Whats the best temp for conditioning?

[caerleon]

I have made a premium kit beer. The issue i have in living in a shared flat, i cannot seem to find a good place to store the keg at the right temp, in the kitchen next to the fridge which is getting me 25 deg/C. I have tried storing it outside on my part of the balcony but cannot get a stable temp.

Are there any other methods of keeping the keg cool enough?

 

[Mephistopholes]

Buying an entirely new fridge

buying a bin large enough to accomadate at least half the height of the keg a towel and a fan.
simply put keg in bin fill bin to half way up the keg with cold water.
cover the rest of the keg with a towel, the end of the towel being submerged in the cold water.
direct the fan at the towel thus evaporating the water away and taking the heat with it.
if you have a large freezer you could possibly buy a lot of ice cube trays and keep filling the water bath up with these.

Digging a cellar.

These are really the only options i can think of.

if you can fit a fridge into your house, freecycle often have them obviously for free, postage not included. and you can modify the door to have a tap on the front. imagine that. a fridge with a tap on the door connected to your homebrew. :party:

 

[caerleon]

LOL!

The idea of a evaporator is a good one, but the lecky bill would be astronomic. I will have to do some more thinking on this one.

Thanks Mep

 

[Mephistopholes]

I shouldn't think a simple fan would use that much electric. Certainly not as much as a fridge.
It is however what can only be described as "a desperate measure"

 

[caerleon]

I'm thinking of an somewhat elaborate cooling systems involving a shaped copper tube into the cap of my barrel with tubes to a cold water supply, im hoping to make it into a micro PID system ( I have a engineering degree so time to start using it =) ). All i need to reduce the wort temp to around 20 deg/C, it currently varies from 25-31 Deg C from what i have monitored so far. I get a new thermo tommorrow so i will be able to manage it a bit more effectively.

Cheers.

 

[craigite]

I've seen me put an old tee-shirt over the barrel, sit the barrel on a beer tray and pour cold water over. I didn't need a fan, it seemed to evaporate fine. Needed to pour a little water over most days.

Works good to keep FV cooler during fermentation too.

 

[ManorAleMan]

I had this problem, and was in the process of designing one using some temperature sensors, relays, and an arduino micro-controller. Then one day I was watching my tropical fish whilst waiting making some beer and realised that I might be able to use a fish tank heater. A good aquarium shop will sell you one for about ten quid. Since I did this my beer has brewed consistently each time and maintained temperature. It means you would be able to put it in a cool room in your house/garage - possibly your balcony with a bit of bubble wrap around the fermentor to keep it cosy.

 

[jarenault]

Are you keeping it next to the fridge to keep it cool? If so, don't!
A fridge is just a big heat-pump. It basically moves heat from inside the fridge to outside the fridge. It seems counter-intuitive to some people but the air around a fridge will be warmer than the average ambient.

If I've misunderstood, please disregard this message...

 

[anthonyUK]

How much would a brewfridge cost to run?
It is well insulated and the temps involved are not many degrees from ambient so it would hardly ever be on.
A Which? report found the worst fridge tested cost £28 a year to run.

The tall Beko I bought on ebay has a running cost of £12 when used as a standard family fridge.

Even at £1/month this is an absolute bargain

 

[graysalchemy]

Thought of bottles :whistle: :whistle:

They fit in a fridge :hmm: :hmm: