Homebrew may be on hold 'til Sept!

[aurelius121ad]

Starting next week it is going to hey really humid and be 30*+ until September. Currently it is around 26-27* and I have my brew fermenting at 21-22* (well... the water bath is at 21-22* anyway which is down now from 25* for two days after I pitched) with the goofy rig in the picture below.

The set up is a pain to deal with as I have to add ice two or three times a day to the pink tubs/funnels that leak ice cold water down the cloth covers (tshirts). Since the humidity is so high nothing evaporates and I have to deal with getting water out of the tubs by dropping the shirts into the but,soaking,then sqeezing the water out (multiple times). All this effort only drops the temp 5* which wont be enough when the temp is 30+.

Anyone got any suggestions for another method of temperature control for me? I really dont want to stop brewing til September but it looks like I may have to.

I may try and find a taller and wider tub then freeze small plastic bottles to add to the bath now that I have malt extract and can brew batches down to 17L instead of the 20-23L necessary when using kits. My little apartment wouldnt have room for two tubs of that size. I also wanna experiment with smaller batches when I am not using kits and messing with hops schedules.

Oh, a brewing fridge is out of the question!

[Clean Brewer]

You poor bugger, yes, now I know how fortunate we are..

[ryan]

YIKES!!!!!!!!!
You didn`t tell us you are a member of the Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Union?
re. temp control, look around for a non working fridge {preferably one Made in China, there should be thousands lying around} and use your frozen water bottles in it with your fermenter. Assuming you can find space for a non working fridge, that is.
You need to be careful with sanitation with your ..er...with your...ah.. with your...um.. airlocks.

[homebrewer79]

You could try getting a little fan and have that blowing on the "fermenters". Personaly I prefer not to use this method but it seems to work for most people who give it a go. That is one crazy setup you have there mate . If you'r making good beer with that I would love to taste the beers you'd brew with a propper fermenter. Well done, very well done indeed

[KEG]

i don't doubt he's making drinkable beer - remember, it used to be made in open wooden vats with no temp control or sanitisation to speak of.

[lethaldog]

Looks to me like you have a good system running and you may be just better off in your position to just keep dealing with the hassle
At this point in time i would be more worried about the rotting skirting boards although it probably wont matter much if your water spills over and on to them

[ryan]

and swat that cocky on the right side wall heading down for a drink

[aurelius121ad]

Thanks for the suggestions (and the compliments of the ingenuity). A spare fridge is out of the question but I think I am going to have to try and find some kind of taller tub and use floating ice bottles as temp control. That way my water level wouldn't increase as the ice melts and I would just be trading out bottles from the freezer. Not too much of a hassle. I just gotta try and track down a tub now!

Now that you mention it the floorboards look like they are rotting in the picture but that is dust and missing paint... fortunately they aren't rotting!

i don't doubt he's making drinkable beer - remember, it used to be made in open wooden vats with no temp control or sanitisation to speak of.

If you think about it this is not really much different than your store bought fermenters - a plastic tub with some kind of airlock affixed. But these, of course, weren't made with the intention of brewing.

You didn`t tell us you are a member of the Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Union?

I think I may try the rubber band and cling wrap method next time. Those tubes worked well for the first 2-3 brews then the glue inside (hot melt glue cuz it is unscented - not PVC glue the scent never went away even after weeks of letting it dry.) cracked some I think cuz now they only bubble during the peak of fermentation. Still ought to be fine though. I also may try picking up a new PVC tube and heating it up and seeing if it will bend into the U shape I would need. We'll see what happens.

[ryan]

She`s pretty wild and wooly, all right.
But I tell you what- you get 10/10 for perserverance and having a go
Goodonya.

[tazman67]

I tip my hat to you sir..well done !
What a man will do to get a decent beer.....

[Boonie]

Can you get your hands on a couple of deep 2nd hand Laundry tubs? They do not take up too much room and you can drain easily.......and add ice bricks etc to keep the temp down

I love your set up...........

Cheers

Boonie

[aurelius121ad]

I'm really not sure what a laundry tub is. But I am thinking I should be able to pick up a big plastic bucket (wider and taller than those pans in the picture) and use the frozen water bottle method. I just gotta get around to looking for one!

[derfly]

Do a search for "Son of Fermentation Chiller", it should give you a few ideas.

Cheers!


http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

[Trough Lolly]

Now before everyone howls me down with laughter, I can't think of a better set of circumstances for a plastic conical fermenter setup...Maybe Ross can help you source one?


I see a brewery supplier that's a tad more local - Zhongde Equipment Co. in Shandong - they are "equipment brewing expert" and "Zhongde Enterpise Dedicate Security"!!

Interestingly, they supply "raw material"

Cheers,
TL

[aurelius121ad]

Thanks again for the equipment suggestions but I am relatively content with the actual "fermenter" system I have going. I don't even have to clean them after I bottle because the water guy just exchanges them for a new jug! Just a quick rinse to make them look semi clean and all is good.

My only problem at the moment is maintaining low temperatures for fermentation is a 30+ environment with high humidity. I think I got that sorted though: local malt with hops and yeast mailed in from abroad will let me use 1 "fermenter" instead of 2 AND a larger and taller tub for the water bath using frozen water bottles for temp control.

Oh, and no western countries offer surface shipping to China. A friend of mine had a proper fermenter mailed here and it cost him much more in postage than it did for the fermenter itself! One of those crazy conical setups is out of the question!