as I had the fins running horizontally so moisture pooled and froze on the fins, I have now changed it to a vertical orientation and its perfect.

The temperature in my kitchen is up to 25, the temperature in the cardboard box is 19 and the FV is at 22 which is absolutely ideal and making all the difference (the FV shot up to 24 during the ice up event).

If I had a cooler area like a garage, it would be even more effective.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-60W-...Cooling-System-Kit-Cooler-DIY-UK/233571841604
Some don't have a fan on the cooling side and won't work as well, there are also cheaper ones from China which is where I got mine from but will take ages to arrive.

 

[Galvers]

Wow, great ingenuity there! Today I bagged a £10 fridge off Facebook. I’ve already ripped off the plastics need to fit my FV. Plan is to install a heat lamp and with my ink bird I reckon I’ll be sorted.
Really appreciate the response.

 

[Duxuk]

I'm just sitting my FV in a large plastic box full of cold water on my garage floor. I'm maintaining a fairly consistent 22 celcius temperature. It's Nottingham yeast which can, apparently, stand temps up to 24. It's cooling down over the next few days so hopefully my mini crisis is over

 

[kudos1uk]

I'm just sitting my FV in a large plastic box full of cold water on my garage floor. I'm maintaining a fairly consistent 22 celcius temperature. It's Nottingham yeast which can, apparently, stand temps up to 24. It's cooling down over the next few days so hopefully my mini crisis is over

Tie a towel around the FV, allowing the water to "wick up" and train a desk fan on it and it will be down to 20 or less.

 

[Wherrypuzzled]

I need to watch the weather forecast in more detail as I set a Nelsons Revenge going a few days ago in my north facing Cave room but the Temp was 25 for quite a few days

I have it down to 21 now with 5 days gone and the Airlock shows action about every 90 seconds - I am hoping it will keep going at a higher rate as the Temp goes down nearer to 20 or I might risk a slow stir and a bit more yeast - and if beer still tastes ok I will be happy

 

[terrym]

I need to watch the weather forecast in more detail as I set a Nelsons Revenge going a few days ago in my north facing Cave room but the Temp was 25 for quite a few days

I have it down to 21 now with 5 days gone and the Airlock shows action about every 90 seconds - I am hoping it will keep going at a higher rate as the Temp goes down nearer to 20 or I might risk a slow stir and a bit more yeast - and if beer still tastes ok I will be happy

It is quite likely that if the temperature was generally above say 22*C for the first three or four days the fermentation has actually finished or nearly finished. I would be leaving it alone, but if you are want to find out just take an SG reading to confirm whats happening.
And keeping an eye on the weather forecast at this time of year is a good idea if the intend to put a brew on. I did that and delayed a brew this week, but started it yesterday and it's now sitting at 19*C in my garage. But even so after the hot weather last week my mains water was 20.5*C out the tap and I really struggled to cool the wort down to fermenting temperature.

 

[Wherrypuzzled]

Many thanks for that - I will be careful in future and may copy some of the ideas on here re keeping it cooler

 

[john184]

If you have the space also keep in mind that you can also use a large chest freezer and use a temperature controller (cheap on Ebay) to set it to turn on/off at the desired tempperatures. People do this all the time for making DIY Kegerators but it will also have the advantage of being able to drop your fermenter to lagering temperatures (2oC) if required which a fridge may struggle to do.
In the past week I've had my fermenter in the bath with a towel draped over it to wick the moisture. Kept the fermenter 5oC below ambient. If you keep water bottles in the freezer you can also use these to adjust the temperature down (although my tap water is sufficiently cold enough to do this).

 

[Wherrypuzzled]

Bath would be a great idea and we barely use it - preferring Shower - so I could get away with that

Plus advantage is it is fully tiled so that bit cooler to start.

Cheers for that WW