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Hi guys and gals,
This will interest those who have limited space and funds but would like to brew through summer.

I have conducted an experiment over the last 8 days to see if I could brew at under 20C in Melbourne's variable summer climate.
The answer is a resounding YES!

The total outlay was $15.98.

The result was that,ironically, I had better temp control than my winter brews. My temperature fluctuated from 18.5 to 19.8 but for most of the time sat around 19.5.

This is how it was done.
BACKGROUND. I brew in a west facing small room that is essentially a home office. It does not benefit from the air conditioned or heated parts of the house. It is ideal for brewing in the cool months with heat pads,but a shocker in summer as it retains the heat.

SOLUTION. I purchased a collapsible cooler from Bunnings. Then I froze PET bottles (the ones that come with the Coopers setup). Some bottles were filled to about 600ml with straight tap water while others were filled with a salt solution. (Approximately 20% salt.) I chose the smaller bottles as they would give more flexibility in regard to distribution around the fermenter.
I use the saline solution bottles because they don't freeze till about -20C. This gives me flexibility. If I want chill quickly I use the saline solution,(There is a noticeable difference when you hold a regular bottle in one hand the saline one in the other.)
I then juggled, (according to weather report), the number and type of bottles I would put around the cooler.

The climatic temperatures have varied over the week. The maximums have ranged from 24C to 37C as I write. On 24C days I put in a couple of bottles and leave the cooler open. On days like today I have put in 5 bottles, (3 saline, 2 normal) and covered the cooler with a damp towel. As mentioned above, my brew has stayed steady at about 19.5C

The ambient temperature of the room has steadily risen from 22C on this morning to 28.5 as I write. The ambient temperature in the cooler, taken with a remote sensor, has stayed at 19.2C till it rocketed up in the last 20 minutes to 20.1. the remote sensor is suspended about 1/2 of the way into the cooler. I put my PET bottles in 8 hours ago so I guess it's time to change them.

CONCLUSION. I am very happy. I know that other people have mentioned using these coolers but I thought that I should see how it worked with extreme variations of temperature.
Big advantages are:-
1) It's a "no mess" system. The tap is not underwater as it is in a "bath" cooling system. It's easy to take an SG reading.

2) You can brew in your normal place so you don't upset other residents in the house. It doesn't take up more than a few centimetres of extra room. There is no extra lifting as you place the fermenter on the cooler and then pull the sides up like a sock. Pull them down for an SG reading.

3) With towel in place the brew is in the dark for 24/7.

I hope this helps somebody.

Cheers

NIce work!! I've got a similar setup happening in my room now, its winter here but I'm trying a faux lager.

I'm curious how often you have to change the bottles? I'm gone to work all day so I was thinking of using 2 lt plastic hoping they would hold for a lil longer.


Edit: I've been using a tub of water so far but thinking to switching to a cooler of water for the lagering stage. You have no water in your cooler, correct ? This would change the heat exchange with the PET bottles considerably...

Hi Finnagann,
I found that 5 x 600ml of frozen water gave me 8 hours of cooling when the room temperature ranged from 22C to 30C over a period of 8 hours. I have heard that people have had good results using 2 x 2 litres over a day with similar setups.

I experimented with smaller bottles to check for variables. (It helped that I was home most of the time.)
On cooler days I would leave only two bottles on top of the fermenter under a damp towel. Smaller bottles gave me a more even distribution through the cooler.

There didn't seem to be any problems with heat exchange. Today I hit my estimated FG with a brew that tastes perfect out of the fermenter.

And to think I could've done this last summer.

Cheers

OMG! This is brilliant! I love the idea of not submerging the fermenters and being able to access the taps for readings. The cooler you speak of - I've only seen the blue collapsible coolers (silver inside) at Bunnings and Big W. They are round with a zip lid. Are these what you mean (I wouldn't have thought they were big enough for a fermenter). Anna

Keep an eye out for free fridges on freecycle.

I've picked up 2 that way, both now used for fermenting. The most recent acquisition is big enough to fir 2 fermenters in side by side!

Attach a fridgemate/tempmate to them and it's set and forget. Both my fermenting fridges and the keg fridge have an external thermostat. Only the lagering/conditioning fridge doesn't at its set on a very low level which keeps it about 1-2C.

As pointed out on another forum, the energy required to constantly freeze water is far more than that used by a fridge operating at fermentation temperatures. It's a false economy.

That's OK Doc if you've got somewhere to put extra fridges!

Ah, good point.

You need a bigger place!

As well as freecycle, keep your eyes on Gumtree if looking for a new fridge.Whilst you may have to pay on Gumtree, you do tend to get more people advertising, from what I've seen.

I recently grabbed a 520L fridge (big enough to fit 4 fermenters, if you don't use airlocks) for only $60 from there, because I'd gotten sick of having to swap frozen bottles over constantly.

Of course, this is for people with the luxury of a bit of extra space.

Anna wrote:OMG! This is brilliant! I love the idea of not submerging the fermenters and being able to access the taps for readings. The cooler you speak of - I've only seen the blue collapsible coolers (silver inside) at Bunnings and Big W. They are round with a zip lid. Are these what you mean (I wouldn't have thought they were big enough for a fermenter). Anna

Anna,
I got mine from Bunnings. The one with the zip lid is about $30.00. I found mine in a little unmarked pile next to those. They are yellow on the outside and grey in the middle. These don't have a lid. they are 395 high x 500 wide, quite big enough to accommodate a coopers fermenter. A wet towel on top and you're off and running.
Cheers

... I'm off to Bunnings!

Well I went to Bunnings last night and - happy days - they had 2 of the YELLOW collapsible coolers left! So my two fermenters are now sitting happily in the spare room with frozen softdrink bottles all around them and my bath is once again free (maybe I'll have a nice long soak tonight - haven't had a bath since I started HB!)

thanks again "svyturys" (BTW - what is your actual name? It feels weird to address you like that...)

wooo hoooo
I recentlyscored a free fridge from a neighbour.
So I bought a $45, zero to 40 deg thermostat controller from...
RS Compnents.
Phone 1300656636.
http://www.rsaustralia.com.au
Part No 2506112.

and yee haaaaa... perfect 20 degrees for the past 4 days, and the fridge only starts once or twice a day and runs for only around 2 minutes each time.
I have a fermenter and last brew bottles in there.
The thermostat has changeover contacts, so you can also use it to warm your fridge in winter.
A simple small el-cheapo fan heater would do the job of heating, plus they are fanned so it would only be on for a short time.

Not a good idea to combine the fridge and heater on the switch at the same time even though it can be done, because it would be constantly - heat - cool - heat - cool etc. Best to just use the heating fan in winter, and the fridge in summer.

The fermenter is brewing a 'czech this out' kit from TWOC - smells and tastes awesome, and that was only racking it after 3 days !!!


cheers,
Chris WA

Anna wrote:Well I went to Bunnings last night and - happy days - they had 2 of the YELLOW collapsible coolers left! So my two fermenters are now sitting happily in the spare room with frozen softdrink bottles all around them and my bath is once again free (maybe I'll have a nice long soak tonight - haven't had a bath since I started HB!)

thanks again "svyturys" (BTW - what is your actual name? It feels weird to address you like that...)

Only for you, Anna. Don't tell anyone but my name is Alan.

Svyturys is the name of the brewery that changed my attitude to beer. (They have a porter that you could die for). They are the reason that I am home brewing. Incidentally, their chief brewer is a woman.

Good to see you got a couple of the cheaper coolers. You'll need to experiment a bit to get the right bottle combinations but it'll work out. I used a remote sensor from a $10.00 Bunnings inside/outside thermometer for my experiment. I matched it against the stick on thermometer on the fermenter and they seemed to coincide fairly well. The brew I did was one I know well so I could taste and compare as the experiment went along. Mine is now ready to bottle and tasting spot on.

Cheers
Alan

Alright Al you have me convince and the overlord here is happy there is no more dripping towells on the floorboards.

I shall pick one up soon. I know you use the shorter more squat coopers fermenters so does anyone use a cooler bag yet with the taller brewcraft type of fermenters?

Not that my saison will need to stay cool, in fact Ill prob need to add a hot water bottle to it LOL

Bunnings settlement rd or Northies?

chadjaja wrote:Alright Al you have me convince and the overlord here is happy there is no more dripping towells on the floorboards.

I shall pick one up soon. I know you use the shorter more squat coopers fermenters so does anyone use a cooler bag yet with the taller brewcraft type of fermenters?

Not that my saison will need to stay cool, in fact Ill prob need to add a hot water bottle to it LOL

Bunnings settlement rd or Northies?

Settlement Rd. was where I got mine.

Dripping towels on the floorboards...HA! My overlord was complaining about the stink in the carpet after the mess of dripping iced water running through the towels. I must agree with her, it didn't do the floorboards or the carpet any good. Hence I needed to find a new method.

My first thought was to use a fermenter like yours cos I didn't think the coolers would be wide enough for bottles to be placed in there. I was happy to find that they suited the coopers to a T. Also it helps to use the gladwrap method instead of the airlock.

Cheers
Alan

Hey Grog,
I had a quick look at your product.
Keep us posted on how it's going. Also how did you connect it into the system?
I ask this as there is a possibility that some space could become available at my place for a fridge.

cheers
Alan

Hi Alan,
It needs to be wired into the mains, so get a sparky mate for that.
I'll take a couple of pics and post them here...

cheers,
Chris, WA

Well its too high for my type of fermenter but I'll pick up a square of foam and cut it to size and plug the top no problem. At worst I can use it as I am now with a fermenter and wet towell and all drips are contained.

Bunnings sells EVERYTHING in the world EXCEPT foam or anything I could find to use like a simple $5 camping mat.

Also I had a wet towell on the fermenter and the pooling water leaked out of the cooler. I would of thought seeing these would of been pretty much water proof with the thick grey inner etc.

Check that the drainage plug is screwed tight. Mine didn't leak at all.

Grog wrote: wooo hoooo
I recentlyscored a free fridge from a neighbour.
So I bought a $45, zero to 40 deg thermostat controller from...

Not a good idea to combine the fridge and heater on the switch at the same time even though it can be done, because it would be constantly - heat - cool - heat - cool etc. Best to just use the heating fan in winter, and the fridge in summer.

WA

Seriously guys, not to put a damper on your system Grog, But........

For an extra $30 you can have a "Tempmate" from Craftbrewer which will hold any temp you set it at, wether it needs heating or cooling all year round.

Just set your temp, then set the variance to 1 deg on the digital display & forget it.
Best bit of brewing kit I have ever bought....Bar None!!

Cheers, Mick.